Steven’s entire body stiffened when he heard this. He turned to stare dazedly at Denise. “Denise… How long have you known this man? How are you going to marry him after only knowing him for barely a day? Aren’t you going to reconsider this?”
He did not have anything against Sean, but he did not think that Denise could have known him very well. If anything, she probably knew as little about Sean as he did.
Even though Gwen could vouch for Sean’s character, this did not mean that he would be okay with his sister getting married to this man just one day after meeting.
“I won’t reconsider.”
Denise lifted her head to meet Steven’s gaze. “Sean is just my type, and he truly cares for me. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be in the slums right now…”
Denise could not help breaking out in cold sweats at this thought.
What would happen to her if Sean had not come through the night before?
Despite having no idea what happened between her and Thomas, Sean still chose to believe that she was a good person and tried everything in his power to stop her from spiraling any further.
He had given her his first time, just as she did him.
Even though men naturally have an instinct regarding sex, she could still tell that it was his first time.
At this thought, Denise let out a sigh and lifted her head to stare at Steven and Gwen. “Sean and I will meet Thomas in person to explain all this.
“Even though Thomas and I hadn’t slept together at all, what I did affect him very much, and even led to him losing his relationship with Yannie. Therefore, I owe them an explanation and the truth.”
With that, she reached out to clasp Sean’s hand and smiled at her brother. “Don’t worry about me, Steven. Sean is a good person. Even though I haven’t known him for long, I can already tell what kind of person he is from the way he’s treated me thus far.
“All he heard about me was negative stuff coming out of Brettley and Thomas’ mouths, yet he’s still willing to accept me and even marry me…this proves everything about his character.”
Steven did not know how to counter this. He stared at Denise for a long time, frowning, and finally asked, If that’s the case, why were you crying on the phone just now?”
He could clearly hear from her voice that she had been crying, and this was also evident by how swollen her eyes were..
If Sean was truly the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, why was she crying?
“Steven…”
Denise sighed and tightened her grip on Sean’s hand. “These are tears of happiness.
“When I was on the phone with you, Sean and I discovered the blood on the sheets, which made me realize that…nothing had happened between Thomas and me at all. I was so relieved by this that I cried tears of happiness.”
“Sean is really good to me. I’ve made up my mind to marry him. Our biggest obstacle right now, however, is probably his brother…”
Denise sighed when she thought of Sean’s brother.
Sean had told her that his brother was Brettley’s best friend, and unfortunately, Brettley had seen every bad deed she had done. She was genuinely afraid Sean’s brother would think badly of her and treat her with bias because of Brettley’s influence.
“Don’t worry.”
Sean/smiled. “I’ll do everything I can to make him see my way. Even if I fail…”
He smiled again. “It doesn’t matter. I’m the one who wants to be with you, and I’m the one who’s going to give you your happiness. My brother’s opinion is just for reference purposes only. I won’t listen to everything he says.”
He did not say those things in particular for Steven and Gwen to hear, but they felt his sincerity after hearing that.
Steven paused for a while and looked at Denise again. “So…when you called me to tell me you’re going back to the house to pack your stuff to live outside, it’s because you’re going to stay with him?”
Denise nodded. “Yes. I…want to go to Merchant City with him.”
Nothing in this city awaited her except for Steven; he was the only thing worth staying for. Although she used to have many friends, they were friends with the young miss of the Hughes family, Denise Hughes- not Denise the orphan.
Besides, even if her identity was reinstated, those friends she used to be friends with would not admit to being her friends. They might even laugh at her and belittle her.
She had been friends with those socialites long enough to understand them.
After internally debating with herself, she decided to go to Merchant City with Sean. They would register their marriage, and she would turn a new leaf and start afresh with him.
Steven sighed and took a good look at Denise. Although he was saddened that his sister was leaving, it was the best choice for Denise to leave this miserable place and be with Sean. Moreover, no one knew if Thomas might cause her trouble in the future because of how Denise plotted against him and Yannie.
In the end, he sighed and walked to Sean. Grabbing the man’s hand, he said, “Then, I’ll hand Denise to you. She’s made…many mistakes in the past and believed the wrong person. Please take care of her.”
Sean nodded resolutely. “I will.”
Despite having known Denise for less than a day, it was how destiny worked sometimes; it was magical. He had liked Bonnie and had some feelings for Kate before in the past, but none of them excited him as when he met Denise.
