Chapter 4

Jeremy's POV

"I'm sorry for all the trouble the online backlash has caused you," Richard began. "On behalf of my friends, I sincerely apologize.

"But your post has caused serious problems for both the Morris and the Petty families. We need you to go live and admit that you're the other man in this relationship."

Mom's angry yells were still echoing in my ears, and now Richard was handing me a knife, demanding that I drive it into my own heart.

"And if I refuse?"

A hint of coldness surfaced in his eyes.

"Have you forgotten the NDA you signed with Madeleine? Do I need to remind you how much money you'll have to pay in damages if you ruin our marriage? If you make a public apology on a live stream, I'll personally give you another 500,000 dollars."

"Fine," I said. "I'll apologize."

The moment the live stream began, people flooded in to curse me out.

The corners of my mouth curled into a bitter smirk. "I'm sorry. I apologize for not swallowing my anger and refusing to suffer this injustice silently.

"I should've just happily watched my girlfriend of ten years marry someone else. So what if I was cheated on? It's not like it's the end of the world."

Within seconds, #RichardMorrisIsAHomewrecker skyrocketed to the top of the trending search results.

Flustered and enraged, Madeleine immediately ended the live stream.

"You grew up in the mountains, Jer," she said with a cold sneer. "So you probably don't understand the rules of the game in our circle."

A sudden chill ran down my spine.

"Do you still remember how the whole internet cyberbullied your mother back then?"

She pulled out her phone, tapped it a few times, and turned the screen toward me. It was a screenshot of an old web page from over a decade ago.

The headline was glaring.

"College Professor Exposed as Wealthy Businessman's Mistress, Publicly Attacked by Wife".

"If this starts circulating online again, do you think your mother could survive another round of cyberbullying?" she asked.

I begged Madeleine to leave Mom alone. She was already suffering from depression, and if she went through this again, it would kill her.

A trace of reluctance flashed across her eyes, but she pressed the "Send" button anyway. "You caused Rick so much harm. You have to pay the price!"

"No! Don't!"

I turned desperately to Richard. "I'm sorry. I was being immature. I beg you, please spare my mother!"

But within seconds, the old scandal stirred an absolute uproar on the internet once again.

It had taken everything Mom had to crawl out of that dark abyss back then, only to be dragged right back into it.

Seeing me on the verge of breaking down, Richard finally smiled. "Go live and apologize to me, Mr. Garrett. Then I'll forgive you."

Left with no choice, I could only start another live stream. This time, even more people flooded in to hurl insults at me.

Madeleine's expression softened.

"Your mother will be fine," she said, trying to comfort me. "I've already arranged for people to keep an eye on her."

After saying that, she stepped outside to answer a phone call.

Once she was gone, Richard turned to me. "Aren't you curious how we found out about what happened all those years ago?"

Right then, Sid stepped out of the shadows.

My mind went completely blank. As it turned out, he was the one who had provided Madeleine and Richard with all the information.

"Why would you do this to me?"

Sid just smiled. "I'm doing this for your own good, Jer. Madeleine has always loved Richard. What kind of man keeps clinging to another man's wife?"

Sid Beale had been my best friend since we were kids. Back then, his mother had refused to let him go to high school, instead wanting to send him to work at an illegal factory.

I was the one who paid his tuition so that he could stay in school.

Even when he'd chosen to hide Madeleine's wedding from me, I had never blamed him. But never had I imagined that he'd be the one to push me into the abyss with his own two hands.

As the security guards arrived to kick me out, Richard yelled out after me.

"Oh, one more thing. The people Madeleine arranged to keep an eye on your mother? I've already dismissed them."

His words hit me like a bolt of lightning. I frantically called home, only to receive news that Mom had jumped off a building.

Despair after crushing despair made it impossible for me to breathe. My limbs went ice-cold, and my vision blurred.

Through my hazy vision, I saw a text message arrive from Madeleine.

"I've already deleted that post, and I've had people clean up all of the online backlash. Rick won't make things difficult for you anymore. We can still go back to the way things used to be."

I simply turned on the live stream again. Ignoring the endless stream of insults filling the screen, I walked step by step to the edge of the river.

Then, I jumped.

"There's no going back, Madeleine," I thought to myself.

…

Third-Person POV

At the same moment, Madeleine was with Richard at a birthday dinner when she happened to come across the live stream showing Jeremy jumping into the river.

Richard glanced at it and said, "He's probably just trying to grab attention."

The knot in Madeleine's chest loosened. Yes, that was much more likely. Jeremy wouldn't do something that foolish.

The very next second, her assistant, Kathy Montgomery, stumbled into the banquet hall in a panic.

"Ms. Petty! It's bad! Mr. Garrett really jumped into the river!"