Filed to story: The Return Novel by Josh Williams PDF Free>>
Tom was breathing heavily. Sheryl stood to the side and gave her father an insincere pat on the chest to calm him down.
“Dad, calm down. Don’t get angry with her. Now that she’s back, it won’t be good for you to kick her out again. Besides, the child is innocent, and he’s your grandson,” she purposely emphasized the word ‘grandson’, because she knew this would make Tom even angrier.
Nick stood to the side and watched the chaotic reunion of the Davidson family. He stared at the black-eyed child hiding behind Natalie’s back and suddenly remembered the man who had appeared beside her yesterday. He clenched his fists as the coldness in his heart grew. His emotions seemed to be on the verge of overflowing. After all, he and Natalie had been together for several years, and although their relationship had ended because of what had happened, he still couldn’t help the fact that she held a place in his heart.
Natalie was expressionless as she looked at her family. The bitterness in her chest bubbled up, but she forced it back down. She had thought her father might react like this, but when she saw it in person, she couldn’t help but feel pain. No one knew what it had been like for her to be exiled abroad. She had been so poor before Liam was born that she sometimes had no money to eat and nowhere to sleep. She had eaten only one meal a day in order to save. She had suffered all sorts of hardships and been the victim of all sorts of crimes. But even though she had nearly starved to death in the streets, no one had called her to ask if she was doing OK. She had worked hard to reach the point where she was financially stable, but in all these years where she experienced both hardships and rose up as a fighter, she had stopped caring what other people thought of her. Now, she did not care what her father thought.
“Liam is my son,” she let out a heavy breath, burying her memories of the past. “I don’t care whether you accept him or not. I’ve only come back to attend the engagement party. As soon as it’s over, I’ll leave.”
Tom stared at her disdainfully, “You can come to the party, but you definitely can’t bring your child. Just because you don’t mind being shameless doesn’t mean we’re cool with you embarrassing the family!”
Natalie did not care about bringing Liam to the party. She had no feelings about all this but disgust. So she casually agreed and then turned around and left with Liam. She didn’t even go into the living room, and she left the home that she had lived in for 20 years without a shred of nostalgia.
She lowered her head and looked at her watch. It was still early, so she decided to return to her grandma’s house and take advantage of this rare opportunity to pick up some things for the old woman on the way. She was about to hail a cab at the intersection when Nick followed her and stopped in front of her.
“Is there something else?” She crossed her arms with an expression that showed she didn’t want to talk to him anymore.
When he saw her, Nick felt angry again. She was clearly in the wrong for fooling around with other men, and now she had the nerve to talk to him like this. “I want to ask you,” his voice was uncontrollably sullen as he stared straight into her eyes, “what exactly did you mean when you called Sheryl disgusting yesterday?”
She hadn’t thought he would remember the words she had used in anger. She was stunned for a moment before she indifferently raised her head to look at him. “What right do you have to say something like that to her?”
When she didn’t respond, he clenched his fists and shouted, “You’re the disgusting one! You betrayed me back then and played around with another man. Now you have the nerve to–”
“Have you finished?” She didn’t wait for him to stop talking but frowned and cut him off. “You don’t deserve to talk about what happened back then, Nick. We grew up together, and after knowing each other for so long, you didn’t even give me an ounce of trust!” When she spoke, she became so enraged that her chest felt tight. The man she had thought she loved, the one she had been willing to spend the rest of her life with, had chosen to leave when she had needed him the most.
“I was set up, and you left without asking a single question. Now we’re even – we don’t owe each other anything. You can go right ahead. I won’t stop you from living your life with a woman like Sheryl.”
With that, she turned her back on Nick, bent over to take Liam’s hand, and prepared to leave. At that moment, Nick realized that there was something strange about what she was saying. He reached out to grab her wrist and asked anxiously, “What do you mean, you were set up?”
Sheryl, who was hiding nearby and listening to their conversation, couldn’t hold back anymore. She quickly walked over to them, grabbed Nick’s waist, and said coquettishly, “Nick, why did you come out here? Why don’t you come back with me?” She couldn’t completely hide the panic on her face. It was obvious that she wanted to stop Natalie from speaking the truth.
Natalie glanced at her and laughed inwardly. “You showed up just in time.” Hearing her disdain, Nick immediately became defensive. “It’s odd that you’re saying all this. Is it because you want to make Sheryl look bad?” She looked at him, wondering what kind of spell Sheryl had put on him to make him like this.
“If you’re so protective of her, why are you still following me? You two are living your lives, so just leave me alone!” Natalie couldn’t bear to listen to their nonsense any longer. She spat out her words and left with Liam.