Last night, she made him feel the joy and fulfillment of being a man. She also taught him to understand what sort of reaction his body has when a man was truly in love with a woman.
Perhaps she was a bad woman in the past and had made many unforgivable mistakes. Nonetheless, she was cute, naive, and kind when she was with him. That was all that mattered.
If a person felt the need to judge everything their love interest did in the past because they liked them, then their feelings were fragile to begin with.
“Alright, brother.”
Seeing Steven had nothing to say, Denise grabbed Sean’s hand and stood in front of Steven. She bowed to him. “Thank you for taking care of me all these years. I’m going to go back to the house to pack up my things with Sean now.”
Frankly, there was nothing much to pack. The most important thing was to take the adoption papers that proved she was adopted by the Hughes family. She was no longer a member of the Hughes family and refused to bear the family name anymore.
Therefore, she needed some evidence to sever her ties with the Hughes family.
“After I finish packing, we’ll head to Merchant City and never come back.”
Sean had fulfilled all of his purposes of coming to Saigen City. Other than helping Nigel and Neil to take care of Riley, he came to meet Steven.
With all these accomplished, it was time for him to head back.
“Sean.”
When Gwen heard Denise saying that they were heading to Merchant City, she paused and waved at Sean. “Come here. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
Sean was surprised. He exchanged looks with Denise before he followed Gwen out the door.
Gwen brought Sean out of the room and walked to the end of the hallway. When they were at the staircase, she stopped and turned to look at Sean. “Luke came back last night.”
It bewildered Sean so much that his eyes widened, looking as though almost popping out of their sockets. After a while, he frowned and asked cautiously, “Gwen, when you said he came back last night, are you saying, like… in your dream?”
Sean’s question baffled Gwen for a moment, but it was not long that she realized she had worded herself wrongly. “No, not in my dream!” she chuckled.
She pinched her glabella and thought for a while before telling how one of Steven’s split personalities was Luke.
Sean was shocked that he was speechless for a long time. “Are you saying…Steven and Luke can coexist in the same body? When Steven is submitted in a certain predicament, he’ll become Luke?”
What a miracle!
Gwen pinched her glabella again. “You can say that, but Luke…doesn’t want to come out anymore. He prefers to let Steven live healthily and happily than returning himself, so I’ll persuade Steven to continue his medication so his condition will stabilize, all to keep his split personality in check.”
Lastly, she sighed. “The reason I asked you to come is that Luke told me something last night. He hoped that you’ll pass the message to his brothers in Merchant City and Sea City.”
She smiled bitterly. “You know about my case too. If I’m the one who tells his brothers, some of them might think I was the one who killed Luke…”
She was extremely sincere when she said that.
Sean nodded. “Alright. Tell me, then.”
Although Sean was not close with Gwen, he understood the gang’s condition. After Luke was gone, some irrational members insisted Gwen was the one who killed Luke and that Gwen was a curse. Some even suggested flying over to Saigen City to take Gwen’s heart as vengeance for Luke.
Those people who had such a mindset were just the minority, of course, and they had been educated that it was wrong to think so. Nonetheless, Gwen’s worry was right. Perhaps she had been together with Luke long enough for the past year to know what kind of impression Luke’s brothers had of her to say that.
“Boss….truly is a responsible person.”
Hearing Gwen’s explanation, Sean sighed and solemnly said, “I thought that according to his strong personality from the past, he’d want to take over Steven’s body and live his life again. It just never crossed my mind that…”
He never thought Luke was a person to care for others. The Hughes family never admitted him as their family, and Steven never said Luke was his brother, too. Nonetheless, Luke still treated Steven as his brother. Not only that, but he even sacrificed himself to give Steven the best.
All that, and he was the only one suffering.
“He won’t.”
Gwen curled up her lips and smiled. “In your eyes, Luke was a gang leader who killed and did all sorts of bad things. Yet, in truth…”
She was the only one who saw how gentle Luke was, and the moments when he was the weakest. He was never the cruel, indifferent person everyone thought he was.
If Luke was never abandoned by the Hughes family from birth, and if it were not for his terrible upbringing, Gwen believed Luke would have turned out to be a gentle person like Steven too. They were brothers by blood, after all. They were separated from the same fertilized egg, grew up in their mother’s womb, and came to see the world together.
Alas, the brothers never met when Luke was alive, and their current predicament somewhat mirrored this fact. Luke could see what Steven saw, seeing as he ‘existed’ as another personality, but Steven did not know about Luke.
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.