Love You Like I Used To Forget It (Millie Bridge) novel Chapter 189

I found it strange. Noah had clearly outgrown his shyness and social anxiety, so why had Cordelia insisted he was still too anxious to live on campus and needed to stay with the?

Noah froze for a second.

After having Quinton and Lanson dragged out and beaten, I thought I’d finally get some peace. But before Noah could even respond, Mom’s furious voice exploded through the hall.

“Millicent, how could you be so heartless?”

I frowned and was about to tell Noah to shut the door. I had no interest in seeing my so–called mother, but she was already storming inside.

“Millicent, how dare you! Do you have any idea what happened to Julianne because of you?” she shouted. Because you ran, she was… she was…”

Mom choked on her words, so devastated she couldn’t even finish her sentence.

Meanwhile, Dad–no, Henry–looked like he was about to finish me.

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Their precious Julianne, the one they’d coddled and protected all her life, had been raped by those kidnappers. The sheer horror of it crushed them.

They wished I’d never been born. Hell, they probably regretted not smothering me in my crib. If they had, I wouldn’t have been around to “ruin” their precious Julianne’s life.

Even Jeremy, who rarely lost his temper, was beyond furious.

“Emilia, you went too far this time! No matter what, Julianne is still family,” he snapped. “How could you run away and let this happen to her?”

To them, it was simple. I had been sent to trade my life for Julianne’s. She would’ve been fine if I’d just obediently gone through with it. Instead, I ran.

And because I had dared to fight for my own survival, I was now a bad person.

Honestly, hearing them say all this…

Knowing they were fully aware that Irvin had forced me into this–that he’d tried to trade my life away and still thought I should’ve just accepted it. Knowing that even now, they believed my only crime was wanting to live.

I couldn’t stop the pain from creeping in. No matter how much I wanted to be indifferent, it still hurt. I didn’t want them to affect me anymore. I didn’t want them to have the ability to hurt me. But they did.

The pain was sharp, twisting in my chest, but I forced out a cold laugh as I leaned back against the bed.

“Yeah, I’m heartless. So what? What the hell are you gonna do about it?”

They all froze, caught completely off guard.

Before, whenever they called me cruel, I’d always tried to explain myself. I’d gotten defensive, teared up, or even apologized, just to avoid more conflict. I’d let them trample all over me, swallowing every insult and accusation.

But not anymore. This time, I wasn’t playing along. For the first time, they were the ones speechless.

It took a while before Mom finally snapped back to reality. “Millicent, how could you be so vile?”

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