Chapter 99: Who Can Stand This

Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Who Can Stand This

’Give up?’

’On me?’

Julian Sterling immediately rejected the idea.

His voice rose slightly, laced with a hint of irritation. "Impossible! Evelyn Grant is just temporarily angry, and I’m just giving her time to think things through! Mom, she’s given so much for me. There’s no way she could just walk away. Would she be able to accept that?"

Evelyn Grant had spent over a decade loving him.

Her energy, her devotion, her love, and her sacrifices were all immeasurable!

Julian felt it was like a business deal. You pour ten years of blood, sweat, and tears into a partnership to make it work. Even if some minor mishap occurred along the way, as long as success was still within reach, you’d never be willing to just give up.

’Her refusal to see me now is just her way of avoiding things.’

’She probably can’t even sort out her own thoughts right now!’

’But... all I need to do is give her time.’

Julian believed that Evelyn couldn’t possibly retract all her feelings for him in an instant.

"But now—" Florence quickly stopped herself, then changed tack. "But Eve is so beautiful. She’s bound to have other men pursuing her! Even if she has no intention of getting involved with someone else, what if they pursue her relentlessly?"

Others might not know, but how could Florence not know how stubborn her younger son was?

The only way he might give up is if Eve and Julian get back together, and even that wasn’t a one-hundred-percent guarantee.

"Mom, it’s not like Evelyn just became beautiful today. She’s always looked this way, and wasn’t I the only one in her heart back then, with no room for anyone else? Did you think other men weren’t pursuing her before?" Julian barely stopped himself from blurting out that Ryan had been hung up on Evelyn for years!

Now that he thought about it carefully, his brother really had shown many signs.

Otherwise, how could he have rushed back so coincidentally and right on time the moment Evelyn got into trouble?

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. Even though Ryan had been abroad all these years, he must have planted people around Evelyn!

Maybe even more than one. Maybe a lot of them!

At this thought, Julian’s anger flared uncontrollably.

The thought that his own brother had been coveting his wife for all these years... who could possibly stand that?

It felt like a slap in the face.

He almost wished he could actually hit himself. At least that would be quick and clean, unlike the constant anxiety he was feeling now.

His mother kept calling to ask, and Julian could only keep telling her not to worry, that he could handle it, that he had it all under control.

But did he really?

Julian couldn’t be sure of anything.

Maybe he could have been before, because he had been so certain of how much Evelyn loved him. But now, he really couldn’t say for sure.

"Anyway, as long as you have it under control, Mom won’t nag you. Just remember, you and your brother will always be family. We’re the ones bound by blood! No one can change that fact! Even if little things happen, little hiccups, don’t get genuinely angry and damage your relationship."

"Yeah, I know."

"If anything comes up, you have to tell me. Don’t you dare keep it to yourself and leave me here to worry and imagine the worst." ℴ

Julian agreed readily.

"Mm."

Florence sighed heavily and hung up the phone.

She raised a hand to her chest, still unable to process what Ryan had told her.

’Evelyn was Ryan’s sister-in-law, for heaven’s sake! The Sterling Family had welcomed her with all the proper ceremony! How could it end up...’