Chapter 447 - 450: Morbid Excitement and Madness

The air hung still for a moment.

Faced with the evidence, Adrian Lancaster finally believed it. The woman standing before him, the one named Claire Bennett, was indeed Maya Marshall.

There was no hint of emotion in his eyes at their reunion, much less any trace of their past romance. His deep-set eyes held only a frozen indifference and distance.

"All I need is for you to admit you’re Maya Marshall."

When Claire Bennett heard Adrian Lancaster finally acknowledge her identity, the pain and torment that had built up for so long instantly broke through her restraint.

She wept with joy, hot tears streaming from her eyes.

The longing and bitterness of countless sleepless nights finally found a release. Her heart and eyes were filled with the ecstasy of having him back.

Her head swimming with anticipation, Claire Bennett was completely oblivious to the cold distance emanating from Adrian Lancaster. She rushed toward him, her arms outstretched to pull him into a tight embrace.

She fought through the stiff discomfort of her prosthetic left leg and strained to get on her tiptoes. Full of love and longing, she tilted her head up toward Adrian Lancaster, closing her eyes to kiss his lips.

’He’ll remember our past,’ she thought with frantic certainty. ’He has to accept me.’

But in the next second, Adrian Lancaster’s expression darkened. A flash of utter disgust and impatience crossed his dark eyes, and the temperature around him seemed to plummet.

Before Claire Bennett’s fingertips could even touch his clothes, he threw up his arm and shoved her away with all his might, showing no mercy.

He didn’t hesitate for a second. There was no mercy in the push.

Claire Bennett was already unsteady on her feet, her balance precarious. Caught completely off guard, she stumbled backward again and again before collapsing heavily onto the soft bed.

Her prosthetic left leg slammed against the hard edge of the bed frame, and a sharp, dull pain shot through her entire body.

But the physical ache was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.

She stared blankly up at the man before her, tears blurring her vision as her entire body trembled uncontrollably.

"Adrian, if you know I’m Maya Marshall, why are you treating me like this?"

Claire Bennett choked out the words, her voice full of hurt and sorrow.

"Are you disgusted with me? Is it because I have a prosthetic leg?"

Adrian Lancaster looked down at her, his posture ramrod straight. His gaze was as cold and sharp as an icy blade, devoid of any pity.

"I just told you, I have a wife and a child. I don’t get involved with any other women. You should have some self-respect."

That one simple sentence was like a sharp knife, drawing a clear, absolute line between them.

It instantly crushed every one of Claire Bennett’s fantasies and obsessions.

"No...!" Claire Bennett shook her head violently, her emotions spiraling out of control.

Her eyes were red as she screamed herself hoarse, refusing to accept the cruel reality.

Propping herself up on trembling arms, she struggled to sit up, her eyes, full of paranoid madness, fixed on Adrian Lancaster.

"I don’t believe you! You’re lying!"

"If you don’t love me anymore, if you don’t have me in your heart, then why have you been hiding my picture?"

Claire Bennett clung to this last straw, convinced that Adrian Lancaster still had feelings for her. It was the only way she could brainwash herself into finding the strength to go on.

"Adrian Lancaster, I was your first love. You can never forget me."

"You used to treat me a hundred, a thousand, a million times better than you treat Wren Sutton now."

"Even after you married Wren Sutton, all it took was one phone call from me, and you’d drop her in a heartbeat to rush to my side, never leaving me for a moment."

"I still have the photos and videos of our dates after you got married on my private social media account. Want to see them?"

"One look and you’ll remember how much you used to like me, how much you loved me."

"You said you’d marry me, but you married Wren Sutton instead. You feel guilty, which is why no matter what I did, you’d indulge me, take my side, and never let me feel the slightest bit wronged."

As Adrian Lancaster listened, the cold aura around him shattered, and a monstrous rage surged through him.

That shameful past, the proof of their secret meetings—it was all irrefutable evidence that he had betrayed his marriage and failed Wren Sutton.

Endless shame and self-loathing washed over him, so overwhelming he wished the ground would swallow him whole. His chest felt as if it were being crushed by a giant boulder, the pain suffocating.

