CHAPTER 144: CHAPTER 144

At that moment he paused, gauging her face for even the slightest shift. Nothing.

He swallowed, his voice cracking at the edge. "But please... I need your help now. Just this one last time. If you could... if you could do the press conference. Just say it was all a misunderstanding. That it was a lie. That someone put you up to it. Just for now. Please."

Then he leaned forward again, desperate, almost whispering now. "Help me get everything back. Once I do, I swear on everything I have, I’ll come back to you two. No more secrets. No more hiding or playing games, I’ll make things right, like I should have done a long time ago."

Samuel’s eyes glistened. "We’ll be the family we used to be. You, me, and Abigail. I’ll give you everything. I’ll take care of you properly now, the way you deserve. And when the time is right, I’ll stand before the world and introduce you as my wife. No more hiding, no more excuses."

He moved a little closer, his voice now almost pleading. "That’s still the plan, Rebecca. That has always been the plan. It hasn’t changed. Please... don’t let anyone come between us. We’ve come a long way from nothing to something. We can’t just throw all of that away and fight each other."

At that moment, Samuel leaned forward and reached for Rebecca’s arms, his fingers curling around them as if holding onto the last thread that tethered them together. He pulled her slightly closer, his grip firm yet deliberately gentle, trying to project an image of sincerity. His eyes locked onto hers, softening in a way that seemed almost rehearsed, and his voice dropped to a low, almost pleading tone.

"Rebecca," he murmured, "I’m... very, very sorry."

He let the words linger, watching her face carefully for any crack in her expression. "I mean it. Every single word I’m saying, i mean it from the bottom of my heart. I don’t want us to keep fighting like this. I don’t want to see us tearing each other apart." His brow furrowed, as though the thought pained him deeply.

"What will the outsiders say?" he continued, shaking his head slightly. "What will they do when they see us like this? You know how people are, they will take our pain and turn it into entertainment. And while they laugh, while they gossip... we’ll be here, destroying ourselves. Is that what we really want?"

At that moment he sighed heavily, his voice trembling just enough to sound genuine. "I know I messed up. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t. I’ve made mistakes big ones. But I’m here, right now, telling you I am willing to fix them. I am willing to correct everything I did wrong."

His grip on her arms tightened just slightly, enough to hold her attention. "But we can’t use our differences... our anger... our hatred... to fight each other like this. All it will do is put our daughter in the middle of a mess she doesn’t deserve. She’s just a child, Rebecca. She shouldn’t have to carry the weight of our mistakes."

Samuel’s voice softened again, almost breaking. "I am... very, very sorry. I see it now. I see that my so-called protection, keeping you hidden, keeping our lives separate wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t protection. It was wrong."

He took a deep breath, as though steadying himself. "But we can still fix this. You can still fix this. Just... correct everything, and it will all go back to normal. In fact, it will be better than before. Far better. I’ll make sure of it."

He hesitated, searching her eyes for a trace of hesitation, then added quietly, "If you don’t want to do it for me... then please, at least do it for her. For our daughter. She deserves better than this. She deserves a good life, one that isn’t marked by scandal and bitterness. And if you really go through with this, Rebecca... if you do this to me... I might not be able to give her the kind of life I’ve been planning for her. The life I have in mind."

At that moment, as Rebecca’s eyes lingered on Samuel’s face, she felt an uneasy sense of déjà vu wash over her. She had been in this exact kind of moment before, this same air thick with desperation, this same expression on his face when the walls were closing in on him. She had seen him plead, she had heard him make promises, she had even watched him look as though his entire world was falling apart. But something about this time felt... different. Samuel had never begged her in quite this way before. His tone was softer, his eyes almost glistening with what could have been sincerity.

And yet, she couldn’t tell if it was real, maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t. But the truth was, she didn’t even care anymore. She wasn’t interested in playing detective over his sincerity. All she wanted now was the best for herself and for her daughter, that was all that mattered.

She let out a slow, steady breath before speaking, her voice tinged with a mixture of suspicion and exhaustion.

"Why does this feel," she began, "like you’re just trying to get out of the press conference? Why does it feel like the moment I do this for you, you’ll just turn around and throw us away again? Just like you did the first time?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Why does it feel like I’ve heard all of this before, Samuel? This isn’t the first time you’ve begged. This isn’t the first time you’ve apologized. So why do I feel like, if I believe you now, you’ll just end up doing the exact same thing again?"

Samuel flinched slightly at her words, his lips parting to respond quickly, almost defensively. "No, no, no... that’s not it at all. Rebecca, please... that’s not what this is. I swear to you."

He leaned forward, his voice thick with urgency. "I’ve come to realize my mistake now. I’m not here to play games. I’m here because I truly want to correct what I’ve done wrong. I’m... very, very sorry. More than I can say."

His hands twitched slightly, as though resisting the urge to reach for her again. "Yes, before... I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was protecting everything, protecting us. I wanted to make sure you didn’t have to deal with the constant attention, the gossip, the ridicule. People can be cruel, Rebecca. With your condition... I knew they’d make a mockery of you, and I couldn’t bear to see that happen. I thought I was sparing you from it, sparing your mental well-being."

He paused, his gaze dropping for a moment before looking back at her. "That was all I was targeting. That was my goal. And you know how this industry works, if people knew I was married with a child, there are certain roles I’d never get again. Directors would look past me, producers would call me ’unmarketable.’ It would close doors, Rebecca. Important ones. And I... I thought I was doing what was best for all of us by keeping it quiet."