Five Years Wasted Now They Beg Her Back novel Chapter 268

"Did you agree?" Damien’s voice was trembling.

"No."

His father shook his head.

"I told him the Clarke Corporation isn't a charity. When you make a mistake, you pay the price."

"I also said…"

His father paused, as if the words were hard to admit.

"Said what?"

"I told him to act like a man and stop looking for handouts. That even if he was going to lose, he should lose with some dignity."

Damien closed his eyes.

Dignity.

What a thing to say.

For a man at the end of his rope, betrayed by his best friend and facing prison, those words were a death sentence.

"Dad, do you realize?" Damien's voice was soft, but every word was a dagger.

"Your idea of 'dignity' is what killed him."

"And your arrogance is what destroyed your son's marriage."

"I…"

His father opened his mouth, wanting to defend himself.

He never intended for Bastian Hawke to die.

He just wanted to teach him a lesson, to demonstrate the power of the Clarke family.

Who could have known the man would actually jump?

"This is our sin to bear," Damien said, turning his back to his father.

"The Clarke family owes the Hawke family a debt that can never be repaid. As long as Grace refuses to forgive me, I will never forgive you."

With that, Damien walked out of the hospital room.

In the hallway, the smell of disinfectant was overpowering.

"So I'll have a limp," Grace said with a slight smile at her reflection. "My heart is already shattered. Why should I care about my leg?"

She applied a thick layer of foundation, then a shade of lipstick that gave her pale cheeks some color.

Finally, she put on a pair of black-framed glasses and tied her long hair into a neat ponytail.

"For now, I'm 'Grace,' a special correspondent for 'Financial Weekly.'"

Grace stood up, but she did it too quickly, and a searing pain shot through her ankle.

She swayed on her feet as a thin layer of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

"Grace!" Ivy cried out, rushing over to steady her. "Look at you! You can barely stand, and you want to go investigating some 'truth'? Isn't Elliot Ashcombe already handling it?"

"That's his business."

Grace pushed her friend's hands away, took a bottle of painkillers from her purse, and dry-swallowed a couple of pills.

The bitter taste that spread through her mouth helped quell the nausea churning in her stomach.

"There are some things I have to ask myself."

"If I don't find out how my uncle really died, then even if I'm alive, I'm just a walking corpse."