In a blind rage, his eyes bloodshot, Adrian Lancaster could no longer contain his roiling emotions. He lunged forward, his hand tightening viciously around Claire Bennett’s slender neck.

His grip was brutal, fueled by a world-ending rage.

"Shut your mouth. Don’t say another word."

As she began to suffocate, Claire Bennett’s face turned crimson and her lips went purple. She struggled to breathe.

But instead of fear, she felt a surge of morbid excitement and madness.

She struggled, gasping for air, fearlessly continuing to provoke Adrian Lancaster, her tone sharp and cruel.

"The angrier you get, the more it proves I’m right. It proves you still have feelings for me."

"It’s all true. Everyone around you can vouch for it—for how good you were to me, how much you loved me."

"Your parents, your assistant, your friends... they all knew about us."

Adrian Lancaster was incandescent with rage, wanting nothing more than to choke the life out of her.

That sordid past, the evidence of his betrayal of Wren Sutton, was being laid bare and thrown in his face. Every word was a whip against his conscience.

"I told you to shut up! Stop talking!"

He let out a low roar, his voice raw and broken, filled with barely suppressed violence. His grip on Claire Bennett’s neck tightened, almost enough to crush her throat.

Unfazed, Claire Bennett only grew more brazen. Staring at Adrian Lancaster, she forced a sharp, provocative sound from her throat.

"Go on, choke me. Even if you kill me, it won’t change the fact that you betrayed Wren Sutton."

"Wren Sutton will never forgive you. Never."

"I’ll always be between you and her, along with the mistakes you’ve made. Your marriage has been rotten for a long time."

"You’ve hurt her. Her love for you can never be absolute. Only I can tolerate your past."

"You’ll be guilty for the rest of your life, full of regret for the rest of your life. In this life, you don’t just owe me—you owe her, too."

As she finished, she let out a shrill laugh that sounded horrifying in the dead of night.

Adrian Lancaster’s entire body went rigid. Veins bulged on his temples, his chest heaved, and his vision began to blacken.

Overwhelming rage and bone-deep guilt tore at him, threatening to rip him apart.

The intense pressure of suffocation, mixed with the surging rage and guilt, made Adrian’s head throb as if it would split open.

Within his chaotic thoughts, vivid images of a horrific car crash suddenly flashed through his mind.

The shriek of brakes, the deafening CRUNCH of impact, twisted wreckage, and the glaring sight of blood flooded his consciousness.

Adrian Lancaster stiffened, snapping back to his senses.

’I was almost consumed by my emotions. I almost forgot my mission for tonight.’

The murderous aura around him subsided, and he released his grip on Claire Bennett’s neck.

’This crazy woman almost ruined the entire plan.’

Claire Bennett’s chest rose and fell violently as she gasped for air. The choking sensation still lingered in her throat, and her eyes instantly reddened.

A second later, tears streamed down her face. She sobbed, her body shaking with a heart-wrenching pain.

"Why? Why did you change? You promised you would marry me, so how could you just change your mind? Why didn’t you keep your promise to me?"

The woman, lost in her obsession with their tangled romance, repeated her accusations.

Adrian Lancaster’s expression remained cold and detached. He had no intention of getting entangled in old romantic dramas and had no answer for her.

His eyes were dark as he fixed his sharp gaze on Claire Bennett.

"You left Aston and went abroad. Why go to all the trouble of coming back now?"

"You came back to get revenge on me, didn’t you."

Claire Bennett quickly shook her head, vehemently denying it.

"No, that’s not it. I never wanted to get revenge on you. I never wanted you to get hurt in the slightest."

She wiped the tears from her face, desperate to make him understand her intentions.

"Adrian, I’ve never hated you. The one I hate is Wren Sutton."

"If she hadn’t appeared out of nowhere and taken the place that should have been mine—if she hadn’t stolen everything that was supposed to be mine—we never would have ended up like this."

"I went through all this trouble to come back simply because I want to be by your side again. I want to take back what belongs to me. That’s all."