Chapter 116
Chapter 116
Sophia stood up, her sharp gaze fixed on her grandson — a man she'd always been proud of, yet who was a complete disaster when it came to matters of the heart.
"From now on, stay away from her. That's final."
The living room fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Brandon stood frozen, his fingers clenched tight around the velvet box holding the pink diamond, his knuckles white.
Sophia's warning hit him like a hard slap across the face, shattering every last bit of his self-righteousness.
He refused to accept it.
The atmosphere in the living room turned ice cold.
Brandon stared at Sophia sitting upright on the sofa, his jaw locked tight.
He couldn't understand why she was taking Scarlett's side so completely — even going as far as using the Robinson family's resources to help her move out of Long Island Estate.
"Grandma, if you're so eager to help her leave me, then why did you push me to marry her in the first place?" Brandon's voice was low and tight with barely contained resentment.
Sophia looked at him with cold eyes and brought her cane down hard on the carpet with a dull thud.
"Why? You think when I collapsed on the street with a heart attack all those years ago, who was it that pulled me back from the edge of death?" Sophia shot back, her voice sharp and her eyes cutting. "It was Lettie! I owed her my life. And on top of that, I could see plain as day that she was completely in love with you back then!"
Sophia's voice trembled, heavy with regret. "I thought giving her to you would make for a good match. I was wrong — dead wrong. I pushed her straight into hell and let you, blind fool that you are, trample all over her heart."
Brandon went still. He'd always assumed the marriage had been arranged simply because Sophia liked Scarlett's gentle nature. He never knew there was a debt of life behind it.
"And you really think Elizabeth is some pure-hearted, innocent savior?" Sophia let out a cold laugh, her eyes full of undisguised contempt. "That car accident in Luminous City during the blizzard three years ago — you actually believe Lettie hit her on purpose? Use the brain you rely on to outsmart people in business!"
Sophia locked her eyes on Brandon and dropped a bombshell. "Why did Lettie's brakes suddenly fail? Why did Elizabeth just happen to show up on that deserted street at exactly the right moment, and just happen to push you out of the way?"
Brandon's pupils shrank. His heart sank like a stone.
"That was Elizabeth's scheme! She sacrificed a leg to buy herself a lifetime of your guilt and protection — and to grind Lettie into the dirt in the process!" Sophia watched the color drain from Brandon's face and delivered her final word. "Go find out for yourself. Find out what really happened back then. Stop being a fool and letting a vicious woman play you like a puppet."
Brandon didn't know how he made it out of there.
The night wind in Imperial City was bitter and cutting.
He sat in the back of the Maybach, cold all over. Sophia's words kept echoing through his mind.
If the accident in Luminous City had truly been a carefully laid trap, then what did that make his three years of coldness toward Scarlett and his blind indulgence of Elizabeth?
He was a complete and utter joke.
Guilt came crashing over him like a wave, tangled up with a deep, choking panic that nearly pulled him under.
Brandon took out his phone and called his assistant. His voice came out rough, like gravel in his throat. "Look into the car accident in Luminous City three years ago. Pull the maintenance records for Scarlett's car and track Elizabeth's whereabouts that day. I want the original evidence — every single detail, no loose ends."
He hung up and slumped back against the leather seat, breathing hard. He had to see Scarlett. Right now. Immediately.
"Take me to Phoenix City. Find out where Scarlett is living now."
Half an hour later, the Maybach pulled up in front of a high-security apartment building on the Upper East Side of Phoenix City.
The property was in Sophia's name.
Brandon stood outside and pressed the doorbell.
The door opened.
Scarlett stood in the doorway wearing a thin set of loungewear.
She'd just gotten out of the shower, her long hair falling loose over her shoulders.
When she saw the tall figure at her door, her clear eyes showed not a flicker of emotion. She simply looked at him, cold and still.
"What do you want." Her voice was flat, and she made no move to let him in.
Brandon looked at her thin face, and something ached deep in his chest. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the dark blue velvet box, then opened it.
The ten-carat rare pink diamond caught the hallway light and threw off a dazzling, extravagant glow.
"Scarlett, come home with me." Brandon's voice was low and rough, carrying a humility he'd never shown before.
He stepped forward, reaching for her hand. "I was wrong before — I was a fool, and I ignored how you felt. Give me one more chance. I'll treat you right from now on. The name Mrs. Robinson belongs to no one but you."
His eyes dropped to her flat stomach, the rims turning red, his voice edged with desperate longing. "The baby — that was my fault. But we're still young. Come back with me and we'll have more children. I'll give our child the best of everything in this world."
Watching him put on this show of deep devotion, Scarlett found it almost laughably absurd.
A child? He could actually say it that easily, that casually.
That life that had bled away in a dark alley in Shadow City — was it really nothing more to him than something disposable, something that could simply be replaced?
Scarlett didn't even glance at the priceless pink diamond.
She looked straight into Brandon's eyes, her gaze cold as stone.
"Sure," she said. Her voice was quiet.
A flash of wild joy crossed Brandon's face. He thought she was finally ready to give in.
"On one condition." Scarlett held his gaze, each word slow and deliberate, landing like a blade. "Send Elizabeth to prison. I want her to pay for my child's death. Do that, and I'll forgive you."
The joy on Brandon's face froze solid.
The air in the hallway seemed to stop moving.
He looked at the absolute resolve in Scarlett's eyes, and his throat moved with a hard, slow swallow.
Sophia's words had planted doubt in him, but the investigation wasn't done yet. The shadow of that accident in Luminous City still weighed on him.
"Scarlett…" Brandon's voice was dry, carrying a note of helplessness. "Helen already confessed. Legally, Elizabeth is innocent."
He paused, avoiding Scarlett's piercing stare, and brought up the thing that had been hanging around his neck like a chain for three years. "And that accident in Luminous City — she pushed me out of the way. She saved my life. On top of that, you were the one who hit her back then. Her right leg was left permanently damaged because of that. I can't turn my back on someone who saved me and push her to ruin."
At those words, Scarlett suddenly laughed.
It was the kind of laugh that held nothing but deep, hollow sorrow.
She looked at this stubborn, immovable man and felt that every bit of suffering and sacrifice over the past three years had been one long, complete joke. Even now, he still believed she was the one who owed Elizabeth.
"Brandon, you're pathetic." Scarlett stopped laughing. Her eyes were faintly red, but her gaze was sharp and clear as ever. "I'll say this one last time."
She held his eyes, her voice ringing out steady and firm in the quiet hallway. "Three years ago in Luminous City, my brakes failed. I was fighting the wheel, trying to steer away from people, when Elizabeth suddenly threw herself off the curb and straight into my car. On purpose."
"She wasn't saving you. She was setting you up — setting both of us up." Scarlett's chest rose and fell hard, her eyes full of cold scorn. "You've been keeping a calculating, scheming liar, treating her like someone you owe your life to, while you pushed me — the one who was actually wronged — down and treated me like a criminal. Brandon, what on earth makes you think I would ever want you back?"