Three Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 204

“Lawrence, this isn’t on you. Hannah’s the one who crossed the line. You don’t have to carry all the blame…”

“No, that’s not it,” Lawrence said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I mean… with Bonnie. Was I really that awful to her?”

Abbot hesitated, caught off guard. He’d thought Lawrence was upset about keeping Hannah locked in her room and making a public statement she never agreed to, the sort of thing that could ruin her reputation forever. But this was about Bonnie.

Lawrence waited for a response, but nothing came. The silence pressed in, heavy and cold. He straightened up, shoulders squared, and kept walking, as if moving forward might help him escape what he was feeling.

From the outside, he looked like he had everything anyone could ever want. He was Hannah’s husband, Jasper’s dad, the one people envied and followed online, thinking his life was picture-perfect.

He’d seen every carefully curated post Hannah had shared. The anecdotes about their “happy life” together, the photos, the heartfelt captions. And the thing was, he couldn’t even remember half the things she described, let alone cooking a meal for her. That photo of him at the stove, back turned—he remembered the day, barely. Hannah had thrown one of her tantrums, and he’d rushed home, panicked, only to find everything fine. He ended up numbly cleaning up, putting away the kitchen knives she’d pulled out.

She always managed to find them, no matter what the staff did to hide or lock them away.

Eventually, no one bothered locking them up anymore. Sometimes he was just too drained to come home and calm her down, and that was the time she’d cut up her arms. He returned to the villa, exhausted and scared, but Hannah was already settled on the couch, watching him with icy eyes. She forced him to peel fruit for her with the bloody knife, arranging the pieces on a plate in the shape of a heart.

It looked just like how he used to treat Bonnie, back when they were still together. Those afternoons Bonnie would come over and he’d slice strawberries into little hearts, setting them on a plate in a neat, sweet pattern.

It was dumb, honestly, but it made Bonnie beam. He’d feed her the little heart-shaped pieces, and out of the corner of his eye, he’d spot Hannah on the stairs, silent and watching. She’d come down, pretend everything was fine, but she never touched the fruit he offered.

This was how Hannah punished him, keeping him trapped and twisted up inside, then spinning stories for the world to see, painting their life as some kind of love story.

He never guessed that the same photo could mean something completely different if you just changed the lighting, the angle, the story behind it.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify