Ribbons Unbound: My Fiancé's Lingering Regret novel Chapter 8

"You don't seriously think I would go back with you, do you?" I nearly doubled over with laughter.

When I straightened up, my face was expressionless, my eyes cold:

"Ethan, you truly disgust me."

The man froze, his eyes filled with disbelief. "What... did you say?"

"I said, Ethan Ferrers, you disgust me!"

Ethan grew angry with embarrassment and lunged toward me, only to be pushed back by my sisters' strong arms.

"I've already apologized to you. What more do you want?"

"You used to be..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but I understood his meaning.

I stepped out from my sisters' protective circle and slapped Ethan across the face.

That look of disbelief returned to his face.

I laughed coldly:

"I used to be what? So in love with you? So willing to forgive anything you did? Yes, I once loved you deeply. Enough to leave Scotland for America."

"I even continued loving you while watching you and Victoria together. But Ethan, no one's love is inexhaustible."

I tilted my head, looking at him mockingly.

"What made you think you could keep hurting me, relying on my love? Why did you believe that after hurting me, one meaningless 'I love you' would make me come running back?"

"And what makes you think that after my love was worn down time after time, I would still love you?"

My words forced Ethan to retreat step by step until he fell sitting on the ground.

He suddenly realized that the love in my eyes had been extinguished. Only then did he seem to panic, repeatedly apologizing.

"I'm sorry... Freya... I'm sorry... please forgive me."

I watched his tear-filled eyes, feeling nothing in my heart. With an expressionless face, I delivered the most final words:

"Don't apologize to me. Seeing you now only fills me with disgust."

"Ethan, that girl who once adored you is dead. She died during those fifty-two nights of sitting alone until dawn. In that girl's mind, you never once bound your hand to hers with true intention, while she renewed her ribbon vows to you fifty-two times, each one as sacred as a wedding day.""

"I won't forgive you on behalf of my former self. You deserve to live forever in guilt, haunted by nightmares!"

Hot tears streamed down Ethan's face. His face pale, lips moving several times without a sound.

Finally, he stood up dejectedly. "Then... Oliver..."

"Oliver is my child. He will take my surname, Oliver Gwendolyn. He will have uncles, and someday, a new father."

Ethan, bitter about being forced to marry Victoria, pushed her down the stairs when she wasn't expecting it.

She lost the baby instantly.

Victoria completely lost her mind.

Without the child, she had no hope of gaining Ethan's affection.

In desperation, she stabbed Ethan in the heart, then killed herself beside his body.

As she died, she clutched his cold hand, murmuring:

"Now you'll be mine forever."

The incident caused a huge scandal in America, and the Ferrers family's reputation plummeted.

But more important than reputation was the Ferrers family lineage.

Ethan's mother and the family elders visited multiple times, wanting to take Oliver back to raise him as the heir.

I turned them away every time.

Finally, with no other option, they adopted a child they had always looked down upon.

But all of this no longer had anything to do with Oliver or me.