Chapter 973: Chapter 500: Extra Story: An Unexpected Beginning and Ending 2_2

"I never betrayed you. Jonathon and I have been clean and innocent from beginning to end..."

"I know..."

Christine Quinn’s voice was a little hoarse. "I’ve never done anything with anyone that would let you down."

Skyler Jones suddenly asked, "Do you know why, in the days before that photo scandal blew up, I got into it with Howard Geoffrey?"

Christine shook her head in confusion. She did remember that back then Skyler and Howard had a fight, scared them all half to death...

"Because the way Howard cared about you made me jealous. I even suspected that when you were with him before, it hadn’t been all that innocent..."

Christine hurried to explain, "That was a misunderstanding... Howard told me that back then, all those intimate moves he made toward me were because he knew you were watching us. He wanted to force you to admit you cared about me... He didn’t know you were being controlled by M at the time."

She suddenly understood why he had "lost control like a beast" that day—so it had all been because of this...

No wonder that day, no matter how she struggled, he kept going at her like he was punishing her...

Aggrieved, bitter tears welled in Christine’s eyes. She took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "So after we got back together, your trust in me was already gone, and you didn’t feel the same passion for me as before."

Skyler turned around and looked at her with dark, deep eyes.

There were still traces of tears on Christine’s face, yet her expression remained just as resolute.

She had never been used to showing her weakness in front of others; she wouldn’t now, and even less so in the future.

Skyler walked toward Christine step by step... The room was so quiet that only his footsteps could be heard.

Finally, he came to stand in front of her, gazing at her deeply. "Christine, even though there are still many problems between us, I don’t want to let us part like this. I firmly believe that all these problems will resolve themselves in the future... Come with me to Paris. We’ll hold the wedding we’ve always dreamed of, let our relationship reshuffle, and start everything over."

Christine looked at Skyler.

This man standing in front of her, seemingly so close, yet so far away.

It was only at this moment that she realized his thinking was actually very mature. It was precisely because he thought so deeply that he kept choosing responsibility, choosing to tolerate her again and again.

He was a good man—just no longer hers.

"I won’t go to Paris with you, so there won’t be a wedding." Christine looked at Skyler, her tone bitter yet strong. "Please, let me make a choice for myself just this once."

Skyler lowered his eyes to look at Christine.

"When I say there won’t be a wedding, I mean our marriage is going to end as well." Christine held her breath and made herself say it clearly.

A long silence suddenly fell between them.

"I know this will make you feel guilty, and you’ll feel like you owe me." Christine was the first to break the silence. "But I really have thought about it for a long time. We’re not suitable for each other anymore. Love has long since left us. If we force ourselves to stay together, the only thing between us will be family affection; there won’t be any love between lovers to speak of... I think if I hold a wedding with you now, we’ll both end up resenting ourselves in the future..."

Skyler cut her off, his face cold and stern. "That’s just your wishful thinking, Christine. I’ve always believed that we can start over... I didn’t spend this past month hesitating over whether to keep going on with you. I was thinking about how we should get along in the future so things would go better. We’ve already resolved thirteen years of misunderstandings—what problem is there that we can’t solve?"

Anything you can see in the real world can be solved. But when the problem is in the heart, how do you fix it?

He was no longer moved by her—how could he possibly force himself to spend all my life with her?

Christine thought this sourly, but didn’t voice it.

"Don’t overthink it..." Skyler looked at Christine with a deep gaze and said calmly, "We’ll go ahead with the wedding as planned."

Even after he finished speaking, Christine’s heart still ached like it was being stabbed.

He didn’t understand her at all...

He thought that as long as he stayed by her side, he was giving her the greatest compensation. But what he didn’t know was that what she wanted had never been compensation—it was simply a heart that loved her deeply.

"Did you hear what I said?" Skyler asked, looking at Christine’s vacant gaze.

Christine answered, "I heard you, but I don’t agree with your decision." She muttered on, "You think you’re being good to me, but you haven’t taken my feelings into account at all."

Skyler looked at her in silence.

"I am touched by what you’re doing for me, but love doesn’t need pity or sympathy." Christine lifted her eyes to him. "Do you really think you can act for all my life and not get tired?"

Skyler remained silent, his expression growing darker and darker.

Christine went on, "Tenderness and sympathy are two different things, and I don’t need sympathy."

"Christine..."

"Go... Have the lawyer draft the divorce agreement." Christine lowered her eyes and said desolately.

"Why do you have to be so insistent?" Skyler’s tone was filled with helplessness.

"Because love is already gone, and you and I no longer have a choice." Christine forced the words out through the ache in her heart.

Skyler said nothing more, just looked quietly at Christine.

They fell silent again.

After a long while, Skyler said softly to Christine, "I still hope you’ll think it over carefully..."

There was only Christine left in the hotel room.

Skyler had already gone, but there was still a faint trace of his presence in the air.

Christine sat at the head of the bed with her knees drawn up, staring blankly at the red diamond ring on her left hand.

All of a sudden she reached out and gently tried to take off the ring.

But the ring was like it had been set into her ring finger; it wouldn’t come off.

So she got out of bed and walked into the bathroom.

She washed her hands with water and, after quite a bit of fussing, finally managed to remove the ring.

Looking at the ring shining brilliantly under the light, Christine felt a sting in her nose.

She knew she was being weak again, so she took several deep breaths in a row, tamped down the pain in her chest, then took the ring and walked out of the bathroom.

She found a suitable box in the room and placed the ring inside.

Walking to the window, she saw Skyler’s car still parked downstairs in front of the hotel.

There was a branch of "Oversky" in France, so it was very convenient for him to go in and out.