After Rebirth, I Accept The Arranged Marriage-Chapter 92: "Why Weren’t You Here?

When Julian Grant finished speaking, an expression of utter disbelief crossed Jessie Sterling’s face.

Jessie Sterling was sure she hadn’t misheard. At that moment, she had only one thought—

’Have you drunk yourself stupid?’

How else could he ask such an absurd question?

Jessie Sterling frowned, and without waiting for Julian Grant to reply, she continued, "I think you’re genuinely sick. Not sleeping in the middle of the night, and you run over here to say this to me? Why would I go to the United States with you? Am I not married? And even if I were to leave Southaven, I would be going to Aethelburg. Julian Grant, don’t you dare throw a drunken fit here."

Jessie Sterling’s warning was delivered bluntly.

Julian Grant’s expression grew darker. He looked at Jessie Sterling’s face, as fair and smooth as jade, and after a moment of silence, he spoke in a low, hoarse voice, "You... you really don’t have any feelings for me? Today, you were the one who told Keith Reese where I was. No one else could have known. Jessie, you’re the one who understands me best. Why...?"

Julian Grant’s brows were knitted tightly, and he looked to be in great pain.

He couldn’t accept the way his parents interacted with each other; it just disgusted him. He even felt his own birth was disgusting. He didn’t know what to do and felt like an isolated island, which was why he’d let himself wallow in the bar’s cellar.

But when Keith Reese told him that Jessie Sterling had told them where he might be, Julian Grant suddenly felt he wasn’t so alone after all.

Someone understood him.

That was why he had come straight to Jessie Sterling tonight without a second thought.

’What if Jessie is willing to leave with me?’ he thought.

’She understands me so well. She cares about me and knows me better than anyone else. She must want to leave with me, right?’

At this thought, Julian Grant looked up again and took two steps toward Jessie Sterling, as if he meant to reach out and grab her wrist.

But Jessie Sterling reacted quickly. She took a few steps back, putting even more distance between herself and Julian Grant.

"I don’t have any other intentions!" Jessie Sterling said, displeased. "Julian Grant, can you not be so selfish?"

Her words hit him like a physical blow, leaving Julian Grant stunned for several seconds, unable to process them.

Jessie Sterling ignored his expression. "You think that because I found you, because I knew where you were, I’m somehow useful to you. That’s why you want to take me with you when you leave, isn’t it? Before this, I bet you never once thought about how important I was to you or what I meant to you, did you? I was just a tag-along, always trailing behind you. You could just turn your head and see me whenever you felt like it.

"And coming here to find me tonight—you were so sure that all you had to do was ask, and I’d go with you, weren’t you?"

Jessie Sterling stood her ground, her gaze fixed on Julian Grant, unflinching.

She looked so slender and delicate, yet her words were like a volley of sharp blades, piercing Julian Grant and leaving him torn to shreds.

"How can you be so arrogant and selfish? You decide I’m useful, so you don’t care about my circumstances—you just show up in the middle of the night and expect me to leave Southaven with you? What gives you the right to say something like that to me? Who do you think you are?"

Jessie Sterling said it all in one breath, but she wasn’t nearly as calm as she’d imagined she would be.

She was the kind of person who used to cry to Lynn Jennings over a mean comment online. She found it hard to get into arguments in real life, let alone a direct confrontation like this.

Jessie Sterling’s face was flushed with frantic anger.

She was also trembling slightly. People who aren’t good at arguing often can’t control their shaking when they get emotional.

Julian Grant was left reeling from Jessie Sterling’s torrent of rebukes. His face was already pale from drinking, but now, her words had drained it of all remaining color, leaving it ghastly white.

"...I..." Julian Grant started to speak. He wanted to deny it, but faced with every accusation Jessie Sterling had just leveled at him, he didn’t know where to begin his defense.

Just as an awkward silence fell between them, Jessie Sterling’s phone rang again.

This time, Jessie Sterling didn’t decline the call. She gave Julian Grant one last look. "Today, it wouldn’t have mattered who went missing. I would have told the search party the location I knew."

With that said, Jessie Sterling walked out of the annex building without a glance at Julian Grant’s expression.

She didn’t want to be in the same space as Julian Grant for a second longer. ’Who knows when he might lose it again?’

Out in the garden, Jessie Sterling didn’t go straight back to her room. She sat on a swing and answered the phone, which had been ringing for a while.

"Hello, Victor Morgan..."

The moment she spoke, Jessie Sterling startled herself.

She didn’t know why, but the moment she saw the name "Victor Morgan" on her caller ID, an unstoppable wave of sorrow washed over her.

A moment ago with Julian Grant, she had been frantic and furious. Even though she was so angry she had been trembling all over, she hadn’t felt the urge to cry.

But seeing the name "Victor Morgan" on her phone made her nose sting with the threat of tears.

The moment she spoke, Jessie Sterling felt the pathetic urge to cry.

Victor Morgan had just gotten home. He’d had a very busy day.

After working late, his driver had taken him back to his old apartment.

But Victor Morgan didn’t rest. Instead, he personally packed up his things and moved them back to the courtyard residence.

Now that they were married, it wasn’t appropriate for him to keep living in his old apartment.

Even if Jessie Sterling hadn’t come back with him yet.

Once everything was more or less in order, Victor Morgan called Jessie Sterling.

He wouldn’t have called her at this hour if he hadn’t seen the concert ticket stub she’d posted ten minutes earlier from her evening with Lynn Jennings.

But Victor Morgan hadn’t expected her to first decline the call, and then, when she finally answered, for her voice to be choked with tears.

He shot up from the bed almost instantly.

"What’s wrong? Are you upset? Did someone bully you?" Victor Morgan asked in a low voice. "Are you crying?"

Jessie Sterling felt a little embarrassed. She sniffled, trying to salvage her "crybaby" image, but when Victor Morgan asked if she was crying, she couldn’t hold it in any longer. "Why are you still in Aethelburg!" she sobbed quietly. "I was so scared just now..."

A moment ago, when Julian Grant had reached for her, trying to grab her—even though she knew she was at home and that someone would immediately come in and restrain him if she just shouted—Jessie Sterling had still been terrified.