Chapter 286: Chapter 286: "Is There Anything Else You Need to Add About What You’ve Done?

"Okay, go ahead."

Rory Linden knew the steering wheel was in the man’s hands. She didn’t have any other choice.

"In the five years we’ve been apart, I tried everything. I let work take over my entire life, but it all felt meaningless in the end. Even when I was facing the last few minutes of a bomb’s countdown, I couldn’t think of anything or anyone I’d miss more than you."

Sean Harrison looked at the woman beside him. "It was in that moment that I finally realized what I truly want."

Rory Linden folded her hands in her lap, her eyes downcast and silent.

"What I want is to be with you, to have you by my side, to not have to worry about anyone else coveting you." The man gave a bitter smile. "It’s funny, really. I once had all of that, and I didn’t cherish it."

The sun was still in the east, and the air was pleasantly warm.

Rory Linden finally looked at Sean Harrison and said seriously,

"Sean Harrison, you’re Leo’s father. We share a bond that can never be broken. I can let you and him see each other regularly. As for anything else... you have too many secrets. You’ve hidden too much from me. Even back then, I never felt like we were truly close."

"..."

"That video Miss Willow sent me back then... I never really took it to heart. I always trusted you, and I believed that sooner or later, you would tell me your secrets. But I waited for many years, and I still don’t know what happened to those people in the video."

As Rory Linden’s words faded, the atmosphere inside the car grew quiet.

Sunlight streamed in through the front windshield.

Tiny particles of dust could be seen floating in the air.

So too could the gentle shift in the woman’s gaze.

’It seemed Sean had never been willing to tell her about his past.’

’Maybe that past contained things that didn’t match the image he projected now.’

’But, when it came down to it, he didn’t trust her.’

Sean Harrison gripped the steering wheel with one hand, his knuckles turning slightly white.

Time passed in silence.

Even with the air conditioning on, the scorching sunlight streaming in was almost baking them.

Rory Linden could guess what the man was thinking.

She didn’t press him in the slightest.

Until the air in the car began to feel thin from the lack of ventilation.

Just as her fingers reached for the power window button...

"Fine. I can tell you."

Sean Harrison suddenly spoke.

He didn’t know she was about to lower the window.

He thought...

That she was about to leave.

Rory Linden still gently lowered the window, leaving a small crack.

Sean Harrison told her everything.

He was never a child conceived in love.

He was merely the product of his parents’ respective schemes.

Even so, as a child, he was just like any other, craving his mother’s approval.

He was never some outstanding genius; in fact, he had obvious shortcomings.

He had no musical talent and wasn’t good with instruments.

But because his mother said it would make her look good, he was forced to learn the cello.

His teacher was a famous musician, and he was the slowest student in the class.

While he was being scolded day and night for his cello practice, Charlotte Rhodes told him she had met a very clever boy at an orphanage—a few years younger than him, but with a quick mind and a sensible nature.

Hearing this, Rory Linden couldn’t help but cast a sympathetic glance at the man.

Sean Harrison stared straight ahead, as if these matters could no longer hurt him at all.

Just a calm narration.

Sean Harrison had never met the boy from the orphanage; he only knew of him from what Charlotte Rhodes said.

That boy was clever, obedient, and sensible.

He could be described as perfect.

When he was in middle school, he was bullied.

Nadia Willow was in with his bullies. She was the one who told them about the orphan.

The bullies called him a good-for-nothing, again and again.

They asked him: "Haven’t you ever wondered why your mom would rather have an uneducated orphan than you?"

The verbal and physical torment.

Combined with Charlotte Rhodes’s indifference.

It pushed the young him to the brink.

"That place in the video... I wasn’t the one who found it. They built it. They had beaten me there more than once before... The day they told me to go there, my plan was to kill them and then jump into the sea to kill myself."

Sean Harrison tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I thought it would be difficult, but I never expected them to be so fragile. Three of them couldn’t even take me on."

Rory Linden said nothing.

She wasn’t sure at what point in the man’s story her heart had begun to ache.

She had always known the man hadn’t had it easy in those years.

But she never imagined it was like this.

Sean Harrison’s youth was even worse than her own time living under someone else’s roof.

’At least...’

’Evelyn Irving wouldn’t have stood by and watched her get bullied.’

’Plus, she was a good student, so the teachers at school were on her side.’

"Then... why..."

Rory Linden wanted to ask him why he didn’t kill himself.

Halfway through the question, she found she couldn’t continue.

"It was probably the desire for family. At that moment, I suddenly thought I should go see my father one last time before I died. I contacted him. He didn’t see me, but he arranged for me to stay at the Harrington Family’s Summerwind Estate."

As Sean Harrison spoke of these later events, the expression on his face began to thaw.

His life’s turning point was probably his return to Celestria and stepping into that Summerwind Estate.

Sean Harrison looked at the woman. "Don’t you want to know what was in the video? I locked the three of them up, gave each of them a glass of water, and then placed a large glass of seawater next to them..."

Rory Linden’s expression froze slightly.

’People can’t drink seawater; the salt content is too high. Drinking too much of it leads to total organ failure. But you can’t go without water for long, either. When pushed to the brink of thirst, a person might do something desperate...’

"You’ve probably guessed it. I injured them, but I didn’t kill them. Later, when I had Nadia Willow go find them, they had already drunk the seawater. It caused organ failure and affected their ability to live a normal life."

Sean Harrison continued, "Later, my father stepped in and got them treatment. Not long after, I earned my own money and built a hospital on a mountaintop. They’re all living there now."

Rory Linden listened in silence until he was finished.

Then she said, "This wasn’t entirely your fault, you know. You didn’t have to hide it from me."

Sean Harrison looked at the woman beside him and said, "I also broke their legs back then. To be honest, I don’t remember the specifics clearly. It’s all just fragmented memories. I started to wonder if something was wrong with me, and it wasn’t until the car accident six years ago that I also experienced symptoms of memory loss."

The man filled in the details of what he had done, little by little.

He was afraid she wouldn’t be able to accept it, yet he also felt he shouldn’t hide it.

Rory Linden asked him, "Is there more? Anything else you need to add about what you did?"