Bound by the Past, Locked by the Heart novel Chapter 230

Randal's entire body violently seized up. His pupils shuddered as he choked out the words, "Saved my life?"

Sean scoffed coldly, unleashing a torrent of devastating truths in one breath.

"You could track my flights out of the country every month, but you couldn't find out that she secretly flew back when you got into that car wreck?"

"Did nobody tell you that when you were hemorrhaging and on the brink of death, she risked her own life to give you a blood transfusion?"

"Randal, you always act like she owes you something, but from the very beginning, you are the one who owes her your life!"

Randal stood frozen, completely paralyzed. His lips were slightly parted, the color draining entirely from his face until he looked like a corpse.

A long time passed before he violently gasped for air. Snapping out of his paralyzed shock, his voice trembled with undisguised panic. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Willa lowered her eyes, her voice achingly soft. "We were already broken up. What difference would it make? Just like now—so what if you know? Nothing will change. It only adds unnecessary misery."

"But Miles..." Randal's sentence abruptly died in his throat.

It was true. Every piece of information he had relied on came straight from Miles Zane. He had never sought the truth with his own eyes or ears. Based entirely on a one-sided narrative, he had ruthlessly condemned her to death in his mind.

Miles had even told him that when Willa found out about the accident, she refused to come back and see him.

Randal stumbled backward, his spine slamming heavily against the doorframe. His expression contorted with a horrific, devastating complexity, as a tidal wave of suffocating remorse threatened to swallow him whole.

He murmured blankly, "How could this... how could this be the truth..."

The next second, he lunged forward, desperately gripping her shoulders. He repeated himself in a frantic, pitifully pathetic ramble: "Why... why didn't you tell me? I was so stupid... I..."

Before he could finish, he was openly sobbing.

The right hand hanging by his side suddenly whipped upward, violently slapping himself across the face.

He held absolutely nothing back. The force of the slap was far more brutal than the punch Sean had just delivered.

When they arrived at The Ridgeback Estate, the staff was buzzing around, busy moving items into a small room.

Mrs. Gable saw her and immediately walked over. "Ms. Vance, Mr. Yates had a massive shipment delivered today. It's all baby supplies. I'm having the staff organize it now. It's a bit dusty in there, so why don't you rest in the garden for a while?"

Willa instantly understood. This was Randal's version of 'compensation.'

"Ms. Vance," Mrs. Gable looked at her, hesitating for a moment before adding softly, "Mr. Yates actually... truly cares about you deep down."

Willa offered a faint acknowledgment but didn't actually respond, turning and walking toward the garden.

She knew perfectly well how good Randal could be to her.

But the deep, festering wounds and the massive rift between them couldn't be erased by this kind of superficial goodness.

At this point, the two of them were simply functioning on an unspoken understanding—silently, flawlessly maintaining the illusion of a peaceful life.