Chapter 7
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288 Vouchers.
“Oscar? Why are you here?”
Charlie recognized the man. He was Oscar Sanderson, a famous son from a wealthy family in Los Angeles. He was arrogant and
domineering, as he had the support of the Sanderson family. Even Charlie suffered a lot at his hands.
Later, the Sanderson family collapsed because they chose the wrong side, and Oscar also disappeared.
Charlie scanned the man in front of him from top to toe. This once bright and handsome young man was now in an extremely ragged state.
The hair and stubble on his face showed that he had neglected personal hygiene for a long time. The yellowed, rolled–up collar reeked faintly of sweat, making Charlie frown in disgust.
“Oscar, you claim to be Maria’s husband? What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?”
Oscar sneered and threw a marriage certificate at the crowd. “Maria, care to tell Mr. Sullivan what this means?”
Oscar stared sinisterly at Maria who was hiding in a corner. He hated that woman to death. When the Sanderson family first got into trouble, Maria sighed all day long, worrying about their future. He felt distressed when he saw this, so he told Maria that before Mr. Sanderson went to jail, someone left him a sum of money.
As a result, Maria pretended to be loyal to him, but she took away his money and returned home when he was not paying attention. He had no money, and that made life difficult. He could not even afford a ticket to come back home. If he had not met a good Samaritan, he would probably have starved to death abroad, and no one would have known.
Maria screamed, “I don’t know him! He just came here to swindle my money! Charlie, believe me, I only love you!”
Maria didn’t admit it, but the marriage certificate Oscar showed was solid proof. The matter became very clear at this point. Six years ago, the Sullivan family went bankrupt. Maria was afraid that Charlie would use the fact that they were childhood sweethearts to pester her. It happened that the only son of the Sanderson family, who was in the limelight at the time, showed interest in her. As such, she left Charlie without hesitation and chose to go abroad with Oscar.
She held her wedding with Oscar abroad and lived the life of a wealthy wife for a few years as she wished. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. The Sanderson family was eliminated because they had crossed people whom they shouldn’t have. Oscar became no different from everyone else overnight.
At first, things were okay because Oscar still had some money left. Maria, on the other hand, was so used to the life of a wealthy wife who spent money lavishly that she couldn’t stand it anymore after only two months.
It was then that news about Charlie having successfully started his own business and becoming a rising star in the business world emerged. Maria made up her mind took Oscar’s remaining property and returned home. When she found out that Charlie still had feelings for her, she decided to hook up with Charlie again.
Everything was going well, but Maria discovered that she was
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pregnant.
She lied to Charlie that the child was Charlie’s and used the child to become part of the Sullivan family. She was afraid that if she kept the child around, Charlie would discover the truth in the future. As such, she fed the child food containing seafood even though she knew the child was allergic to seafood. After the child died, she blamed me for it.
As Oscar continued blurting out accusations, Charlie’s eyes turned red with hatred. Maria had lied to him that it was the Jones family that forced her to go abroad, and he believed it.
But now…
Oscar sneered. “Do I need to tell you how she climbed onto my bed?
“Oh great Mr. Sullivan, if you really need to have fun with women, you know where to go. What’s the point of stealing someone else’s wife and child?”
Charlie’s expression became even colder.
He hurt Adriana, the person who loved him the most, for someone like that.
Thinking of the countless times that person cried, Charlie’s heartache got increasingly worse. At that time, he was only thinking that Adriana was jealous, that Maria could have his child, so he became increasingly disappointed in Adriana. But now that he thought about it, it became clear that it was Maria who deliberately framed her.
“Maria, you really are something.”
He said this with gritted teeth, and there was a sinister look in his eyes that no one had ever seen before.
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3
Charlie’s revenge came swiftly and fiercely. He took back all the
property under Maria’s name and drove her out of the Sullivan family.
He manipulated things in such a way that Maria ended up with a huge gambling debt and soon lost the last bit of her property.
Oscar’s original idea of forcing her to pay him back was thwarted, and so he beats Maria up in anger. Maria was also not someone to be trifled with. The two lived in a basement of some sort in the city, and they fought every day over trivial matters. Due to them being a married couple, others could not interfere.
Charlie was still unwilling to believe that I was dead, so he sealed my body in an ice coffin and asked a shaman to perform a ritual. The shaman might be the real deal. He just took one look at my body, shook his head, and sighed.
“The fire in her heart had gone out. She couldn’t have survived.”
Charlie’s body swayed, and he retorted in reflex, “How is it possible? She is a mermaid priestess!
“No matter how strong a race is, once they have lost their innate magical powers, they will be no different from an ordinary person. She gave you everything–even her flesh and blood–and was left with a body no different from any ordinary person. Everyone who lives will eventually die.”
The moment the words fell, the entire ice coffin trembled. Charlie realized something and panicked. He rushed forward and pressed the lid of the coffin, but he couldn’t stop my body from dissipating bit by
bit.
“Adriana!”
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Chapter 7
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Charlie fell to his knees, filled with grief. He watched my body turn into nothingness, leaving nothing behind. He finally realized that I truly was dead.
“Why? Why?”
Charlie couldn’t understand. He thought I was an omnipotent creature from another world who was infatuated with him. But he forgot–if I were truly omnipotent, I wouldn’t have let him humiliate me for so long.
“This is awful…”
The shaman looked at Charlie and seemed like he had something to say. Eventually, he shook his head and left. Charlie was still in a daze and did not notice the shaman wasn’t behaving right.
He then received a call. “Mr. Sullivan. Bad news! Your mother was in a car accident!”
