Chapter 85

Sophia's POV.

“Harvey was married?” My voice held utter disbelief.

Stephanie never mentioned such a thing and she was always one to tell me all the details about her boyfriends. Did she even know about that?

Steve nodded, seriously.

“Did you tell Stephanie about this?” He looked at me and shook his head.

Here I was thinking that there was some kind of growing affection between them. Guess I was wrong.

“I was only twenty-three back then and Nicole was twenty-one. She was a young wife.” He growled.

I blinked.

“Continue, please!” I said, breathless.

“It was a year after their marriage that I started noticing some bruises covering several parts of my sister's body. Nicole had refrained from wearing short sleeves back then but I once noticed a bruise on her neck and when I forcefully took her to the doctor, he confirmed that her whole body was being....” He cleared his throat. “Abused.”

My breath hitched in my throat.

“Nicole refused to admit it at first. She was too scared to talk, and she loved the bastard. After numerous attempts to get her to open up, my sister finally professed that she had been physically abused for months. She was just trying to bear being domestically abused by Harvey while trying to hide it from everyone else— either because she was scared or she loved him.”

“We confronted Harvey about divorcing her,” his voice was low and distressed as if the memory was too painful. “But it was in vain. The Harrison family back then was in quite a massive debt, and passing through economic hardships.

That said, we had no power to force him into anything and the cursed jerk did not wish for a divorce.” His grip over his steering wheel tightened and his knuckles went white.

“He wanted to keep her as his, only to continue to abuse her.”

My whole body shook. My eyes watered and I cleared my throat before speaking.

“W–weren't they in love?”

He flashed me a look and smiled painfully.

“He loved her enough that he became a psycho, he wanted to possess her, and he saw violence as the perfect way.”

“An–And what happened after that?” I questioned weakly.

Now I understood why he never wanted to tell me anything about Harvey. It was too painful for him.

“My sister was slowly starting to slip away from our hands. She deteriorated slowly by the day until she reached a stage of complete and utter depression. Harvey knew we couldn't go up against him. The Hamiltons were the fifth-ranked business company back then.” He laughed but the smile did not quite reach his eyes.

“He once went as far as to taunt me through the phone with what he'd do to my sister and...” A car almost smashed through us, Steve seemed not to be in full focus on the road anymore.

He managed to avoid the car thankfully though but that didn't stop my heart from racing bitterly. It almost felt like I was about to have a panic attack.

Steve glanced at me noticed the look of shock on my face and quickly apologized. “I'm so sorry about that.”

I nodded my head and quickly urged him to continue.

Everything he was saying was way more important than my fear of accidents.

“And then Alex interfered.”

At the mention of Alex's name, my heart did a good deal of twists and flips.

“Alex?” I breathed.

“My feud with Harvey slowly turned into Alex's. The Harrisons and the Hayes were very tight-knit friends as you well know.” He stated with a smile.

“During the later stages when I realized I couldn't do anything to save my sister, I slipped into depression. I resorted to drinking.” He cleared his throat for a second. “Heavily.”

I gasped. “Goodness! You b–became—”

He chuckled. “An alcoholic. Hard to imagine, I know.”

I nodded, in a daze.

“That was the stage where Alex interfered though.” He looked at me with a smile.

“Both Alex and Harvey were relatively young. Both are still at the beginning of their responsibilities over their companies. They were the upcoming rulers of the business world.

Things came to a blinding clash when Harvey attempted to take Alex's younger sister as a hostage to make Alex withdraw.”

What?!

“Andrea?”

“Yeah. We managed to save her at the last minute.” He muttered.

“Wh—what happened after that?” I stammered. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.

“Naturally, Harvey was ruined. That was the beginning of the downfall of the Hamilton Enterprises. It was a scandal to be witnessed.” He explained.

“Some borders cannot be crossed with Alex, and Harvey did. As a result, the consequences were not so beautiful.”

“So that's why Harvey called it quits,” I stated more to myself. He nodded.

“He was disowned from his position and forced to divorce my sister. She's doing great now, married to an amazing guy and a baby boy that we're all so fond of.” He smiled, this time, the smile lit up his eyes.

“So now you know why we despise each other.”

“Why wasn't Harvey arrested? I'm sure he's a criminal for everything he did to your sister.” I asked.

“The Hamiltons still had some connections, despite the scandal. He exited jail through connections.” Steve groaned.

I looked in front of me ahead at the road.

“I would never have imagined that about Harvey.” I sighed.

Just then, a thought popped into my head.

“Holy! Stephanie is going out with a monster.”

He slowed down the car. “Calm down. He tends to be a sweetheart before marriage. He won't hurt her now. That's how things turned out with Nicole.” He stated.

“When you get home, call Stephanie and ask her to come home, then tell her everything. You know she'll trust your words more than mine.” He smiled at me.

I smiled back as he parked at my apartment complex and I undid my seatbelt. I guess I'd have to call Alex too to cancel our plans.

I got out of the car and watched as Steve started the engine and drove off. I turned on my heels and headed into the apartment.

Immediately I got in, I picked up my phone to call Stephanie but it wasn't connecting. Fear and worry snaked into my heart.

I was about to call Alex to cancel our plans when I heard a knock on the door.