He lowered his head and asked in a self-deprecating tone, “A few days ago, you stopped me in the middle of the road and demanded to know if I was avoiding you. Yesterday, you made a joke, saying that you wanted to bear a child for me, but today, you’re overjoyed when you find out you’re pregnant with Theo’s child…”
“Bethan.”
He lifted his head to stare at her. “Do I even matter to you?”
Bethan lifted her head and stared at Brettley dazedly. She opened her mouth as if wanting to say something but did not know how to explain everything to him.
He was right. Before Bethan found out that she was pregnant, she tried to seize every opportunity she got to get closer to Brettley. The moment she received good news, he misinterpreted it as joy over the fact that the baby belonged to Theo.
Bethan did not know how to explain it to Brettley.
Brettley leaned against the chair lazily and gazed at her. “Bethan, do you know what the consequences of offending me are? Do you think I ‘m too lenient and kind toward you, and that’s why you can toy with my feelings like this?”
There was an air of hostility and ruthlessness about him when he said this, that Bethan could not help but feel suffocated. She clung to the hem of her shirt underneath the table.
Bethan lowered her head and feebly spoke, “I… Of course, I know what the consequences are.”
Brettley was so cruel that he was even willing to hurt his children in the past. What made her think that he would not do the same to Theo’s child?
“It’s good that you know. “
Brettley fiddled with his glass on the table and said, without even lifting his head, “Lucas has already looked into this. Do you remember the supplier that switched out the ores to poor-quality minerals? One of their shareholders is none other than Nathan Allen himself.”
Bethan’s eyes widened when she heard this.
She knew that Nathan Allen owned ore mining rights in other countries, but she did not expect him to have the same concessions in Sea City.
“He just acquired the company two months ago, so he probably didn’t expect that I ‘d be able to find out this information.”
Brettley gazed at the horizon in the distance. “I know he’s not doing this to earn money. He’s just trying to humiliate me to get back at me. He probably didn’t think I’d notice so soon.”
Then, he turned around to glance at Bethan. “What a vengeful person.”
Bethan let out an awkward cough. “You’re right. What are you planning to do, Mr. Morrison?”
Brettley smirked, then glanced at her again. “The best thing I can think of is aborting you and Theo’s baby to show him up.”
The color drained from Bethan’s face.
Brettley had already mentioned aborting her baby twice in less than ten minutes. Although she knew he was just kidding, she still felt terrified when she heard this.
However, she composed herself and said calmly, “Mr. Morrison, this doesn’t seem like the right time to joke around.”
“I ‘m just all talk.”
Brettley shrugged and looked at Bethan’s pale face. Then, all of a sudden, he started to feel a little frustrated.
He did not understand why he felt this way. He felt puzzlingly irritated every time he thought of Bethan and Theo’s baby, which was why he had joked about aborting it.
Brettley stood up. “Well, the reason I ‘m telling you this is so you can pass on my message to the Allens: this is enough. I want Nathan to give me an apology and pay for my losses by this time tomorrow. If they do, I can forgive and forget, but if they don’t…”
He glanced at Bethan. “They’ll suffer the consequences.”
With that, he turned around and walked away, just as the food truck owner brought them their tacos.
Bethan furrowed her brows and called after him, “Mr. Morrison, aren’t you going to eat?”
Brettley waved his hand dismissively. “You eat. I’ve already eaten my dinner.”
He could not stand spending another minute with Bethan, knowing she was carrying Theo’s baby inside her, much less eating with her.
Bethan pursed her lips and let out a sigh as she watched Brettley leave.
“Mind sharing a table? ” a cold voice abruptly rang out from behind her, tearing Bethan’s gaze away from Brettley.
Bethan turned around and discovered that a man had already sat down across from her. He was wearing a black hoodie and a cap that covered almost half his face.
The man swiftly pulled off his cap and smiled at Bethan. “Hello , Ms. Bethan. Long time no see.”
Bethan was so startled that she almost fell off her chair. It was Jason.
