Private Marriage, Secret Love-Chapter 121: Not Done Playing Yet

Raina remained seated, but Ethan Lancaster was the first to stand up.

He walked step by step toward the platform. Miles Hawthorne lay motionless on the ground, and Ethan stopped beside him. "You’ve really outdone yourself. Now you need a woman to save your skin—your most beloved woman, I take it?"

Miles Hawthorne’s eyelids twitched. The corner of his mouth pulled into what seemed to be a smile. "Yeah, the one I love most."

Ethan Lancaster raised his foot and stomped on Miles Hawthorne’s hand. "Then tell me, what do you have to love her with now? Your title as Mr. Hawthorne? Or this pathetic state you’re in, like a rat everyone wants to crush?"

Miles Hawthorne let out a dry laugh, though he couldn’t even open his eyes. "Ethan Lancaster, she’s yours now. What are you playing at, constantly pushing her in my direction?"

"She’s mine! I don’t need you to remind me!"

Ethan Lancaster glanced at Raina below the platform and beckoned to her. "Come here."

She gave a slight shake of her head, unable to bear looking at Miles Hawthorne’s condition. Ethan Lancaster ground his foot down twice. To Miles, the pain was nothing anymore, but Raina still got up and walked over.

"I was the one who slipped that evidence inside the books and had Raina deliver them to the Lancaster Family. She knew nothing about it beforehand..."

Hearing this, Ethan Lancaster’s rage flared. "She knew nothing, or did she just turn a blind eye?"

"HAHA—" Miles Hawthorne couldn’t stop laughing, but it pulled at his wounds, contorting his face in pain. "She’s a stickler for principles and is desperately trying to cut all ties with me. Ethan Lancaster, she’s actually a complete coward. She’s afraid of being implicated, afraid of you thinking there’s something between us. Do you think she would have delivered those two sets of books if she had known? No way. Not even if you beat her to death."

Miles Hawthorne started coughing from speaking too quickly. "Ethan Lancaster, your marriage is really on the rocks, isn’t it? You don’t understand her at all..."

Ethan Lancaster’s expression was utterly foul. He pressed down with his foot again, and Miles Hawthorne stared at his own hand, the pain so intense it was almost numb.

"Raina, I knew I would implicate you, but I did it anyway. Now that those people have gotten what they deserved, I actually don’t have any regrets..."

Seeing him in this state, Raina felt more sorrow than anything. "But you’ve dragged yourself down with them. Do you think this is what Hawthorne would have wanted to see?"

"Raina, he’s long gone. So no matter what I become, he can’t see it."

Raina knelt down. Miles Hawthorne’s face was bruised and swollen, and she couldn’t stop her tears. This had once been the boy she knew best, but a forced demolition had shattered his family, and now he was a wreck of a man. "And your aunt?"

With great effort, Miles Hawthorne forced his eyes open a crack. "The Pine Creek Gardens, Building 39, Apartment 101."

He knew he would never be able to go back there.

Ethan Lancaster bent down to pull Raina up. His foot was still on the back of Miles Hawthorne’s hand, and the movement caused him to press down harder. Raina quickly hugged Ethan’s leg. "Let him go. He has nothing left. Please, just let it be, okay?"

"Fine. Very good."

Raina didn’t know what he meant by that. She looked up at him, and Ethan Lancaster slightly eased the pressure from his foot before moving his leg away.

"Raina Reddington, you’re begging me for him."

"I know you won’t listen to anything I say..."

Ethan Lancaster grabbed Raina’s arm and roughly dragged her to her feet. Seeing his crude actions, Miles Hawthorne tried to get up, but Ethan, not caring whether he could or not, swung his leg and kicked him viciously in his vulnerable ribs. entailed

"Let me tell you, if you’re going to beg, you need to look and act the part. You’re begging me for his sake. How could a single sentence be enough?"

Raina’s eyes were wet with tears. She wiped them away. "Then what would it take to satisfy you?"

"Have you never begged anyone before? Do I need to teach you how?"

Ethan Lancaster let go of her. Raina’s fingertips twitched. "Do you want me to kneel?"

Ethan Lancaster’s chest heaved noticeably. "Heh. Go on, then. Kneel for me."

"Raina!" Miles Hawthorne grit his teeth, every word tinged with the taste of blood. "I would sooner bite off my own tongue than let you kneel."

"Did you hear that?" Raina pointed at Miles Hawthorne lying there. "This is the difference between caring and not caring. He harmed me, but he still cares about me. You, Fourth Master, can humiliate me again and again precisely because you don’t care. Fine. This is what we both owe you. I’ll pay you back bit by bit. I’ll pay you back with every last shred of my dignity, how about that?"

Ethan Lancaster was so furious he could barely stop himself from hitting her. He clenched his fists and pointed a trembling finger at Raina.

He said nothing, turned, and walked out.

Raina glanced at Miles Hawthorne on the floor, then knelt to help him up.

"Don’t move." Miles Hawthorne waved a hand. "Don’t touch me."

"I’ll call you an ambulance."

"Raina," Miles Hawthorne stopped her. "You need to go. Now."

"You can’t stay here either."

Miles Hawthorne struggled to turn over. Raina pulled at him, trying to get him to stand. He managed to sit up, propping himself on the ground with one hand. "Go, quickly. There’s no benefit for you to be seen with me at a time like this."

"I know."

"Go," Miles Hawthorne said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "I’ll find a way to get out of this."

Raina couldn’t be of any help here. She knew that calling an ambulance might cause even more trouble.

Miles Hawthorne glanced at her. "You deliberately provoked him into leaving just to buy me some time, didn’t you? So what are you still dilly-dallying here for? Go."

Without hesitating, she turned and left.

The pain made it almost impossible for Miles Hawthorne to breathe. He stared at Raina’s retreating back and gave a bitter smile. ’This woman is truly ruthless. He told her to leave, and she actually left.’

’She could have at least helped me up first.’

When Raina got outside, she saw that Ethan Lancaster’s car hadn’t left yet. She walked over, pulled open the door, and got in without a word.

Seth Sinclair signaled the driver to go. Cameron Fairchild and his group must have left as well, which meant Miles Hawthorne might actually be able to escape.

Ethan Lancaster glanced at her hands, which were stained with blood. "You touched him?"

"I just helped him up."

"You were fine with just leaving him in there alone?"

Raina rubbed her palms together, and the smell of blood filled the cramped space. "Didn’t you already let him go?"

She asked this with a nervous heart, her words mostly a probe.

A smirk played on Ethan Lancaster’s lips. "I’ll let it go for today, but that doesn’t mean other families won’t come after him. Will the Sterling Family and the Lynch Family let him off? Oh, right, and there’s also Mrs. Lynch."

Raina wiped her palms on her pant legs. "Then I’ll leave it to fate."

Sitting in the front, Seth Sinclair was discreetly sending a text. Soon, Mrs. Lynch would know Miles Hawthorne’s whereabouts.

Ethan Lancaster had only said he would let Miles Hawthorne go for today. When a cat catches a mouse, it doesn’t want to eat it in one bite. A group of cats toying with a single mouse—now that was fun.