Chapter 7

Shawn's phone suddenly chimed.

A video had been sent to him. When he clicked on it and saw what was on the screen, his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

It was a video of Stella getting taken.

Shawn instantly grew lightheaded. Forcing himself to stay on his feet, he pulled out his phone and called Susan.

"Please let Stella go. I'm begging you," he pleaded. "I'll do anything you want—just let Stella go. She's still a minor."

At that moment, Shawn no longer cared about anything else. He was more than willing to throw away his pride and his dignity. All he wanted was for Stella to be safe.

To his dismay, Henry was the one who answered the phone.

"An apology needs to be sincere, Mr. Carter. You can't just say a few words over the phone. If you truly mean it, you'll come over here and apologize to me in person."

Shawn knew exactly what he was implying.

After hanging up, he hailed a taxi and headed straight to the address Henry had given him. Once he arrived at the location, he realized that a party was being held there.

Leaning against Henry's chest, Susan stared coldly at Shawn. "Have you finally realized your mistake?"

Shawn lowered his head. Clenching his fists, he forced the word through gritted teeth. "Yes."

He dropped to his knees and looked up at Susan with a pleading expression. "I shouldn't have hit him. It was all my fault. Please let my sister go."

Rain struck his face, but Shawn couldn't care less about how miserable he looked or what the people around them thought of him.

Crawling toward Susan on his knees, he abandoned every last shred of his dignity and begged, "Please. Let Stella go. She's still a student. She's not even an adult yet."

Susan's expression softened. She was just about to speak when Henry chimed in.

"You want me to forgive you?" he asked, his lips curving up into a smirk. "It's simple. Just kneel here for the rest of the night."

After a brief pause, he added, "However, we're having a party tonight. There are many people around the venue. If anyone asks why you're kneeling here, you'll have to confess that you're a shameless homewrecker who came here to atone for your mistakes. Can you do that?"

Hearing Henry's words, Stella, bound and listening from the other end of the video call, suddenly shouted, "Don't listen to him, Shawn! Don't admit to something you never did!"

A split second later, the call abruptly cut off.

Shawn instantly panicked. "I'll do it. I'll do anything you want as long as you let my sister go!"

The rain gradually grew heavier. As the party continued indoors, Shawn remained on his knees in the courtyard.

At first, some of the party guests still checked on him. Some held umbrellas over his head, while others tried to pull him to his feet. But every time someone approached him, Shawn repeated the same words like a robot.

"I'm a homewrecker. I ruined someone else's relationship. I've made a mistake, and I've come here to atone for my wrongdoings."

Eventually, people stopped approaching him. Instead, they pulled out their phones and secretly took pictures and videos of him.

After that night, Shawn was certain that he'd become a homewrecker that everyone loathed. No matter where he went, people would be able to recognize him from those videos. They would berate him for being a disgraceful man who lived off of his girlfriend, but he could no longer afford to care.

All he wanted was for Stella to be safe.

When the morning came and his legs had gone numb, Susan finally gave him an address.

Ignoring the pain in his injured legs, he got into a taxi and rushed to the outskirts of the city. When he arrived at the abandoned factory, however, he found Stella lying lifelessly on the ground, surrounded by torn pieces of clothing.

Shawn nearly broke down. By the time he got Stella to the hospital, he was essentially a walking corpse.

"The patient was assaulted by multiple people," the doctor said grimly. "She has a fractured pelvis, extensive bruising, severe internal tearing, and massive blood loss…"

Shawn felt the world spin around him. A high-pitched ringing filled his ears, and he nearly collapsed onto the ground.

He couldn't collapse now. He was all that Stella had left. He needed to take care of her no matter what.

Clinging to that last bit of resolve, Shawn forced himself to keep going. But when he returned from the cafeteria with a meal for Stella, he found her hospital bed soaked in blood.

Stella had slit her wrists.

Shawn couldn't take it anymore. Overwhelmed by the entire situation, he collapsed and lost consciousness.

When he woke up, the doctor told him, "I'm sorry. We couldn't save your sister."

Shawn lay motionless on the hospital bed. He felt so numb that he couldn't even cry.

Stella was his younger sister. She had clung to him ever since she was a child, and she had always stood by his side no matter what happened.

Because of a group of monsters, his beloved sister was now dead.

This was all his fault.

All of a sudden, Shawn found it difficult to breathe. Overwhelmed by self-hatred, he began to struggle for air as the vital sign monitor beside his bed started beeping erratically.

The doctor hurried over and injected him with a sedative. "I know you're devastated by your sister's death, but you have to stay strong. You still have your father. Your father has woken up, and he still needs someone to take care of him. What's going to happen to him if you collapse too?"

Shawn looked toward the bed next to him, his expression filled with pain.

Just as the doctor had said, George had regained consciousness. But the heart attack had left him partially paralyzed, and he now needed help with basic tasks such as eating and drinking.

As he lay on his hospital bed, George tried to lift his hand and wipe away Shawn's tears. Then, he made a few garbled sounds.

Shawn knew that his father was trying to comfort him and urge him to keep going. Unable to suppress his emotions any longer, Shawn broke down sobbing.

…

A week later, Shawn completed the paperwork to discharge his father from the hospital. Then, he held a funeral for Stella and packed up all his belongings.

Right before he left, his phone chimed.

"When are you going to stop throwing a fit? It's been a week since I last heard from you. What exactly are you trying to do? All I did was ask you to apologize to Henry. Do you really have to turn it into such a big deal?" the text from Susan read.

Shawn calmly turned off his phone. Afterward, he cleared the device's memory and tossed it into a river. With a soft splash, the phone that carried eight years' worth of memories with Susan disappeared beneath the rushing water.

Shawn pushed his father's wheelchair into the airport. From now on, he wanted nothing to do with Susan ever again.