Chapter 749: The Last Life-Saving Straw

Chapter 749: Chapter 749: The Last Life-Saving Straw

Claire Sinclair simply called him directly to ask, "What in the world happened? Why is she dead? Didn’t you say you’d take care of her? Ethan Kingsley, answer me!"

Ethan Kingsley let out a hollow laugh. "She’s dead. She’s left me."

Claire Sinclair snapped, "Stop spouting that nonsense and tell me the truth!"

"Claire Sinclair, have you ever done something you regret?" Ethan Kingsley countered.

"Yes. My biggest regret is watching helplessly as you took her away, and not getting her back!"

Ethan Kingsley was silent for a long moment, his voice choked with emotion when he finally spoke. "My biggest regret is leaving her there all alone, making her endure the most hopeless wait, only for her to be burned alive in a fire. She must hate me. If the dead can become vengeful spirits, she ought to come for me... She will come for me..."

By the end, his voice had taken on a strange, unsettling tone.

Claire Sinclair couldn’t imagine what the girl had experienced, but hearing those two words—"burned alive"—she mostly understood. She could also grasp what Ethan Kingsley must be feeling now.

’That poor girl... burned to death...’

Tears welled up uncontrollably in Claire Sinclair’s eyes. She remained silent for a long time before her emotions settled.

Finally, she said to him, "Back then, Ivy Tanner came to me for help and told me some things about her situation. I was furious but powerless. Then she ran to me, telling me you had raped her. I wanted nothing more than to publish the story right then, but if I had, her life would have been ruined.

"Later on, I took her for a medical exam, and we discovered she was pregnant with your child. She then asked me to help her find someone to marry. She said she wanted to live, that the baby could protect her. But I always knew the truth: she loved you very much and wanted to give birth to your child. That baby became her last lifeline.

"I thought about telling you several times, but I didn’t trust you. You were completely absorbed in your power struggles. What if you decided not to spare even your own child?"

After hearing her out, Ethan Kingsley’s breathing grew heavy. He didn’t speak for a long time, and when he did, his voice was so hoarse it was almost ugly. "The child was mine?"

"It was always yours. It had nothing to do with Lucas Rhodes. Lucas is gay."

"She wasn’t lying to me..." Ethan Kingsley murmured.

’She’d lied to him so much, but not about this one thing. And he had believed all her lies, except for this one truth.’

’Ha... Ethan Kingsley, look how stupid you are. It serves you right for losing her!’

Claire Sinclair suddenly asked, "Ethan Kingsley, you regret it now, don’t you?"

Ethan Kingsley’s throat grew drier and more hoarse, as if he were suppressing some immense emotion. "I’m the one who killed her. I killed our child. It was all my fault..."

Claire Sinclair didn’t know what to say. She had no desire to comfort a man like him; she felt he deserved it. Her pity was only for Ivy Tanner.

’That poor girl. She died such a wrongful death.’

In the end, Claire Sinclair said nothing more and hung up.

「Three days later.」

A simple, unceremonious funeral was held at Emberfall Cemetery.

Claire Sinclair, dressed all in black, stood before the gravestone. Ethan Kingsley stood to her left, and Theo Rhodes to her right. Only the three of them were in attendance.

No one spoke, and no one cried. A million words were left unsaid, locked away in their hearts.

As the funeral was ending, Theo Rhodes finally broke the silence. "Auntie, this is probably the last time I’ll ever call you that. Let’s part ways here. I wish you all the best."

Claire Sinclair’s lips parted, but in the end, she said nothing at all.