It was a tragedy between the two brothers, was it not?
“Are you done?”
Suddenly, Denise’s voice came into the light behind them. Sean regained his senses and looked back.
Denise sheepishly stared at them. “I didn’t mean to disturb your conversation. It’s just that…’
She waved the phone in her hand. “The Hughes family butler called me just now. He said Mr. and Mrs. Hughes is at home now, but they’ll be leaving in a bit because they have plans. I think…”
She paused for a while. “I think it’s better to go back when they’re at home. To talk to them nicely.”
Sean frowned and looked at Gwen subconsciously.
“It’s alright. Go ahead.”
Gwen smiled at them. “I’ve said everything that I need to say.”
Only then did Sean nod at Gwen, walked over to Denise, and held her hand. “Let’s go.”
Denise nodded and waved at Gwen as a farewell before leaving with Sean.
After they were gone, Steven went to look for Gwen. “What did you say to Sean just now? I…vaguely hear you saying Luke is back.”
He paused and took a deep breath. “I have no memory of last night. Did I…have a split personality moment?”
Although Steven did not know anything about last night, he knew something about the split personality when he went to the doctor to get treated. The doctor had warned him that the medicine could cause him to have a split personality and how it was like if it happened.
When he woke up in the morning, he was drowning in the joy of hugging Gwen, not thinking that the reason he could not remember anything last night was due to him switching to another personality.
After he calmed down and vaguely heard Gwen saying it, he somehow related what happened last night to what the doctor told him. In the end, he believed he had indeed switched to another personality.
The personality that belonged to Luke, to be precise.
It was not lost entirely, as opposed to what the Miller family said. It was merely locked in a place in his brain. Maybe he was too anxious, too panicked last night, or maybe he was too aggressive at that time and let Luke’s consciousness take over his consciousness.
“You…”
Steven’s words caught Gwen off–guard. She frowned and did not dare to look into Steven’s eyes. What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
Last night, Luke had told her to keep the dissociative identity disorder a secret from Luke and wanted Steven to give up on getting him back. He wanted Steven to live on with his life happily. Since Gwen was not sure if she could persuade Steven, she pretended to not understand what Steven said.
“Don’t lie to me.”
Steven looked at the woman in front of him. “I’ve actually prepared for this.”
He closed his eyes and said, his voice hoarse, “Gwen, I told you before. If you truly miss him, I’m willing to sacrifice myself to get him back for you. Dissociative identity disorder is just the beginning. Should I find the ‘switch’ to have him surface, I’ll do it as much as I can so you’d both reunite-until his personality has total control over the body and I disappear. This body will become your Luke.”
He opened his eyes to stare into Gwen’s eyes while smiling. “I want to return him to you, and vice versa. You’re both meant to be, and he’s the rightful owner of this body.
“I’m just someone who was supposed to die five years ago, my life should’ve ended then. I’m satisfied to have a second chance at life for these few months…”
Gwen silently stood and clenched her hands into fists. In fact, Steven and Luke were quite similar in some ways. For example, Steven acted so stubbornly like Luke, who forced her to be at his side as he wanted to sacrifice himself to treat her illness.
They both had the means to sacrifice themselves and thought it was right because they were doing it for her. Neither Luke nor Steven ever considered Gwen’s thoughts and feelings.
She was an independent person. She had her own likings and the choice to make her decisions. None of them had the right to decide for her sake.
With those thoughts in her mind, she looked up at Steven’s face and curled up her lips into a smile. “Do you think you’re that great?
“Luke thought he was great too. He thought that dying for my sake was the best thing he could do for me. But…”
She took a deep breath. “I never thought it was good for me. Both of you are, in fact, very selfish.”
Steven was shocked to hear that. He stood silently and stared at Gwen, not knowing how to respond. After a while, a sheepish, helpless smile appeared on his face.
“Gwen, Luke sacrificed himself because of you. I’m also doing it because of you. Why are you…saying that we’re selfish?”
He did not understand. Both he and Luke hoped to see Gwen live happily. They were eager to sacrifice themselves in exchange for her happiness and joy for the rest of her life. Why was that selfish?
Gwen smiled as she looked into Steven’s eyes. “You think you’re doing it for me, but you don’t truly know if I need it.
“Luke stubbornly thought I wanted to live. He thought I’d be happy to be alive, so he sacrificed his life for me. What he failed to realize, however, is that I’d be crushed upon knowing he’d no longer be alive.”
