Chapter 20 : I Dumped You First
Sherrie immediately jumped in. “Nigel has worked so hard for this family and done everything he can. And you, sister, what have you ever done for us?”
Nigel straightened his back and glared at Allison with even more hostility.
That’s right. How dare she criticize me? She was the most useless member of the family.
Watching the three of them glare at her like angry roosters, Allison found the scene almost funny.
No one liked hearing the truth, especially Nigel, who lived in a world padded with praise and his own self-made fantasies. No wonder the Rogers family kept going downhill.
She didn’t bother arguing anymore. It would only be a waste of time.
Sherrie, however, seized the moment. “Nigel, I will find a way to cure my illness and restore our family’s reputation!”
Seeing Sherrie’s determined expression, Nigel felt a warm swell of pride in his chest.
Yes. This was how a considerate younger sister should behave. Unlike Allison, who only knew how to strike where it hurt.
With Sherrie beside him, Nigel realized that Allison was even more difficult to tolerate.
Sherrie comforted him as they went upstairs, giving Ruth a quick glance along the way.
Understanding the silent cue, Ruth headed to the kitchen to prepare a plate of fruit for the two of them.
And just like that, Allison was left alone again. But she didn’t feel lonely. In fact, she felt more at peace this way.
Resting her chin on her hand, she sat downstairs, lost in thought.
A face suddenly appeared in her mind. It was Jareth.
She needed to get her father’s bracelet back. It was one of the few things in the world that still mattered to her.
But how?
Everyone in Kansas knew Jareth was a cruel man with a twisted sense of humor. He enjoyed watching people suffer.
For the stingy, he would lure them into gambling and enjoy watching them lose everything.
For insecure women, he would give them money and feed their obsession with plastic surgery until they ruined their own faces beyond recognition. Then he would cut them off, leaving them no chance to regret anything.
For the devoted, he would purposely send people to tempt them and watch them fall apart before he finally lost interest.
There were countless examples. He seemed like someone who caused harm simply because it entertained him.
After gathering enough information about him, Allison noticed a pattern.
Jareth’s targets were random, but he did have a preference. He liked destroying things that were beautiful. He enjoyed turning people into the very thing they hated most.
And now, Allison suspected she had become his next plaything.
But what could he possibly find interesting about me?
She was already ruined. No family, no love, no money, no future. There was nothing left for him to break. She couldn’t understand it.
But one thing was clear. If anyone belonged in a mental hospital, it was Jareth.
“Are you home alone?”
Allison had been lost in thought when a familiar voice pulled her back.
She looked up and saw Ronan.
After the disastrous gathering earlier, she assumed he was here to comfort Sherrie.
Without thinking twice, she pointed upstairs. “They’re all up there.” Then she lowered her head again, going back to her thoughts.
But Ronan didn’t leave.
Instead, he scoffed. “Allison, do you think this is fun?”
She blinked. “Hmm?”
Ronan clenched his jaw. “You’re ignoring me on purpose. You canceled the engagement just to play hard to get and make me chase after you, right?”
Allison was confused by Ronan’s thinking. If she held on to their past, he didn’t want her. But now that she was letting go, he seemed unhappy.
What do you want?
“Oh, I get it now. You wanted me to beg you to stay so you could dramatically reject me and make yourself look even more desirable?” Allison smirked.
“You!” Ronan stammered, and felt confused.
Allison leaned back lazily. “You’re just furious because I let you go too easily. Your ego couldn’t take it, so now you’re here looking for a fight.”
Ronan balled his fists and glared at her. “You… You got it wrong! I dumped you first!”
Allison tilted her head. “Then why do you look like the one who can’t move on?”
Ronan was stunned for a moment before quickly denying it. "You're overthinking. I only like Sherrie."
Allison's face showed nothing, but her fingers twitched slightly.
She had long accepted that there was no future between her and Ronan. However, every time she saw someone she once cared about choose Sherrie without hesitation, a sharp pain still cut through her heart.
Upstairs, Ruth stood by the bookshelf flipping through medical books. Sherrie and Nigel sat across from each other, both attention were focused on browsing different websites.
However, Nigel was distracted. Allison's harsh words kept replaying in his mind.
The Lopez family wanted an alliance that brought in millions, not someone they had to support out of pity.
Back then, he had only felt embarrassed and angry at Allison. Now that he was sitting here in silence, he could not deny that what she said was true.
For the past three years, Toby’s research had been stagnant. The hospital hadn’t produced any new drugs, which caused a large number of patients to leave. Financially, the hospital’s annual report looked terrible.
The Rogers family had always been weaker than the Lopez family. Without Allison’s engagement, they would never have had any connection with them at all.
A network only works when both sides benefit. If only one side gains, it becomes a burden. In Luke’s eyes, the Rogers family was just a poor relative trying to ride on their coattails.
The broken engagement wasn’t Allison’s fault. It happened simply because the Rogers family didn’t have enough power.
Nigel looked at Sherrie, who was sitting with their mother, seriously searching online for a miracle cure for asthma.
He sighed to himself. His naive little sister still believed that if she could cure her illness, the Lopez family would accept her.
He didn’t want to crush her hope, so he began typing, planning to help her find the newest special medication. But his fingers instinctively typed, “Common treatments for mental illness.”
Maybe the resentment from his earlier argument with Allison was still there, because an anxious feeling kept nagging at him. After finding out that Allison had gone through electroshock therapy, that discomfort became even harder to ignore.
More than anyone, he knew Allison was perfectly sane because he was the one who had forged her medical records. He had only done it for her own good. Being sent to a mental institution had at least kept her out of prison.
He had intended it to be a small punishment, not something that would lead to her being abused.