Chapter 17
Riley’s strength in hitting his arm gradually weakened, and her struggling became less and less vigorous, unable to make a sound, her eyes rolling back.
Seeing her truly on the verge of suffocation and fainting, Clay finally loosened his grip.
But the fierce anger burning in hist eyes showed no signs of extinguishing.
“Cough…cough…” Riley coughed violently, as if trying to expel her lungs.
Relief washed over her face. After a long while, she gradually regained consciousness, and tears flowed more fiercely than before.
“Clay, you misunderstood. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I really didn’t.”
“I love you, but I had no choice. If I don’t fight for the Ford family fortune, I’ll have nothing. I’ll be on the streets. You wouldn’t want to see that happen, would you?”
“Huh.”
Clay forced out a hopeless smile, one that looked worse than crying.
“I never thought that at this point, you’d still be acting and deceiving me!”
“You claim to love me, yet you sleep with other men while trying to get pregnant by me. Can’t I satisfy you? Or is your nature just that low, willingly degrading yourself??”
“You said you had no choice, you wanted the Ford family’s assets. You could have told me; I would have helped you fight for it. Why are you so greedy? You want everything from the Sterling family too, and you even want to give me a love potion to end my lineage!”
“If you’d married me, the Lord and Sterling fortunes would have been yours! Why would you treat my feelings like this?”
Clay’s voice was laced with pain, his questions sharp.
Riley’s face was deathly pale, her expression conflicted. She hesitated for a long time, her lips trembling but unable to utter a word.
The entire private room fell into complete silence.
After a long while, Riley stammered, “It’s different. They’re not the same.”
Clay’s eyes were full of disappointment, his voice icy.
“If you can’t say it, I’ll say it for you. You think marrying me, the Ford family, and the Sterling family can’t be fully yours. You want power and wealth to be firmly in your control alone!”
“Riley, you’re so greedy, but do you have the ability to control everything? Besides deceiving me and those men, what can you do? You’re no match for Maya at all!”
Seeing his words reveal her true thoughts, Riley no longer pretended to be pitiful. She retorted
— 15 47
< Chapter 17
angrily,
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“How can Maya compare to me? She can’t beat me. After all these years of effort, she still hasn’t won your heart, but I easily keep you firmly in my grasp. Isn’t that enough?”
“I can deceive and manipulate more men to listen to me. Isn’t that my skill?”
Riley smiled indifferently, her eyes full of malice, gently touching her belly with cautious. tenderness.
“Clay, I know you love me. We have a child; just stop messing arounds.”
“You just want me to break things off with those men, right? I will. We’ll marry, live happily as a family of three, forget everything that happened before today, and start fresh, okay?”
Confidently, she waited for Clay’s assured answer.
But this time, he remained completely indifferent from start to finish.
“Riley, I regret losing Maya because of my love for you.”
“Back then, you could always deceive me, just because I loved you. Otherwise, with your clumsy tricks, you’d never fool me. But starting today, I don’t love you anymore.”
“I’m letting you go, Riley.”
Clay’s voice was calm as water, without a ripple, as if he was talking about something unrelated to himself.
But inside, his heart was far from peaceful.
Giving up on someone he’d loved for over a decade was like ripping out a festering wound.
The pain nearly made him lose consciousness.
But he couldn’t.
He still had things to do.
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