She was smiling when she said that. It felt like her eyes penetrated deep into Steven’s body and reached the deepest place to look for Luke’s soul.
She knew… Luke knew every person Steven met, every word Steven said, and everything Steven thought of. Therefore, she was actually telling it to Luke instead of Steven.
It was a pleasant surprise to see Luke again last night. Hence, she was unwilling to express her dissatisfaction with his decision to him. Facing Steven, she could finally express all of her emotions.
She wanted to let Steven and Luke know she did not need them to make sacrifices for her.
In the end, Steven fell silent. He lowered his head and wanted to say something, but nothing came out of him.
After a while, he sighed deeply.
“Gwen,” he muttered, evidently despondent, “he did it for your own good.” “I don’t need it.”
Gwen stared at Steven coldly. “Your sacrifices are only worth it when I need it. When I don’t need it, the sacrifices you think you’re making are selfish acts to make yourself feel better. Luke did the same, and the same goes for you now.”
She glared at Steven exasperatedly. “When Luke sacrificed his life for me, he didn’t know my life would be meaningless without him. Now, you want to give Luke back to me by killing yourself because I love Luke. “Have you ever debated if I’d actually be at peace if that day comes, even if I’m with Luke? I’d always think we were the ones who killed you, all for the sake of my happiness with Luke.”
Steven was stunned silent upon hearing this, and Gwen took this chance to assert herself.
“Even if Luke does come back, he’ll think that he was the one who robbed you of your life. I can’t accept Luke as I used to, either. There will be a gap in our hearts, and you’re never coming back. The gap between me and Luke, as well as the wound in our hearts, will never heal.
“Only you get what you want; the great ‘sacrifice’ you think you contribute. You leaving with your selfish’ greatness’ will only put us through guilt!”
Steven stared at Gwen as his face was pale like snow. He always thought it was his existence that caused Luke to lose his life and Gwen to lose her beloved.
He never thought of what it would be like if he truly got Luke back…and the life Gwen and Luke would be living..
Would they truly feel guilty like Gwen said?
“That’s right.”
Perhaps Gwen read Steven’s mind.
She inhaled deeply as she walked to him and patted his shoulder. “So get rid of the unrealistic thought. This is my thought and also Luke’s. We’ve made the decision in the past; Luke and I are destined to be apart. We don’t need you to make any sacrifices.”
She smiled bitterly. “Don’t go looking for that doctor again, and don’t eat whatever medicine that induces. that dissociative identity disorder anymore. Luke doesn’t want to come back, and I don’t need him to come back.
“After the lawsuit against the Hughes family and Miller family are filed and completed, I’ll go back to Merchant City with Brettley and Bethan, then I’ll return to Sea City. I’ll also live my life just like how Luke wanted.
“In the meantime, I hope you’ll stay in Saigen City and carry on with your life. Don’t miss me and Luke. We’re both strangers to you in the first place, anyway.”
Having finally said her peace, Gwen turned and walked away, not once turning back.
Steven stood still as he watched Gwen leaving.
The light in his eyes dimmed. Lowering his head and looking at his hands, a bitter smile broke out on his face. So she doesn’t need my kindness. I’m just a stranger to her, someone she doesn’t want to cross paths with. A stranger…”
He closed his eyes as he felt his heart throbbing in pain.
Fate was indeed cruel
Although Luke was abandoned when he was young and had lived a hard life, he turned out to be the gang leader adored by many of his comrades and even met Gwen. On the other hand, Steven was the precious son in the family, but what did that leave him with?
He did not have Luke’s ability, his connection, and his friends. Most importantly, he would never have Gwen’s love.
Even if he shared the same face as Luke and also Luke’s body, he would never have Gwen’s attention.
When Gwen returned to the hotel, it was already ten in the morning.
Bethan and Brettley were sitting in the living room of the suite, organizing the documents Denise sent over.
The first thing Gwen saw when she opened the door was Bethan biting a pen and frowning to compare the two documents. Bethan’s hands were supposed to be used in drawing sketches of jewelry design, but at this moment, she looked like a clerk instead as she looked for loopholes in the documents.
Brettley was more serious than Bethan. There were piles of documents on the coffee table in front of him, and these did not seem to have come from Denise. There were probably documents he gathered from other places.
Both of them were so serious that they did not notice Gwen had come back. After a while, Brettley was about to put the document away and finally noticed Gwen was back when he lifted his head.
He curled up his lips elegantly. “When did you come back?”
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.