From Broken to Beloved-Chapter 132- Impossible

How could it possibly have been Bert—the one who took her beautiful first time, and how could it also be Bert—the one who would possess the beautiful rest of her life?

Gerald seethed with hatred, resentment, bitterness, rage, and jealousy.

But what use were all those emotions now?

He couldn’t return to the past, nor could he control the future.

Catherine’s past and her future had already become inextricably bound to Bert.

Watching the look on Gerald’s face at that moment, Morrison couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh.

"You probably don’t know this yet," he said. "That night, Catherine was actually drugged. She stumbled into things by accident and ended up entangled with Bert."

The news struck Gerald like a bolt from the blue. He shot up from the sofa in an instant, crossed the room in a few strides, and grabbed Morrison by the collar, completely losing control.

"What did you say? Say that again!"

Gerald had already deeply regretted giving up Catherine. Now, upon hearing that she had been nothing more than an innocent victim that night, the remorse and despair in his heart instantly drowned what little rationality he had left.

Morrison’s face turned icy as he forcefully yanked Gerald away, stepping back to put distance between them. He lifted a hand to straighten the shirt Gerald had wrinkled.

"What? If she wasn’t set up and drugged, did you really think she was the kind of woman who’d casually sleep with any man?"

Even as he said it, Morrison felt Gerald was despicable. Someone like him, who had only interacted with Catherine a handful of times, knew she wasn’t that kind of person—let alone Gerald, who had once been in a relationship with her.

Gerald staggered and had to brace himself against the nearby table, head lowered as he gulped in air, trying to steady his emotions.

After a long moment, he turned to Morrison and demanded through clenched teeth, "Who drugged her?"

Morrison let out a scornful laugh. "Is that even a question?"

Gerald’s expression darkened further. He clenched his fists tightly, the anger clearly having built up to the brink of an eruption.

At this point, having learned that Bert was the man who’d been with Catherine that night, Gerald could finally understand why Bert had targeted him so relentlessly. Men had an inexplicable, almost primal sense of possession when it came to the women they loved.

Gerald had no intention of staying any longer. At this point, there was no way Bert would let him off anyway.

His mind was in a haze now. He didn’t want to think about anything, didn’t want to care about anything. Let it be like this—if the company went bankrupt, then so be it. If everything was destroyed, so be it. He no longer had the slightest motivation to keep going.

He even felt that simply being alive was a kind of torment.

Lowering his gaze, he headed toward the door. Morrison called out to him from behind.

"Wait!"

Gerald turned back to look at Morrison, who broke into a smile.

"Gerald, why are you leaving so soon? I haven’t even told you about our cooperation proposal yet."

Gerald frowned.

"A cooperation proposal?"

Weren’t they trying to crush him completely? How could there possibly be any cooperation?

Morrison continued, "My brother-in-law said that as long as you marry Lucca, all the grudges between you will be wiped clean. He won’t suppress you anymore. After that, however capable you are, you can use all of it to develop your own company."

Gerald was furious.

"What? He wants me to marry Lucca?"

He felt so stifled his chest was about to explode. During this period, he had been constantly clashing with his family, trying to call off his engagement to Lucca.

His mother had always refused. Then, a few days ago, Lucca’s plagiarism scandal broke, causing his parents’ impression of her to plummet. They had finally agreed to let him break off the engagement—only for Bert to stick his nose in at this moment and insist that he marry Lucca instead.

How could Gerald possibly agree? He was desperate to get away from Lucca. Why on earth would he agree to marry her?

Moreover, after Morrison’s hints just now, he had already locked onto Lucca as the culprit who had set Catherine up back then. How could he possibly marry Lucca? He hated and despised her—marriage was unthinkable.

Morrison put on a mockingly comforting expression.

"Gerald, no need to be so angry. My brother-in-law is just thinking that once you have a place to settle down, you won’t keep thinking about Catherine anymore. He’s always been petty like that. For him to come up with an idea like this already—well, you should forgive him."

"And besides, he’s doing you a favor, isn’t he? Back then, didn’t you and the second daughter of the Channing family fall madly in love? You didn’t even care that she was your former fiancée’s younger sister—you still got together with her. Now that you’ve broken up, what a pity."

Every single one of Morrison’s words was barbed, sharp and merciless, stabbing straight into Gerald’s chest. His heart ached violently, and his face burned as if he’d been slapped again and again.

Of course, these cutting remarks were all instructions from Bert.

Otherwise, Morrison would never have been able to say such deliberately cruel things. He’d always been the straightforward type. This kind of insidious, heart-piercing cruelty was something only Bert excelled at.

Morrison knew that all too well. When he’d been courting Lilian, Bert had stabbed him in the heart like this plenty of times. In that sense, Morrison truly sympathized with Gerald.

Gerald’s face turned livid, veins bulging on his forehead as he ground his teeth and roared,

"Impossible!"

"I will never marry Lucca!"

Watching Gerald on the verge of hysteria, clearly being driven to a breakdown, Morrison couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Bert’s tactics were truly ruthless—and insidious.

When Lucca’s reputation had already been utterly ruined, he insisted on forcing Gerald to marry a woman despised by everyone. Not only did it silently drag Gerald’s own moral standing down several notches, it was also an excruciating form of torture for him.

And the ones being tormented along with him were, of course, Gerald’s vain, status-obsessed parents.

Everything they had once inflicted upon Catherine, Bert was now making them repay little by little—quietly, methodically—or else taste the same kind of pain and torment themselves.

Still, Morrison couldn’t ignore the task Bert had assigned him. His tone hardened as he spoke.

"If you’re unwilling to marry her, then, Gerald, you can wait and watch your company slide into bankruptcy and decline. As long as you don’t think it’s a pity to see it destroyed in your hands, you’re free to reject these terms."

"Or perhaps your parents—who have lived pampered lives all these years—will be able to endure the hardships that lie ahead with you."

Every word Morrison spoke tore mercilessly at Gerald’s heart. Yes, Gerald himself could endure anything—but what about his parents? They had lived in comfort for most of their lives, burdened with all the ailments that came with wealth. If they were truly reduced to poverty, they might collapse at any moment.

For Gerald, he had already lost everything. He couldn’t afford to lose his parents as well.

As he gradually calmed down, another calculation formed in Gerald’s mind. After all, Bert was only demanding that he marry Lucca—he hadn’t demanded that he spend the rest of his life with her. He could agree for now, and then divorce her a few years later.

Thus, the fury on his face slowly subsided.

Morrison, of course, saw his compromise immediately. He sneered inwardly. A scheme Gerald could think of—how could someone as calculating as Bert possibly have failed to anticipate it?