Meanwhile, Tony was sitting upright in the living room of another villa in Bradfort City. Myra’s head was lowered, and the atmosphere between them was extremely tense. Tony had made a special effort to redecorate the entire living room lately to cheer Myra up. The chic Japanese-style decor was quite different from the previously affordable and luxurious European-style decor, and it gave the house an entirely new look.
There weren’t any servants in the living room. Tony sipped on the tea he held up before his eyes, and its bitter taste instantly overwhelmed his taste buds. On the other hand, Myra, who was lowering her head, had an unfathomable expression on her face. None of them spoke.
“Tony.” Myra looked up with a somber expression on her face.
Tony put down the teacup in his hand and stared at Myra in a daze. There was some distance between them, and this awkward distance seemed to mirror their current situation. A person’s trust could crumble in an instant sometimes.
“Why would you lie to me?” Myra questioned in anguish; she didn’t expect that even Tony would lie to her.
Tony’s mouth curved in a wry smile. He didn’t expect Myra to find out the truth in the end, and he didn’t know how to justify himself. “I really have no idea how I should explain this to you, Myra.” He felt very bad as well. There were too many factors involved, so he didn’t know how to explain this clearly to Myra.
The successive blows sapped Myra’s energy and spirit. How could a pregnant woman stand such a torment? She put her hand on her forehead as her head really hurt. Tony wanted to come up to her worriedly, but she stopped him. “Don’t come over, and don’t get so close to me,” she said angrily.
Tony stood in place as if he was suddenly paralyzed on the spot, and the expression on his face faded bit by bit. This matter dealt a huge blow to Myra, and Tony thought he could keep on hiding it from her. Unfortunately, nothing could be kept absolutely secret in this world. “Myra, forgive me, okay?” He pleaded for Myra’s forgiveness. How he wished he could rush to her side right now!
The loving tenderness that he enjoyed in the past had now become something he could only wish for. Tony regretted his actions, but there was no such thing in the world as a medicine for regret, nor could he correct what he had done wrong. Veins stood out on his hands as he clenched his fists and suppressed his emotions. Right now, he couldn’t do anything that might startle Myra. For the first time ever, he felt that the living room was so spacious that there was such a long distance between him and Myra.
Myra’s voice was neither loud nor low, but it chilled Tony to the bones. “My bottom line is that no cheating is allowed. I don’t care whether you did it out of good intentions or anything else, but I can’t accept your lies.”
Tony wished he could take a step forward, but he stood frozen on the spot since he didn’t dare to do anything that would displease Myra. “Can you listen to my explanation?” He had to explain this. Otherwise, Myra wouldn’t even want to look at him.
“No, I don’t want to. Can you disappear from my sight for the time being?” Myra didn’t want to see Tony right now. At the sight of him, she would recall his lies and Heather’s betrayal. She didn’t expect that the two people closest to her would actually do such a thing to her. She suddenly felt like a failure, and grief was written all over her face.
In the end, Tony stepped beyond the boundary. “Myra.” He rushed up to Myra regardless of everything.
Meanwhile, she immediately stood up. With a glum face and an unwelcoming expression, she dodged Tony’s outstretched hand unnoticeably and distanced herself away from him. “Don’t come over.” Her voice was hoarse, and her eyes were full of grief.
Tony couldn’t touch Myra at all, and they seemed so near yet far away from each other. He took a few steps back on his own initiative. It seemed almost impossible to seek Myra’s forgiveness right now, so he kept his emotions under control as he couldn’t act on impulse again.
“I’m tired. I’m going back to my room first,” Myra said while going upstairs. As her eyes swept past Tony’s cheeks, it was clear from the look in her eyes that she didn’t want him to follow her.
Since he knew how to behave, Tony naturally didn’t go after her. He bit his lower lip hard as he had never been so disheartened before.
He looked up at Myra, who took each step with great difficulty as she walked upstairs. He was the one who had caused this situation right now. Why did I do such a thing back then? He blamed himself inwardly. He knew that Myra hated being lied to the most, yet he did precisely that. Furthermore, it wasn’t long ago that Myra learned what Heather had done to her, so this revelation came as a double whammy to her right now. Because of that, Tony really hated himself.
After leaving his home, he pulled open the car door; he needed to drive at this moment to calm himself down. As he sat in the driver’s seat, he felt as though he was cut off from the outside world. Upon hearing the sound of the car engine, he recalled what had happened not long ago.
Myra had been investigating who was trying to drive a wedge between her and Heather while the latter was away from Bradfort City. Who the hell was the woman she met at the cemetery?
For a long time afterward, Myra’s memory of that encounter had been foggy; she couldn’t even remember what the woman looked like. Because of that, she even visited the hospital for a checkup. At first, she suspected that this was because of her pregnancy, and she even wondered if there was something wrong with her brain. Unfortunately, her medical examination yielded no results. The only thing she remembered about the encounter was what the woman had said to her, for she remembered the woman’s words so well as if they were imprinted in her memory.
