He furrowed his eyebrows and answered, ‘Hey, Brettley, what’s up?”
On the other end of the line, Brettley stayed silent for a while before saying hesitantly, “You’re…Luke now?”
The man frowned and said, “Take a guess.”
It was another moment of silence.
After a while, Brettley asked, “Did something bad happen? Why is it you now?”
“Yep. Something happened.”
Luke-in Steven’s body-looked in the direction where Gwen left and took out a cigarette from his pocket. He lit it up and said with a frown, “There’s a man with Gwen.”
Brettley frowned. “So that’s why you came out? Because you’re jealous? That’s a new way to trigger the change of personality.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “I’m not finished. That man is from Sea City. I think he, Bethan, and Gwen were high school classmates.”
“The guy is pursuing Gwen?”
Brettley leaned back on the office chair with a smile on his face. “I told you. Since Steven allowed you to share the body with him, you should just go find Gwen and tell her everything. You two can continue to be together.
“You won’t have to be the invisible man in her life that exists only as her bodyguard. The guy won’t have the chance to pursue her, even if he was her classmate.”
Luke blew a ring made out of smoke. As the smoke flew away, he furrowed his eyebrows. “I told you this. Even if Steven allows me to share this body with him, he’s still the pilot of this body. I don’t want to sleep with Gwen the night before, only for her to realize she’s hugging Steven first thing the next day. It’d be a nightmare for her.”
Brettley frowned. “Why is it a nightmare? Steven isn’t that annoying.”
“That isn’t the problem. Gwen doesn’t like him as a lover, and she’d never be in love with him. In this situation, if Gwen finds out the man she’s hugging is suddenly Steven, she’d be very upset. So would I.”
Luke sighed. “I’d rather disappear forever and never want Gwen to be upset, n
Hearing how earnest Luke sounded, Brettley fell solemn and no longer attempted at making lighthearted remarks. “I understand. I understand the difficulty between the two of you.”
Luke and Steven were at a standstill.
In signing the contract with the Miller family, Luke used his life in exchange for the sickly Gwen’s life back then. Since Gwen survived and lived on, he wanted to forfeit his life and not stay in this world as promised.
Luke had hoped he would vanish from the world entirely. He had done many bad things when he was a gang leader, and he made his life worth living when he exchanged his life for his lover’s, as well as his brother’s future.
On the other hand, the true owner of this body, Steven, believed his own life ended five years ago. He was satisfied with his life knowing his heart saved Gwen’s life and hoped to return the body to Luke before disappearing entirely.
The brothers persistently hoped for the same wish in the same body. As a result, both brothers remained in one body, and they both lived miserably.
Steven thought of bringing Luke to places where they had never been so they could see new places. Alas…both brothers could let go of Gwen. It worried them even more knowing Anne was dead because of Bethan.
In the end, both of them decided to return to Gwen, but they also decided not to identify themselves and merely watch from afar.
Guarding and protecting her from a distance was the best solution they came out with to not hurt Gwen.
“Yeah.”
Luke took a deep breath. ‘ But there’s another pressing matter now. My men from Sea City are starting a problem. They’re looking for Gwen in every corner, wanting to bring her back and kill her to exact vengeance for me. The one who does it will replace me and become the gang leader.”
He put off the cigarette frustratingly. “I’ve only been dead for half a year, and these people are getting too rowdy!”
“Sigh.”
Brettley sighed, hearing Luke’s rant, and said wearily, “Do I need to send someone to keep you and Gwen safe? You may not be able to handle your old subordinates, even with Steven.”
“No thanks.”
Luke snorted and changed to a more comfortable position, leaning on the same pillar. He continued to look in the direction where Gwen and Winson left. “I know those people too well, and they’re nothing when they leave Sea City. Your cousin, Sean, is much better than many of them.”
Brettley laughed. “Sean did want to learn from you, be like you, and become a gang leader.”
Luke shrugged and sneered. “Why not learn to be a good guy instead? Why did he want to be like me?”
“Aren’t you a good guy?”
