Chapter 8
1009words
"Repaying kindness with betrayal..."
I sat in my wheelchair, looking at him through iron bars.
My father... was the "benefactor"?
"What are you saying?" I heard myself asking, my voice sounding hollow and unfamiliar. "Didn't you say before... my father betrayed your father, causing
causing your group to suffer huge losses, which infuriated your father. Then my father went to prison, and you married me for revenge... All of this was false?"
"All of that was false! I... was deceived by my father." Silas's body trembled violently from the IV drip and the cold, but he dared not stop. He feared that if he paused
, he would never have another chance to speak.
"My father's illness," he said hoarsely, "was never caused by 'anger.' He simply fell ill."
"He was the one who... emptied the Lancaster Group!"
My mind went blank.
His father had emptied his own family's group?
"I examined the original files from a year ago." His bloodshot blue eyes locked onto mine, as if I were his only lifeline.
"The Lancaster Group's financial deficit was caused by my father's gambling and extravagance. It was Robert Windsor, your father, his best friend, who discovered every
thing."
Silas's voice was filled with self-loathing.
"Your father never betrayed my father."
"Your father-in-law... he used all of the Windsor Group's funds to fill the bottomless pit my father had created. He saved the Lancaster Group."
I stopped breathing.
My father... saved them?
So, the Windsor Group went bankrupt because my father used all the company's funds to cover the Lancaster Group's deficit?!
It was like a person transfusing all their blood into another empty shell.
One life exchanged for another.
"Then why did my father... why did he go to prison?" I asked trembling.
"Because your father-in-law wanted to save more than just the Lancaster Group." Silas closed his eyes in pain, "He also wanted to save my father's reputation. He alone took on all the
charges. He went to jail... in place of my father."
In this moment, my world completely shattered.
He wasn't a coward who "ran away."
Nor was he a criminal who "betrayed" others.
My father was a hero. A foolish hero who sacrificed everything for his friends.
And I, this hero's daughter...
"Before your father went to prison," Silas's voice was trembling, "his only condition was to entrust you to my father... to take care of you. He entrusted you to the person he had saved
"
"And my father," Silas began to laugh, a laugh that sounded worse than crying, "he broke his promise. He immediately cut off all support for you, leaving you to fend for yourself
He was the real betrayer."
The truth.
This is the truth.
I finally understand.
Why Silas had "wrongfully" sought revenge.
Because his father, the greatest beneficiary, the real culprit, to cover up his own incompetence and betrayal, had fed Silas the lie that "the Windsor family betrayed us."
Senior Lancaster had transformed a "benefactor" into an "enemy."
And Silas, that foolish and arrogant heir, believed it without doubt.
"I... I thought I was taking revenge." Silas grabbed the cold iron bars, the back of his hands bleeding from excitement, "I thought I was seeking justice
for my father. I pretended to 'support' you, I lied about settling your father's 'bankruptcy', I married you... I married you..."
He couldn't continue speaking.
He wasn't seeking vengeance.
He was continuing his father's sins.
His father betrayed my father;
And he, with his own hands, destroyed my innocence and killed my child.
The father and son, one ate the meat, and the other crushed the bones.
"Fiona..." he finally broke down. This man who had knelt in the blizzard all night without shedding a tear now had tears mixed with mucus flowing down pathetically, "
I didn't know... I really didn't know..."
"I thought... I thought I was hating the right person..."
He collapsed to his knees in the melted snow outside the iron gate, wailing like a lost child.
"I was wrong... I was wrong..."
I silently watched him.
I looked at this man who had uncovered the truth about my father, while also revealing his own ugliest and most foolish core.
How should I feel?
Should I be happy about my father's innocence?
Or should I feel twice as angry for everything he had done?
Neither.
I couldn't feel anything anymore.
When the truth came to light, when all love, all hatred... were proven to be a dirty deception spanning two generations, everything lost its meaning.
Both love and hatred need a fulcrum.
Now, that fulcrum had collapsed.
I was left with nothing but empty, cold ashes.
I was tired.
I was truly tired.
I stopped looking at him.
I turned the wheels of my wheelchair, my back facing him.
"Oliver," I spoke.
"I'm here." Oliver immediately came forward and wrapped me in a blanket.
"I'm cold," I said softly. "Please take me back."
"Fiona!"
Silas heard my words. He frantically crawled up from the ground and lunged at the iron gate.
"Fiona! Don't go! Listen to me! You can hit me! You can curse me! You can do anything! Please! Just don't look at me with those eyes!"
He shook the impassable iron gate frantically, like a trapped wild beast.
"I'll give the Lancaster Group back to you! No... I'll give it back to your father! I'll clear his name! I'll give you everything I have!"
I didn't look back.
Oliver pushed the wheelchair, steadily, step by step, taking me away.
"Fiona—!"
His heart-wrenching cry, filled with despair and wheezing, was shut behind the warm doors of the sanatorium.
Silas.
It's all too late.
What your father owed mine was a false accusation.
And what you owe me...
Is a child, and my entire life.
Can you ever repay this debt?
No.
You cannot.
So, I don't want it anymore.
I just want you to stay away from me.
