Chapter 93
“Amanda?” Ethan held the look of surprise on his face as he took her appearance in. It had been more than ten years since he saw her last since the terrible rumor that he started and she was forced to transfer schools. She had grown taller, much taller than he remembered even though he still towered above her effortlessly. Her hair was still brown even longer with the lushness that he remembered, silky and smooth and when he tried to look at her face, the guilt consumed him. Her eyes held the anger that had festered all these years and he knew damn well she wasn’t here for a reunion.
“Remember me now?” she sneered “It’s been what now? Thirteen years and you sure grew up well”
Ethan still stood dumbfounded until he managed to catch himself and he looked at her, really looked at her. He took hold of her wrist and pulled her with him outside the emergency room and he set her in front of him.
“What are you doing here especially talking about my brother and what not? What are you doing back here in the city” the memories were a bit foggy in Ethan’s brain, the details fluttering in and out of his head in a lazy dance. He was quite hangover and was only operating on alcoholic wine and a few cups of coffee he knew he wasn’t thinking properly.
“My exile is not over yet?” she sneered at him, her nose scrunched up in annoyance and slowly Ethan began to realize that she was in deed the first girl he ever liked and he screwed it up to protect himself and to protect Jackson.
“What are you doing here because I know you’re not here for a high school reunion? So what do you want?”
“I want my life back Ethan, I want what you stole from me. My life, my future ”
Ethan stayed quiet when her voice broke, she was nearly breaking down in tears and the last thing Ethan wanted that moment was a girl crying in front of him.
“I had a chance here in the city until you kicked me out. Do you know how hard it was moving, my mother having to find a new job and my sister. Do you know the hell I went through?”
“So what?” Ethan finally spoke, the exhaustion catching up to him “You were better off away from us anyways”
“That was not your decision to make Ethan, you had no right to do that. You had no right to start that rumor about me”
Ethan’s expression remained passive, it was like going thirteen years back and he was leaning carelessly against the wall and spewed words he didn’t mean, but this time was different. His father just had a heart attack and his brother also kissed his wife in front of the paparazzi, their family name was trending on social media and the last thing he wanted to deal with a blast from the past.
“It’s been years Amanda, move on. In case you haven’t noticed, I have real life crisis to attend to” Ethan turned to leave when Amanda stopped him with her hand raised. Then she fished out her phone from her silver purse and held it in front of Ethan and a recording began playing.
“She’s pregnant with my child Ethan, when are you going to understand that she can no longer stay your wife” Jackson’s voice sounded from the phone and Ethan was quick to grab her hand but she was quicker with the phone.
“Two brothers and a girl. Do you know how much selling a scandal cost these days with proof especially?” she countered happily but Ethan wasn’t sharing in her glee.
“You wouldn’t dare!” he thundered quietly
“You can’t stop me” Amanda stood her ground
The silence stretched, Ethan studying her face and looking for a loophole he could latch unto but she seemed set in stone and not like Uncle James. She held power in her hands and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
“What do you want?” The question was quick and brief and Ethan expected the same pattern of response but Amanda had time.
“There you are going off to save a brother who doesn’t feel the same loyalty to you”
“What do you want?”
The silence stood between them
“I want my life back” she whispered quietly and that was when Ethan saw it the loophole. Just like Uncle James, Amanda had been deeply betrayed by a member of the Hatton family and while their agenda might seem like revenge, they simply wanted a way in into the life of elites.
That was exactly what Amanda wanted, he could see it in her eyes, he could smell the desperation off her slathered on her like a vanishing cream. He could see it in the way she bounced restlessly on her feet with her demands just at the tip of her tongue but he beat her to it.
“You want a way in” he said matter of factly “You want your old life back when you had a chance to be part of the city’s elites, don’t you Amanda?” he asked and she nodded I agreement. Ethan took a step further to her and he smiled. He did not need to think about it, there was just one thing he wanted that moment, he saw a chance he was going to take it.
“I have a proposal for you then, give and take Amanda, that’s how the world here works”
Amanda kept him in a line of vision, never even missing a blink from him. She seemed to think about it for a moment but then she shrugged
“What do I have to do?”
Ethan turned and pointed at Jackson and Emily from where they stood “Break them up, I don’t care how you do it. That’s my only request”
“What’s in it for me?”
“Break them up Amanda and I’ll give you anything you want. Both what money can or cannot buy”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.
Amanda smirked now, with a cunny smile playing at the corner of her lips.
“Deal”