Brettley paused. “Sean was actually under a lot of pressure. He had been living in the countryside and became a mechanic sometime in his life, only to find out that he, all this while, has a biological older brother and other relatives, which made him feel slightly unhinged.
“You’re the only one who fought your way up from the bottom among all of us. He thinks of you as his role model and hopes to one day be like you, a gang leader. If he doesn’t have to take care of Denise now, I think he’d make himself a very successful man.’
Luke frowned uncontrollably when he heard Denise’s name. “Has that woman not woken up yet?’
Brettley nodded. “Yes, but Sean doesn’t care.”
The last time Brettley contacted Sean, both of them talked for a long time.
Sean said Denise deserved the terrible consequences of her actions. After all, everyone had to face the music for what they have done. At the same time, however, he would willingly wait for Denise to wake from her coma to atone for her sin.
Brettley took a deep breath. ‘ What are you afraid of since you said your subordinates won’t cause any problem for you and Gwen in that town?”
“Yes, they don’t dare to cause any problem here, but they’re using a man to trick Gwen.”
Luke paused and explained how Winson tried to be close to Gwen, as well as what Winson told him.
“How much does Bethan know about Winson?”
Luke asked.
“I’ll ask her that later.”
In fact, Bethan always talked about the things that happened during her university and high school days with Brettley. There were a few times when she also talked about the time when she and Gwen were studying, too.
Nevertheless, Brettley never heard Winson’s name from Bethan.
“Winson planned on making Gwen fall in love with him so he can bring her back to Sea City.”
Luke closed his eyes and said softly, “Have Bethan warn Gwen to stay away from Winson.”
Brettley stayed silent for a while before chuckling happily. “Wow, you’re actually asking me for help.”
“You better get used to it.”
Luke paused and said, “When Steven finally has control over this body. I’ll do whatever I can to never come back. I hope you can help me to take care of my younger brother.”
Brettley frowned. “He’s your brother, so you should be the one who takes care of him.” “How can I take care of him? We cant appear at the same time.”
Luke scoffed. “Alright. I’m going to rest and let him come out. Bye now.”
After that, he closed his eyes, leaned back on the pillar, and dozed off.
Gwen and Winson made a beeline straight to the art show as soon as they entered the exhibition center.
There were indeed plenty of Theo’s artworks displayed there, and the first one was the portrait he had painted of Bethan.
“What a talented man,”
Winson could not help lamenting as he gazed at the painting.
‘Oh my. I cant believe Theo managed to capture the essence of Bethan’s beauty so perfectly!’ Gwen thought to herself as she stared at the painting.
Although this was only a painting of Bethan’s back as she chased after a kite, wearing a simple white dress, Gwen could not help being reminded of the early memories that she shared with Bethan.
They had been so happy and carefree at one point…
Who would have thought that a few years from that point in time, Bethan would have almost died, been forced to undergo plastic surgery, and even gone through such devastating events such as losing her best friend and going to jail for attempted murder?
As for Gwen, on the other hand…although she had lost only Luke, it felt as though she had died a thousand times over.
As much as they wanted to, none of them could ever return to the carefree moments of their youths.
After staring at the painting for a long time, Gwen finally sighed and snapped out of her stupor. She turned to glance at Winson. “Didn’t you say there was a painting of me? Where is it?”
The color drained from Winson’s face when he heard this. The truth was, this was just an excuse he had thought of to get Gwen to come into the city with him. That was the only way his plan of letting her get hit by a car would work and he could swoop in to save her like a damsel in distress. He was hoping that by doing so, Gwen would fall over heels for him, and it would no longer matter that he had lied to get her out of the house.
However, his plans were foiled by the man in black, and since he failed to save her life, he no longer had any leverage over Gwen. At the mention of the painting, Winson had no choice but to simply point at a painting nearby and stutter, “Well.Jsnt this a painting of you?”
Gwen’s eyebrows furrowed as she glanced in the direction Winson pointed.
It was a painting of a long-haired woman standing underneath a tree, and it was obvious that the woman in the painting was not her at all but Rachel.
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.