Setting aside the fact that he wasn’t even drinking alcohol, even if he was, he would never have collapsed after just one glass. Everyone knew what happened. Bernadette made no effort to hide it at all, “If I hadn’t resorted to this, how could I expect to be with you? You kept refusing to cooperate, so I had to go through such painstaking efforts. It’s so exhausting. I don’t care if you’re married. Your marriage is only a place card anyway. I don’t really need an official title.”
Atticus knew that nothing could have happened between him and Bernadette while he was unconscious, so he was very calm about it, “Please have some dignity. Nothing happened between us. You’re still young. Don’t soil your own reputation.”
Bernadette smiled silently. Then, they heard a knock on the door. She opened the door, dressed in a half transparent nightie. Outside the door was a group of teachers and students. At that very moment, Atticus knew that this woman had trapped him.
After that incident, he left the city and left nothing behind. Bernadette did not contact him again. He was nowhere to be found, but she didn’t need to look for him. They finally met again today.
No decent man would easily fall for a woman who pursued him openly and with ulterior motives. However, once she ensnares him, it would be difficult to get rid of her. Atticus knew this, so even if nothing really happened, their fake affair would turn into a real one, as long as Bernadette wished it, enforced by the rumors that once circulated their circle.
“What do you want from me?” he asked through gritted teeth.
Bernadette smiled as she picked up her glass of red wine and took a sip. “Take care of me, and… our baby…” she drawled, “Give me whatever I want and I guarantee that our lives will be peaceful. It’s been so difficult for me to find you, Mr. West. Now that we’re finally reunited, I won’t let you get away so easily…”
Bernadette felt a fleeting sense of disappointment and humiliation. She downed the red wine in her glass. Her mistake was to hang herself on a tree that did not even belong to her in her youth. Although she liked money more than Atticus, she would not have degraded herself and plunged into nightclubs if he had not suddenly disappeared. Not even she knew who the father of her child was. She had put all of the blame for her experiences on him. She became obsessed with what she could not have and was driven further into insanity.
The next day, “Famous Artist, Atticus West, Fooled Around With A Student’s Feelings, Impregnates Her And Ignores Her For Many Years” was widely spread news throughout the capital. The entire West family was dragged into an abyss.
When Jackson saw the news, he stormed out of the office in a rage.
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