Chapter 292

Chapter 292

The tense atmosphere in the ward had barely settled before Thomas and Timothy shattered it with their innocent little gestures.

Thomas copied what he'd seen Sophie do earlier. He grabbed a clean wet wipe and stood on tiptoes, carefully dabbing the cold sweat from Benjamin's forehead.

His movements were clumsy, but his touch was as gentle enough not to cause Benjamin even the slightest pain.

"Daddy, my teacher said that sweating means you're getting better."

Timothy dug into his little backpack, pulled out a limited-edition Ultraman Zero figure, and placed it solemnly on the pillow beside Benjamin.

"Daddy, this is my strongest Ultraman. He's going to protect you now!"

"When you get better, we can fight monsters together!"

Benjamin's eyes burned. Looking at Thomas and Timothy, he felt his heart, cracked through with pain and guilt, slowly fill with their childlike innocence, soothed by the gentlest kind of strength.

"Okay... Daddy will be there. With both of you."

Outside the door, Simon and Steve watched the tender scene with very different expressions.

Simon gave a silent scoff and turned to leave.

But Steve didn't move. Leaning against the wall, he peered through the crack in the door at his sister's profile, the faint smile just visible on her face, and fell into thought.

……

Deep in the night, the ward was completely silent.

The wound deep inside Benjamin began to flare up. Sharp, stabbing pain came in waves, quickly soaking him in cold sweat.

He clenched his teeth, refusing to make a sound that might wake Sophie and the children, who had already fallen asleep. But the muffled groans slipped out, impossible to hold back.

On the cot beside him, Sophie, who is a light sleeper, was roused by the faint noise.

She got up and walked over. In the dim light filtering in from the hallway, she saw his face, pale as paper, his brow tightly furrowed.

The sight of him enduring the pain alone sent a sharp ache through her chest.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

Benjamin struggled to open his eyes. When he saw that it was her, the pain in his expression seemed to ease slightly.

He shook his head, his lips barely moving.

"I'm fine."

"Liar," Sophie muttered under her breath.

She didn't ask anything else. She went straight out and found the nurse on duty.

Without saying a word, she stood to the side and watched the nurse check his wound, replace the pain pump, and adjust the IV drip.

After the nurse left, Sophie Sophie still didn't go.

She picked up the warm towel nearby and silently wiped the cold sweat from his face.

Her fingertips brushed his hollow cheeks. The burning heat of his skin and the stubble that had grown in gave her a strange, familiar feeling she couldn't quite place.

She suddenly realized that even after five years of deep, blood-soaked hatred, caring about Benjamin had become almost instinctive—a habit she couldn't seem to break.

Benjamin savored the cool touch of her fingertips and said in a hoarse voice, "Sophie, go rest. Don't stay up... for me."

Sophie's hands went still. She pulled them back sharply.

Her voice returned to its usual coldness.

"I just don't want the kids waking up tomorrow morning to find their dad dead from the pain."

With that, she turned and went back to her cot, facing away from him, and didn't make another sound.

But lying there, she knew she wouldn't truly sleep again for the rest of that night.

The next day, Benjamin seemed a little better.

While Zola took Thomas and Timothy out to the garden, he had Colt bring in a document and then handed it to Sophie.

It was a sealed manila envelope, thick and heavy.

"What is this?" Sophie frowned.

"Open it and see."

Sophie tore open the seal, her expression skeptical. The title on the document made her pupils constrict sharply.

Asset Transfer and Equity Assignment Agreement.

Her hands began to tremble as she flipped through it quickly.

The more she read, the heavier her heart felt.

The terms were blunt to the point of being shocking.

Benjamin was voluntarily giving up all custody and visitation rights to Thomas and Timothy.

On top of that, he was unconditionally transferring to Sophie his fifty percent stake in the Brown Group, along with all his private real estate holdings and trust funds.

The value of this agreement was enough to reshape the entire wealth map of Luminous City.

Sophie snapped her head up and fixed her eyes on him, her voice sharp and cold.

"What are you trying to do?"

Benjamin didn't look at her. His gaze drifted to the two small figures playing outside the window, his eyes full of tenderness and pain that refused to fade.

"Whatever I took from the Scott Group back then, this is at least that much. Probably more."

"Sophie, I was a bastard. I was blinded by greed. I know what I did can't be undone, and I'm not asking for your forgiveness."

After a moment, he finally turned his eyes back to her face.

Those deep eyes held no calculation, no probing, only a dead, ashen stillness.

"Sign it, and all of this is yours."

"Consider it... the first debt I'm paying back to the Scott family."

Sophie's breath caught. She gripped the papers, her knuckles turning white.

"You think you can buy yourself a clear conscience? Benjamin, do you really think five years of blood and suffering can be measured in money?"

"Do you think what Steve went through in Dark Hollow Prison, barely making it out alive, and the years I spent drifting overseas with the children—do you think any of that can be paid off?"

Her words came out sharp and cold as a blade.

"No." Benjamin's answer was simple and direct.

He held her gaze and kept going. "It can't be paid off. It can't be erased. I'm just paying what I owe."

He paused and drew a slow breath.

"I know you don't trust me. That's why it's all in writing."

"I'm asking one thing of you. Give me a chance to help you, as someone on the outside, to deal with Alfonso for good and keep you and the children safe for the rest of your lives."

"After that..."

Each word seemed to cost him something.

"I won't come near any of you. I'll disappear from your lives completely."

Those words finally made it clear to Sophie.

She had imagined so many possibilities.

That he would use saving her life to guilt her. That he would use the children as leverage. That he would beg, pitifully, for another chance.

But she had never once imagined he would choose to let go.

He had chosen this way of tearing himself apart, stripping away everything he had, and walking out of her world with nothing left to his name.

Sophie held the heavy agreement in her hands. She should have felt triumphant.

So why did it feel like something had been hollowed out of her chest, a gaping hole with cold wind howling through it, so painful she could barely breathe?

For the first time, she understood that the cruelest way to destroy someone isn't to leave them with nothing.

It's when they willingly hand over everything, just to be free of what they owe you.

But how could she and Benjamin ever truly be even?