“Why are you so scared to see me? I ‘m not going to eat you.”
Jason sneered and dragged Brettley’s plate toward him and started eating. “Mr. Morrison told me when he let me out that as long as I behaved, he wouldn’t lock me up again.”
He grinned at Bethan, exposing a row of neat, white teeth. “Mr. Morrison ordered me not to hurt you, so of course I won’t, Ms. Bethan.”
With that, he glanced at the small group of men that lurked around the beach in the distance and said, “
With Luke Jones’ men protecting you, I wouldn’t dare hurt you either, even if Mr. Morrison allowed me to.”
Bethan started to tremble when she stared at the man before her. She frowned and said in a soft voice, sounding as if she was millions of miles away, “
Brettley…was the one who let you out?”
“Of course, “
Jason lied through his teeth. “Mr. Morrison was the one who locked me up, so how else would I be able to escape if not for his help?”
Bethan felt as though someone had torn a hole in her heart when she heard this.
The reason Brettley had locked Jason up was that he had snuck into Bethan’s apartment at night and tried to kill her. All of a sudden, he released Jason without even asking her…
“Ms. Bethan, please believe me.”
Jason seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. He took another bite out of his taco and bared his teeth in a mischievous grin. “Don’t forget that Mr. Morrison and I have been working together for six years. We’re old friends now.
“He was the one who hired me six years ago, remember?”
Bethan gripped the hem of her shirt tightly. Jason was right.
Brettley was the one who had hired him to hit her six years ago, causing her to fall off Bay Bridge. They had a special relationship.
When she thought of this, Bethan let out an exhale and lifted her head to stare at the man before her. “
Brettley let you out because…he had a task for you?”
“Of course,”
Jason smirked and recalled what Alice had told him.
“Mr. Morrison is a businessman. Therefore, there are some things that he needs done, but at the same time, he can’t allow his own men to do. Unemployed, homeless good -for-nothings like me are his most favorite people to work with. I need money, and he needs people to do his dirty work. We both need each other.”
Then, Jason fished out a hospital discharge form from his pocket and slammed it down on the table before Bethan. “So, Ms. Bethan, since you are Mr. Morrison’s friend and employee, I won’t make things difficult for you. If you sign this discharge form, I won’t bother you anymore, and I ‘ll go to the mental institution to discharge Bonnie myself.”
He gazed at her with anticipation in his eyes.
“She’s a perfectly normal human being, so she can’t possibly stay in a mental institution forever. The longer she stays there, the more insane she’ll become. I know you’re trying to stop me from claiming her inheritance for myself, but have you ever thought about this? What good would all this money do for her if she turned crazy? On the contrary, now that I have Mr. Morrison to rely on, there’s nothing you can do to stop me at all.”
Bethan felt her heart jolt when she heard this and closed her eyes.
As much as she was unwilling to, she had to admit that Jason was right.
Brettley had his back, and he would be safe and sound for the rest of his life, but it was not the same for Bonnie.
Could she survive the rest of her life in a mental institution?
Bethan’s entire body started to shake when she laid eyes on the hospital discharge form on the table.
She always thought Brettley understood why she wanted to keep Bonnie locked up. She always thought Brettley would not forgive a scumbag like Jason so easily, much less release him so soon.
However, she forgot to take one thing into consideration: Brettley was a scumbag himself.
Jason quickly finished his food and set his plate down. “Don’t worry about making a decision right now, Ms. Bethan. I’ll give you some time to consider it. I’ll come back again in three days to retrieve this discharge form.”
Jason stood up, let out a yawn, and stretched. “Mr. Morrison is too kind. He knew I hadn’t eaten all day and prepared dinner for me. “
With that, he strode away.
Bethan remained in her seat and watched Jason disappear into the night. She suddenly felt a little cold and could not help shivering.
She closed her eyes and remained seated for a long while after that, enjoying the cool sea breeze before she slowly stood up and hailed a taxi back to her hotel.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.