Chapter 336 Love And Abandonment
Chapter 336 Love And Abandonment
“I can only hope that this so–called Leander Fane really turns out to be Rowan,” Laura began, her voice sizzling with gossip–charged excitement. “Oh, did you hear? Grafton Technologies has ground to a halt. Suppliers are clamoring for unpaid invoices. Raw materials have stopped arriving altogether, and the stock price is in free fall–honestly, you don’t want to look. Just yesterday, a whole swarm of furious investors stormed the headquarters. Rumor says Trent got his head split open in the chaos.”
Quinn froze for a heartbeat, though the news hardly surprised her.
She knew Trent’s limits far too well. The man had never possessed the shoulders to carry a public corporation that size.
If, the moment she left, he had hired a seasoned chief executive, the company might have limped along, maybe even survived.
But Trent, obstinate to the bone, trusted no one’s judgment but his own.
“At this rate,” Laura tutted, “Grafton Technologies will be nothing but rubble before long. Trent will fall back to who he really is–worse than he was three years
for him when that happens.” sorry ago. Promise me you won’t feel
“I won’t,” Quinn said, her tone flat as leveled stone.
The day Trent refused to accompany her to collect her parents‘ ashes, every feeling she had for him died.
Just as Quinn ended the call, a low voice stirred the air behind her. “You won’t pity Trent?”
She turned and found Julius standing there, immaculate and unreadable. “No,” she answered.
He stepped closer, his shadow folding over hers. “Then what about me–will you pity me?”
“You’ve never needed my pity,” Quinn replied.
Julius braced both palms on the couch’s arms, imprisoning her between his arms
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Chapter 336 Love And Abandonment
and the leather.
Quinn pressed her lips together before speaking. “Julius, why torture yourself? A man like you–privileged, brilliant–could have the world on command. We dated only a handful of months. Even if we end here, you will meet someone else. You’ll still…
“Stop,” he burst out, eyes flashing. A live current of anger leapt across his face. “I know that our feelings were never equal. Your love for me is shallow compared with mine for you. You think we were only together a few months. To me, that span already feels like a lifetime.”
The words struck her numb.
“Yes, you can loosen your grip and walk away,” he went on. “I cannot. I don’t know how to love another.”
Straightening, he retreated two steps, a crooked smile curdling on his mouth. “Quinn, how shallow do you imagine my feelings truly are?”
Her throat seized. No answer would come, so she met his question with silence.
His smile twisted further. “It’s absurd, isn’t it? You wanted me, then cast me off. My mother discarded me, my father too. Abandonment is the wound I hate most, yet after you abandoned me, I still begged to stay. I never regretted loving you.”
He laughed at himself, but grief dripped from his eyes like rain from broken
eaves.
A sharp ache cinched around her heart.
Only now did she learn how much his sorrow could hurt her.
Quinn sat frozen as Julius pivoted and walked away. From her distant perch, she lifted a trembling hand and pressed it against her sternum.
The spot still throbbed.
Yes, he had been cast aside by both parents. When she first discovered that shattered childhood, she swore she would never do the same.
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Chapter 336 Love And Abandonment
Yet in the end she did.
He had lied and hidden things–his fault, not hers. She had been the one to say the words that ended them. She kept insisting they were wrong together, that she wanted a love untainted by suspicion.
So why, now, did her heart feel as if someone were twisting a blade inside it?
Knuckles struck the door–two crisp, urgent taps that sliced through the hush of the suite. The sound hung in the air, vibrating like a tiny bell that promised news too heavy for silence.
Quinn pushed herself up from the couch. A slow breath steadied her as she padded across the carpet and eased the door open. On the threshold stood Harlan, hand still half–raised from the knock.
“You look awful. Are you in pain?” Harlan’s brow furrowed as he took in the washed–out pallor that dimmed her usually bright face.
“No. Maybe it’s just… the DNA report coming in a little while. I keep thinking about it,” Quinn whispered, voice thin from a night of restless worry.
“Then the clock’s nearly there. Let’s get going,” Harlan said, quiet but decisive, as if motion alone could sweep doubt aside.
Quinn nodded. She grabbed her handbag, slipped the strap across her shoulder, and followed Harlan out of the room, the door clicking shut behind them like a full stop.
“Where’s Julius?” Harlan asked once they reached the elevator, surprised the ever- present shadow of the Whitethorn heir was missing.
“Let him be,” Quinn replied. Her tone was flat, final–more a barricade than an
answer.
Harlan’s expression flickered. Something unspoken had clearly unfolded between Quinn and Julius. Yet if she chose silence, he would not pry. As long as she was not running back into Julius‘ arms, he still had a chance.
They drove through thinning morning traffic and pulled into Helix Diagnostics Centre, its glass façade catching weak winter light like a mirror too tired to shine.
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Inside, Quinn accepted an envelope from the attendant. Her fingers trembled so fiercely the thin paper rattled, betraying the storm she tried to cage beneath a steady smile.
Will it be Rowan? If it isn’t, where do I even begin again?
