Private Marriage, Secret Love-Chapter 177: The Last Words

Ethan Lancaster’s gaze quickly fell back to the desk. A piece of paper lay there, held down by a pen.

He picked it up and saw just two short sentences.

"Dad, take care of Grandma."

And another, even more heart-wrenching line: "Mom, I won’t be your daughter in my next life."

Besides that, there wasn’t a single extra word.

Ethan Lancaster couldn’t believe it. He flipped the paper over and looked again, but there was still nothing.

’She was about to die, and she didn’t even leave a single word for me.’

When Seth Sinclair entered the room, he saw Ethan Lancaster leaning on the edge of the desk, swaying as if he couldn’t stand. Seth rushed forward and finally got a clear look at the tear stains on Ethan’s face, his lips twitching uncontrollably, his eyes filled with sorrow.

"Fourth Master."

"Until the very end, she didn’t mention me once. When I came back that night, had she already made up her mind? Did she hate me that much? So much that she didn’t even want to see me one last time?"

Seth Sinclair saw the note Raina Reddington had left, and he also saw the blood-stained tissue. He felt more and more that something was wrong. "Fourth Master, was the Young Madam sick?"

Ethan Lancaster had never considered that possibility. Now, it was as if he was hit with a sudden realization he was unwilling to believe.

He rushed to the other side of the dining table, yanked open a cabinet door, and began to rummage through it frantically.

Raina Reddington had changed the locks and wasn’t expecting anyone else to come to The Verdant Garden, so she hadn’t bothered to hide the medicine she was taking. Ethan Lancaster saw the drawer was stuffed with fever reducers and other miscellaneous pills he couldn’t identify, but the sense of unease in his heart grew heavier.

Seth Sinclair followed him upstairs into the bedroom and started searching alongside Ethan Lancaster.

The bedside tables on both sides were pulled open and their contents dumped out. Ethan Lancaster then rushed into the walk-in closet.

He turned the inside upside down, tossing stacks of neatly folded clothes onto the floor. Ethan Lancaster stopped in front of one of the cabinets and saw a brown bag stuffed inside.

He knew exactly what it was—the kind of paper bag hospitals use for medical films, with the hospital’s name printed on it.

Ethan Lancaster remembered instantly. This was the hospital where he had run into Raina Reddington. At the time, she wouldn’t respond no matter how he called to her. It seemed he hadn’t mistaken her for someone else after all.

The man reached out and took the paper bag. He unwound the string wrapped around the seal, loop by loop. His heart was filled with both fear and urgency, feeling as if something terrible was waiting for him. The moment the bag opened, he instinctively flinched, as if bitten by a venomous snake.

The bag felt heavy in Ethan Lancaster’s hands; it was stuffed full.

He reached inside and pulled out a stack of papers. It was all of Raina Reddington’s medical reports and records, along with various receipts for chemotherapy.

The information was laid out before him, stark and direct. Ethan Lancaster felt himself buckling under the weight of it. His fingers trembled as he flipped open Raina Reddington’s medical report, which detailed the diagnosis. Ethan’s eyes stared blankly, his fingertips digging into the papers. Seth Sinclair glanced over from the side, and his heart sank to the bottom of his stomach.

’They should have realized. But it was precisely because of Ethan Lancaster’s deliberate neglect of Raina Reddington that he had overlooked so many things he should have noticed. That time she’d felt sick and wanted to throw up on the way back from the Lancaster estate... those must have been symptoms of her illness, right?’

Ethan Lancaster collapsed onto the floor. "How is this possible? It’s impossible."

’Raina was always so full of life. She couldn’t have gotten that kind of disease.’

But when did Raina stop being so full of life? 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

’She had gotten so thin, and I saw it. Her face was so pale, how did I not notice? Her nose had bled, too. Didn’t I know all of that?’

’Why didn’t I ever consider it?’

’It’s only been a few short months since she got sick. Why did she have to choose death instead of coming to me?’

’I could have helped her. I would have done everything in my power to get her cured.’

Ethan Lancaster squeezed his eyes shut, hiding the overwhelming sorrow within them. He tilted his head back, and Seth Sinclair didn’t know how to comfort him. He had never seen Ethan Lancaster like this. Not even when Zachary Lancaster had his accident and the entire Lancaster Family needed him to hold it together had he been this fragile.

The man’s shoulders shook, his heart aching unbearably. Finally, he couldn’t hold it in any longer and began to sob softly.

He staggered back to his feet, left the papers scattered on the floor, and started walking out. "I’m going to find her and bring her back."

"Fourth Master—"

Just as Ethan Lancaster reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw several people standing in the room. Zoe Scott and Ronan Reddington had arrived. Jessica Jacobs was standing with Zion Lancaster, and when she saw him come down, she was the first to charge forward.

"Where’s Raina?"

One look at Ethan Lancaster’s face and she knew the news wasn’t exaggerating. Rage overwhelmed Jessica Jacobs, and she slapped him hard across the face. "You ungrateful son!"

Half of Ethan Lancaster’s face turned red, but he couldn’t feel the sting. Compared to the heart-gouging pain he felt, it was nothing.

"You drove her to her death!"

Seth Sinclair, standing nearby, was anxious to speak up for Ethan Lancaster. "Ma’am, it’s not like that..."

"You shut up!" Jessica Jacobs shot him a look, and Seth Sinclair obediently fell silent.

Zoe Scott was also in tears. On the way over, she had been trying to convince herself that the news was fake, that her daughter was surely getting ready to come home for the New Year.

Ronan Reddington saw the piece of paper on the nearby table. He walked over to look at it, and tears streamed down his aged face.

Zoe Scott cradled the suicide note Raina had left, holding it in her palms as if afraid to crush it. She cried out, her face showing a pained expression for the first time, "Raina, Raina, I’m your mother! How could your mother not love you? I’m sorry..."

That she had only left that one sentence for her... The pain was soul-crushing for Zoe Scott. She collapsed to the floor and began banging her forehead against it.

"What are you crying for?" Ethan Lancaster said softly. "She’s not dead. I’ve sent people to find her."

Jessica Jacobs raised her hand again, but this slap was much lighter than the last. "Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what kind of place Mount Lunara is?"

If you jump from there, there’s absolutely no chance of survival.

Jessica Jacobs looked at him through her tears. "You didn’t know how to treat her well when she was here. What good is crying now?"

"Mom," Ethan Lancaster’s lips trembled, his eyes filled with a shattered vulnerability and sorrow. "I was wrong. I was so wrong."

Jessica Jacobs pounded on his chest several times. "What took you so long to realize?"

"Just let her come back. I’ll definitely treat her well."

"Ethan Lancaster!" Jessica Jacobs called him by his full name. "Snap out of it!"

He didn’t want to wake up. He couldn’t.

Ethan Lancaster strode quickly outside; no one could hold him back. ’So Raina had the abortion because she had that disease.’ He had left her here all alone to fend for herself, humiliated her in every way possible, and rubbed salt in her wounds. Well, now it was Ethan Lancaster’s turn to be brutally stabbed, leaving a massive scar. Raina’s death was the salt in that wound, and now he would have to live with the pain for the rest of his life.