Private Marriage, Secret Love-Chapter 180: Mistaken Identity

Miles Hawthorne held her even tighter. "You’re still going to run into him one day."

"Even if I do, it’s fine. He’s him, and I’m me."

Miles Hawthorne’s hand caressed her shoulder. "I have a hard battle ahead of me."

"Miles," Raina Reddington said, looking up at him. "Things are actually pretty good right now. A fight to the bitter end isn’t necessarily the best outcome."

"Once they find out I’m still alive, there’s only one way it ends. They’ll throw me back into that filthy place, and things could be even worse than they were back then..."

Hearing this, Raina Reddington reached out to cover his mouth, but Miles Hawthorne lifted his chin to avoid her hand. "It’s nothing that can’t be said, Raina. I don’t care."

’If he really didn’t care, he wouldn’t be thinking about it all the time.’ Miles Hawthorne looked away, a pained expression on his face. Raina Reddington had seen all his degradation and humiliation. Ethan Lancaster had tortured him until he was a shell of a man, all so Raina would think he was dirty—so dirty she wouldn’t even want to touch him, right?

In the end, Ethan had achieved his goal. But it wasn’t Raina who thought he was dirty; it was Miles Hawthorne himself who couldn’t get past it. This was as intimate as he and Raina ever got.

Raina Reddington looked up at him, but Miles Hawthorne took a step back. "I’ll go make the wontons."

His pace quickened as he walked away. Raina’s eyes were too bright; they always seemed to expose the shame and filth buried deep inside him, leaving him nowhere to hide.

When Annabelle Spencer left work, she saw Ethan Lancaster’s car parked at the main entrance. Seth Sinclair was leaning against it, seemingly waiting for someone.

Seeing her come out, Seth Sinclair strode over. "Miss Spencer."

"What do you want?" Annabelle Spencer shot him a glare.

"Miss Spencer, there’s something I need to confirm with you."

Annabelle Spencer’s gaze swept past Seth Sinclair’s cheek and fixed on the closed car window. "Is that scumbag dead yet?"

Seth Sinclair’s expression tightened, his eyes filled with displeasure and anger. Annabelle Spencer brought her gaze back to his face. "I just asked a routine question, and you can’t take it? You were all so tolerant of him back when he drove Raina to her death, weren’t you?"

"Miss Spencer, it’s not what you think..."

The thought of Raina Reddington still felt like a knife to Annabelle Spencer’s heart, even after three years. "She was stronger than anyone, but she chose to die that way. Ethan Lancaster is truly something else. A master at playing with women, and a master at driving people to their deaths."

Seth Sinclair felt a headache coming on. ’Looks like I just walked right into a scolding today.’

"Miss Spencer, I just want to ask you one thing. Were you responsible for what happened at The Serene Hill Cemetery?"

Annabelle Spencer rarely had a chance to get this close to Ethan Lancaster, so now that she had one, she wasn’t about to let it go. "Yeah, I did it. What about it? Are you guys going to try and force me to jump into the sea, too?"

Seth Sinclair’s brow furrowed tightly. "That’s the Young Madam’s grave. The Fourth Master treasures it more than anything. For you to destroy it like that..."

Hearing this, Annabelle Spencer shot forward like a lit firecracker and shoved Seth Sinclair hard. "What a joke! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. He treasures it? It’s a cenotaph, isn’t it? Is Raina’s body in there? It’s just an empty grave! It’s nothing more than a prop for Ethan Lancaster to gain people’s sympathy. He abused her relentlessly when she was alive, and now he’s hugging a cold gravestone and pretending to be a devoted lover after she’s dead? To hell with him—!"

Annabelle Spencer’s tirade was unrestrained, growing fiercer by the second. The closed car window couldn’t block out her voice. Ethan Lancaster’s temples throbbed as he listened, and he suddenly shoved the car door open and got out.

"Scumbag!" Annabelle Spencer clenched her fists. "And an undeniable one at that."

Ethan Lancaster pointed a finger at her. "You did this?"

From what Seth Sinclair had just said, Annabelle Spencer had already figured it out. "Yeah, I did. So what?"

"You’re asking for it!" Ethan Lancaster strode forward. Annabelle Spencer wasn’t afraid this time; she straightened her back to face him head-on. "I dreamed about Raina. She was soaked to the bone, saying she was so cold, that she couldn’t stand being submerged in water all day. She said she was being scraped by rocks and bitten by fish, that it was cold and painful. She said it’s all because you won’t let her rest in peace, with you acting all phony at her grave..." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Ethan Lancaster’s face turned white as a sheet. He couldn’t bear to hear such things. A chill ran through him, and Seth Sinclair quickly waved a hand at Annabelle Spencer. "You should go."

"If I were her, I’d come back as a vengeful ghost and haunt you forever."

"Fine. Tell her to come haunt me. See if I’m afraid."

Annabelle Spencer was furious. Seth Sinclair pulled Ethan Lancaster back into the car. "That woman might be crazy."

’So it really was her.’ Ethan Lancaster’s heart sank to a new low. Even though he knew it couldn’t have been Raina, uncertainty always carried a sliver of hope.

「The Golden Maple Pavilion.」

When Ethan Lancaster came out of the private room, he was so drunk he was staggering, barely able to walk a straight line.

Seth Sinclair was beside him, trying to help him up, but the man was like a powder keg today, refusing to let anyone touch him. "Get away."

"Fourth Master, we should head back now."

"Did you hear what those people were saying just now?" Ethan Lancaster leaned against the wall, his words slurred. "They were talking about introducing me to this family’s daughter and that family’s daughter..."

Of course outsiders would start getting ideas. After all, Mrs. Lancaster had been dead for three years, and it wasn’t as if Ethan Lancaster was the type to remain chaste in her memory. If he were, he wouldn’t have driven her to her death in the first place.

"You don’t have to pay them any mind."

Ethan Lancaster waved a hand. "Don’t follow me. I can walk on my own."

"Fourth Master, I’ll go settle the bill. The car is right out front."

Right outside The Golden Maple Pavilion was a road. A minor fender-bender up ahead had traffic crawling along; even incessant honking was useless.

Raina Reddington sat in her car, her gaze drifting outside. She saw a figure standing by the entrance, peering cautiously inside without entering.

She recognized the face instantly. It was Gwen Sharp.

Raina wanted to turn the car around, but she was boxed in by cars in front and behind, with pedestrians and electric scooters on the side. She was stuck, unable to move an inch.

’Who is Gwen Sharp waiting for here?’

’It has to be Ethan Lancaster, right?’

As she looked into the distance, a figure stumbled into her line of sight. A man came out, clearly drunk. He missed a step coming down the stairs, and just as Gwen Sharp moved to support him, he fell right onto her.

"Fourth Master, be careful."

Ethan Lancaster held onto her, feeling how small her frame was. The fresh scent on her was somewhat familiar, and he buried his face in the crook of her neck.

Such an intimate gesture, especially in public, made everyone stop and stare.

Raina’s expression was indifferent, her features unreadable. It wasn’t surprising for Ethan Lancaster to act like this in public. What did surprise her was that Gwen Sharp had managed to stay securely by his side for another three years.

Gwen Sharp wrapped her arms around him. "Why did you drink so much?"

Ethan Lancaster’s hand caressed her neck gently. The cool wind brushed against his cheek. He closed his eyes, wishing he could just have a good dream.

"Raina, is that you?"

Watching the two of them embrace, Raina knew it would be a lie to say she felt nothing at all. It just didn’t hurt as much as it used to.