Chapter 269: Chapter 267: Will You Be Responsible for a Lifetime? (18)

She lowered her head, took out her phone, and prepared to call Ethan Ellsworth.

Herman Hawthorne grabbed her hand, a pained look in his eyes. "Zoe, go home first. I’ll handle this!"

"I don’t trust you!"

The very fact that he was trying so hard to stop her was why she didn’t trust him. She couldn’t let this woman have the child and bring it before her.

For the first time, she saw an expression in his eyes that she despised: a plea.

He was pleading with her.

Pleading with his wife not to harm this woman, at least for now.

Zoe Ellsworth’s heart was bleeding.

At this very moment, she finally understood what he had said at the beginning: he could give her everything except a heart-pounding romance.

But in a marriage...

If there’s no real, living love, what’s the difference between that and a skeleton draped in skin?

’Nothing is ever as easy as you imagine.’

She had thought things were too simple at first, which only made the complexity stand out more now. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Fine."

She turned, straightened her back, and strode out the door.

She drove home.

In this weather, the food on the table had long since gone cold.

A servant came forward and asked, "Ma’am, should I reheat it for you?"

She said wearily, "Just leave it there. You can go rest. Turn off the lights."

"Yes, ma’am."

The lights went out, and the silence of the living room enveloped her like a vast, smothering net.

It swallowed the faint light.

The heat wasn’t on, and a bone-deep chill filled the air around her.

She sat on the sofa, wrapped her arms around herself, lowered her head, and drifted into a deep sleep.

Marlon Marshall and Mrs. Marshall had moved back into their old house.

Marlon Marshall’s drug use was getting worse and worse.

He needed several thousand a day for his habit.

He burned through his money quickly. Because of his drug use, he looked terrible.

Today, during the day, he sold the car he had bought for three or four million.

With the money, he skipped all his university classes and spent his days and nights partying.

There were guards at Jean Grant’s residence, so he hadn’t been able to get in for the past few days.

So, he had to go to Carol Young’s house instead.

Carol Young was quite happy about his divorce.

But he still hadn’t mentioned marrying her.

Tonight, he had just arrived at Carol Young’s house when Carol’s father returned from his hometown.

Marlon was in Carol’s room and didn’t come out.

Mrs. Young was a little unhappy about her husband’s return. "Didn’t you say you’d stay a few more days? Why are you back so soon?"

Mr. Young, smiling, held up the food he’d bought. "I visited the elders, gave them some money, and came back."

After speaking, he looked Mrs. Young up and down and noticed she was wearing a nightgown.

"Carol’s mother, are you welcoming me home like this?"

Mrs. Young took the food. "Of course."

Mr. Young eagerly pulled her close. "Carol isn’t home, right?"

Mrs. Young glanced at the bedroom door. "No, she’s not."

Mr. Young tried to kiss her face, but she dodged. "You haven’t even brushed your teeth."

He chuckled and went for her neck instead.

Marlon Marshall quietly opened the door a crack, took a peek, and then whispered to Carol Young beside him, "Your dad sure is impatient."

Carol Young wasn’t bothered. "My dad’s only in his forties, not some eighty or ninety-year-old man. It’s normal."

Marlon Marshall smiled. "Didn’t you see? Your mom doesn’t seem too happy with him."

Carol Young turned and sat on the bed.

After Marlon Marshall helped Mrs. Young play the stock market several times and made her a good amount of money, she began to trust him. She trusted him to the point where she basically gave him her account passwords and would give him money to spend.

After a while, she saw that the money in the account had barely been touched, which made her feel even more at ease.

On one occasion, Marlon proposed opening a large supermarket and making her the big boss. She was hesitant at first, but she thought he was a decent guy, and he was her future son-in-law. The young man seemed full of energy, so she agreed. She gave him five or six hundred thousand for him to handle.

Little did she know, he had already squandered that money on partying and had no intention of opening any supermarket.

Instead, his reasons for asking for more money became more and more absurd, but Mrs. Young gave it to him every time.

When Ethan Ellsworth went back to his place to sleep that night, he found Jean Grant squatting by the door, looking as if she had fallen asleep.

He turned around, stepped back into the elevator, and left.

He drove aimlessly and found himself arriving at a high-end residential complex.

He knocked on Chloe Marshall’s door. Unexpectedly, her date was also there.

"Boss Ellsworth?"

"Crashing here."

Two words, spoken concisely.

Liam Preston was not pleased. "Even if you’re her boss, you can’t just sleep over at your female subordinate’s place at night."

Ethan Ellsworth completely dismissed him. "I’m not sleeping with you."

"This is my girlfriend. Chloe, let’s go. Come with me to a hotel."

Hearing this, Ethan Ellsworth felt a deep sense of displeasure. A hotel, after all, was a place that sparked all sorts of suggestive thoughts!

"You dare go?" he said, narrowing his eyes.

Chloe Marshall looked at Ethan Ellsworth. "Boss Ellsworth, my boyfriend is right. It’s not appropriate for an unmarried man and woman to be alone together. You should get a hotel. It’s clean and convenient."

Ethan Ellsworth snorted, then said suddenly, "What’s so inappropriate? We’ve already slept together. What, Chloe? Now that you have a boyfriend, you’ve forgotten the fact that we’ve shared a bed?"

Liam Preston’s expression changed dramatically. He looked at Chloe Marshall. "You... slept with him?"

Chloe Marshall’s silence was an admission. They had indeed once shared a bed.

Liam Preston sneered, "And here I thought you were such an innocent girl. I can’t believe you were fooling around with your boss. You have no self-respect! Forget it, I don’t want a girl like you anyway!"

"I wasn’t fooling around—"

Ethan Ellsworth pulled her into a hug. "Chloe, have you forgotten about last night—?"

Liam Preston looked at Chloe Marshall, his words cold and harsh. "Women... you really can’t just judge them by their looks. Don’t contact me again."

With that, he slammed the door on his way out.

Chloe Marshall hadn’t expected that just a few words from Ethan Ellsworth would make him break up with her.

They had only started dating a few days ago.

’We’re broken up already?’

Thinking about how Ethan Ellsworth had just run his mouth, she couldn’t help but feel wronged.

She had finally met a warm, kind man, only for it to end just like that.

"Boss Ellsworth! What do you think you’re doing?!"

Ethan Ellsworth let her go, only then realizing she was crying.

"You’ve only known him for a few days. Are you in love with him?"

"He’s my boyfriend! What did you mean by saying that to him?!" Chloe Marshall shrieked.

"I’m asking you, don’t tell me you’ve fallen in love with him!"

"Whether I am or not is none of your business!!"

Ethan Ellsworth watched her cry, her face streaked with tears like a pear blossom in the rain. The thought that she was crying for another man made him incredibly irritated.

"I forbid it! I forbid you from falling in love with another man! What’s so bad about breaking up? Do you think he loves you? He just wants to play with you! Didn’t you hear him say he thought you were an ’innocent’ girl? A man who would break up with you based on a few words from someone else—does he really know you? I don’t think so. In the end, you’re the one who will get hurt!"

Chloe Marshall looked at him. "Even if he did hurt me, could it possibly be as deep as the hurt you’ve caused me?"

Ethan Ellsworth froze, staring at her intently. "What did you say?"

Chloe Marshall met his gaze. "I said, isn’t the pain you’ve caused me even deeper? On what grounds? You get to decide when we start and when we end. Ethan Ellsworth, you’re too selfish."