Chapter 135 You Already Won Your Bet

Chapter 135 You Already Won Your Bet
“Esther…”
She blinked. The way he said her name should have told her that a thousand meanings lay behind his voice. “Yeah?”
Gaara raised his head from its downward tilt and looked into the pair of eyes that always drowned him. Esther’s breath hitched.
Wounds. Deep inside the man’s gaze there were wounds no words could explain.
“G—Gaara what’s wrong? W—why?”
He heard her gasp right before he kissed her.
I’m sorry…
It wasn’t like their usual kisses. It wasn’t long, or deep, or fueled by desire. It felt more like a thank you. The most meaningful kiss Gaara had ever given Esther.
Shock flickered in her beautiful eyes as Gaara let his hands fall from her face. He hadn’t even realized he’d been holding her like that. He didn’t feel anything anymore except the sting that had settled in him since speaking to Nelsy that day. And now that ache had sharpened into something solid something he recognized over the past week as what people called a broken heart.
Gaara lifted his head again just as his emotions threatened to rise to the surface. Exhaustion washed through him.
“Gaara…”
Her voice made him look up fast and Esther forgot to breathe for a moment. Gaara’s eyes were clear when he looked straight into hers and he whispered with a calm gentle voice that somehow sounded terrifying.
“Esther you already won your bet.”


Long ago, Esther’s mother once told her a theory. That human life is made up of events that seem random at first. But over time, those random moments are actually connected. And when seen from a wider angle, the whole chain suddenly makes sense.
Action. Reaction. Consequence.
When someone does something, whatever it is, it will always trigger a reaction. But it never stops there. After the reaction comes the consequence. Yes, her mother had always been the philosophical type.
After the festival with Gaara, Esther found herself replaying that theory over and over in her head. It was almost ironic. When her emotions were completely drained, what surfaced instead was her mother’s voice.
Esther, you already won your bet.
She did not feel like she had won anything. Not even close. There was no joy in her chest, not even a trace. The happiness had existed elsewhere. It had lived in moments with Gaara. In walking beside him. In leaning against his shoulder on the train. In seeing him standing on her front porch, waiting for her before they went to the festival together.
But the sentence Gaara said to her did not spark happiness at all. It did the opposite. In that instant, Esther’s world collapsed.
That night, after Gaara left her, Esther locked herself inside her apartment. She cried until the sun rose in the east. She did not sleep. Sleep never came for her. And even if it did, she knew nightmares would be waiting.
When the tears finally stopped, anger rushed in to take their place. She was furious with herself for agreeing to Vinson’s challenge in the first place. Even more furious because after she realized her feelings and fell in love, she chose to lie. She chose silence. She acted like she had never been involved in any kind of sin.
Now Esther felt like the worst kind of woman. A villain. Almost a devil in her own story. But as much as she hated herself, her anger toward Vinson burned hotter. She assumed he had a strong reason to let Gaara find out. Vinson was his best friend after all. And maybe this was his way of continuing his revenge.
After everything that had happened between them, after that hug at the stadium, Esther truly thought it was over. She believed she was satisfied. That the mission was complete. That they had reached some kind of compromise back then. She thought Vinson had forgotten about the bet. Turns out, that was on her. She had not been careful enough. Because Vinson had every reason to remember.
In the middle of the fury that had completely taken over her, Esther went to the storage room and grabbed an iron baseball bat. Once it was in her hands, she got into her car and drove straight to Vinson’s place. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened until her knuckles turned white.
When she arrived, she found the gate unlocked and went straight in. She dragged the bat across the ground as she approached the front door. No knocking. No doorbell. She lifted the bat and slammed it into the glass with everything she had. The impact was brutal. The glass shattered instantly, exploding into fragments that scattered across the floor right by her feet.
After that, Esther lost control. Her hands were shaking, but she kept swinging the bat wildly at anything within reach. She did not care what she was destroying. Reason had completely abandoned her. Whatever patience she once had was gone without a trace. She looked possessed.
No one dared to come close. Anyone who tried would have become her next target. She refused to let herself be hurt ever again, by anything or by anyone. And then, in the middle of her rampage, Esther realized something. Something that had been forming a pattern all along, one she had never noticed before.
Isn’t this how a bully is born?
“Esther!” a man shouted in shock as she brought the bat down on a side window. She ignored the voice calling her name.
Vinson, the owner of the house, could only curse under his breath at the chaos she was causing. “Esther, stop! What the hell are you doing?”
He rushed forward and tried to grab her arm before she could strike again.
“Let go, asshole!” Esther screamed.
With every ounce of strength she had, she fought to break free. She focused only on her rage. Rage gave her power. She refused to think about conscience, about Vinson, about their childhood, or anything that might weaken her.
Still, somewhere deep inside, part of her mind wandered back to everything that had happened lately. Events lining up into a chain she could no longer escape. Action. Back when they were children, Vinson was hurt by Elson and his father.