No Strings Attached

Chapter 35

Clara’s heart felt as if it had been seized by an iron grip, the pain so intense she could hardly breathe. Frozen in place, her body trembled uncontrollably.

Sasha, sensing something was terribly wrong, patted Clara’s hand and called out, “Clara, Clara.”

After several shouts, Clara finally responded. Her small face, pale as a sheet of paper, looked ghostly under the streetlights.

Slowly turning her head, she glared at the woman with eyes filled with loathing. Her lips twitched, and in a hoarse whisper, she said, “You don’t deserve to be my mom.”

With that, she pulled Sasha into the car.

When Clara was seated behind the wheel, her legs still shook with tremors. Sasha gently pulled her aside, saying in a soothing voice, “I’ll drive.”

Clara didn’t resist. She slid out from the driver’s seat and settled into the passenger side. Resting her head against the seat, she intended to close her eyes, but tears silently streamed down her cheeks instead. Memories from seven years ago, like a savage flood, surged towards her.

lan, left at the doorstep of the

police station, stared at the woman with icy eyes, with Clara’s hateful gaze filling his mind. Just how deep the hurt must be for Clara to despise her own mother so profoundly.

lan flicked a cigarette from the pack and lit it with a deliberate slowness, his sharp features shrouded in a haze of white smoke. He turned to Dawson, his voice detached, “Check this person out.” Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Dawson immediately responded, “Right away, Mr. Hayes. But are you really okay with letting Ms. Clara go like this?”

lan squinted, exhaling a ring of smoke, “What else?”

Dawson, frustrated as if dealing with a stubborn child, pressed on, “You might have. compensated for Ms. Clara’s friend earlier, but to her, it looks like you were helping Ms. Heidi. Ms. Clara must be furious. You should tell her everything, tell her that in order to bring peace to the Bell family, you had a fight with your mother and even put your own assets of over a hundred billion at stake. That Ms. Heidi had already leaked the story to the media, and had you not intervened, even if Ms. Sasha won the lawsuit, her reputation would’ve suffered. Mr. Hayes, when you care for someone, you need to show the lengths you’re willing to go for them. By keeping all this to yourself and putting on a tough front in front of Ms. Clara, you won’t win her over.”

Dawson’s lengthy speech left him thirsty and weary. He really hoped lan would grasp the gravity of his words, but the next thing Dawson heard was that icy voice. “Do I need your

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advice?

He had already won Clara over the day before, and he was certain, absolutely certain, she would never leave him. Confidence etched in his handsome brow, even a trace of a dismissive smile on his lips.

Dawson just shook his head and sighed deeply.

Clara sat on the living room balcony all afternoon, from the bright sunshine to the evening’s descent. She sat in silence, not uttering a single word.

Sasha, frightened, didn’t dare ask more. It wasn’t until after seven in the evening that Clara finally spoke in a hoarse tone. Her voice was calm, but no one knew that with each word she spoke, it felt like someone was slicing a knife across the scars in her heart.

The pain made her whole body shudder.

Scenes from seven years ago played in Clara’s mind like a movie.

She said she was cornered in the classroom, her clothes torn apart, and she was insulted, called as cheap as her mother.

She spoke of battling severe depression, losing her voice, and even contemplating suicide multiple times.

By the end, her voice trembled. Her eyes, filled with sorrow, looked at Sasha. “Sasha, forgive me for hiding this from you. I was afraid that reopening these wounds would force me to confront my shattered past. I feared I’d get stuck in that mire, unable to climb out again.”

Sasha, moved to tears, pulled Clara into a tight embrace, comforting her ceaselessly.