Myra was determined to find that woman again, but she could only provide limited clues. As such, the progress of the investigation had been slow. To her surprise, she saw the woman again amongst the crowd. She wanted to call out to Tony, but she couldn’t say his name out loud. Even though there was a man between Tony and that woman, it was apparent that they knew each other. Therefore, Myra left in silence.
Tony didn’t see Myra that day, so he didn’t know that she had witnessed all of this. There were so many coincidences in this world, after all.
When Tony came home that night, Myra began to ask him difficult questions, but he didn’t know that the woman was the one who told Myra the truth. He had heard from Myra that the woman deliberately tried to set her against Heather, but he didn’t expect the woman to be the quiet lady beside Caleb.
“Why would you know that woman in person, Tony?” Myra’s body froze as sorrow was written all over her face.
Even though Myra had made things clear long ago, Tony still clung to the slight possibility that Myra had probably mistaken the woman for someone else. As he summoned up his courage, he then asked, “You can’t remember what the woman looked like, can you? Perhaps you mistook her for someone else, Myra.” In reality, Tony already realized that it must’ve been that woman when Myra raised such a question. Caleb’s relationship with the Langston Family was complicated, so it was justifiable for Caleb to do such a thing. Tony only hated himself for not telling Myra about his recent encounters with Caleb.
“You’re lying to me.” Myra could tell from her understanding of Tony that he was lying.
“Trust me, Myra.” Nonetheless, Tony must keep this matter a secret since he couldn’t let Myra know anything about this.
This was exactly why Myra couldn’t forgive Tony when she discovered everything afterward. Myra didn’t expect that he would also lie to her, so how could this not leave her heartbroken? As a result, her relationship with Tony hit rock bottom. Tony had been trying to mend his relationship with Myra these days, but he failed to make any progress.
Myra roughly figured out the story behind this, and it surprised her that Tony had dealings with Caleb, whom she had heard Heather talking about. The Moriarty Family’s relations with the Hart Family and the Langston Family weren’t considered friendly, so she didn’t know why Tony had dealings with Caleb and why he kept this matter secret. However, Tony had his own difficulties, for he couldn’t tell anyone the reason behind his dealings with Caleb for the time being.
This was precisely why Myra was even more exasperated. She couldn’t forgive Tony whenever it occurred to her that he had been hiding more than one thing from her. Why would he treat her like that?
Tony brought his car to a stop on the expressway. Such a dangerous move could be life-threatening, but he couldn’t care less about this since he was about to freak out.
He opened the car door and got out of the car to get some fresh air. No matter how fast he drove, he couldn’t soothe the anxiety within him. He took a cigarette out of the car before lighting it up and blew large smoke rings. As he leaned against the car, he watched the sunset while trying to use his surroundings to alleviate his feelings of suffocation. “How should I explain it to you, Myra?” he shouted. He could vent his emotions here without scruple.
No one knew Tony as he stood on the side of the expressway, and he didn’t have to care about his status. As he stubbed out his cigarette, a wind lifted up the hair in front of his forehead, and there was chilliness in his gloomy eyes.
The wind blowing from the other side of the river brought over the fresh smell of river water and gently caressed every inch of Tony’s skin. He didn’t know how long this situation was going to last, for Caleb’s arrival had completely disrupted their peace.
Tony no longer took anything into consideration in his mind when he thought of the collaboration Heather had talked to him about. At a time like this, every family would care about their own interests. Tony wanted to preserve the Hart Group amid the unrest, and Heather had the same thing in mind since she wanted to preserve the Langston Group. However, their collaboration would bring them into conflict with each other to a certain degree. As far as the current situation was concerned, it was difficult to say what Caleb was here for.
It wasn’t until the setting sun gradually lost its brilliance and the wind blowing gradually became chilly that Tony got back into his car. The feeling of losing control this time was much stronger than before. One must never mix public matters with private ones, but now, the public matters and the private ones were already so deeply mixed that they could no longer be separated from each other.
The Moriarty Family had dealt a destructive blow to several distinguished families in Bradfort City many years ago, and Tony didn’t want this to happen again many years later today. Times had changed, and Tony didn’t think that they necessarily had to fight against the Moriarty Family—perhaps the matter could be solved amicably. This was why he couldn’t fundamentally agree to collaborate with Heather, for the Langston Family’s relations with the Moriarty Family were far worse than the Hart Family’s relations with the other.
Tony had calmed down a lot when he slowly drove his car on the way back. After all, everyone had to vent their emotions occasionally; even the strongest person had a weak and vulnerable side. With this thought in mind, Tony drove his car forward at a constant speed.
