Chapter 149: All Roads Lead Back

"That cripple Wyatt keeps ruining everything for me; I’m not letting him off the hook," he said coldly.

Owen grabbed Paul by the collar, teeth clenched. “You’re still trying to dodge responsibility? If you hadn’t kept going after Yunice, why would Wyatt step in for her? You and Yunice are over—why don’t you put all that energy into Elsie for once!”

Paul had no comeback, so he shot back with equal venom. “Well, maybe that’s because you don’t have 4 million dollars. If you did, I wouldn’t have had to get involved.”

Painting a man and calling him broke and useless—that was a brutal blow. Owen’s face cracked. He let go of Paul, defeated. Today they’d both lost face, but Paul had also lost real money.

Paul yanked on his collar to smooth out the wrinkles Owen had left and, realizing he may have gone too far, asked, “Wasn’t the Saunders hospital always bringing in good money?”

Why else would they be so desperate over 4 million dollars that we’d talk about selling the house!

Owen didn’t want to get into it. Ever since Yunice had been locked away in the psych ward, the Saunders hospital had mysteriously lost its edge in treating rare and complex cases, and patients had been leaving in droves.

Lost the edge overnight? What kind of nonsense is that?

Owen shook his head. “No idea. Same prescriptions—just no results.”

Paul muttered, “That’s just weird…”

Owen said quietly, “Sometimes I wonder if my mom was right—maybe Yunice really did take the Saunders family’s luck with her.”

Paul frowned. He was about to call him superstitious but then paused, thoughtful.

Come to think of it, ever since he started dating Elsie, it felt like everything had gone downhill. He’d constantly found himself dragged into one mess after another for her, and even his father and grandfather had started voicing their disapproval.

Meanwhile, Wyatt—ever since word got out about his engagement to Yunice—had barely been scolded by his OWEL grandfather. The land deal in Northvale—no one even tried to fight him for it.

Could it be that Yunice actually brings luck to her man and his family?

Owen didn’t notice the shift in Paul’s expression. He crouched down, picked up a stack of bills, and stayed quiet for a while.

Then, under his breath, he tried to rally himself. “One hurdle at a time, the road ahead is long, but it’ll shine bright.”

Just as he tried to summon some determination, his gaze dimmed again.

That line he’d just used—that was something Yunice used to say all the time….

His eyes began to sting. Red-rimmed, he kept picking up bill after bill, as if burying himself in work could numb the feelings building inside.

Even after everything today, he still missed the obedient, thoughtful Yunice from before.

Under the starlit sky outside the car window, Yunice sat in the same car as Wyatt. The leather seat felt like it had needles in it; she kept shifting restlessly, glancing back toward the rear window every few seconds.

Yunice had planned to ride with Gill, but when Jordan came to call her over, she couldn’t keep pretending anymore.

Not seeing Gill’s ear now, Yunice sat up straight and looked down at her hands, playing with her fingers.

She still remembered what Wyatt had said back at the Saunders mansion. “We’ll settle this when we get back.” So now he is taking me back to settle it! But…what exactly is there to settle?

She stole a glance at Wyatt from the corner of her eye, waiting for him to speak. But, of course, he was frustratingly quiet—making her guess everything.

So she had to go first. “Why…did you go to the Saunders mansion?”

Wyatt sat stone-faced, clearly not in the mood to respond. His eyes were fixed on the window outside.

Yunice was starting to feel awkward—until Jordan chimed in to save the moment. “Come on, Ms. Saunders, Wyatt keeps a close eye on everything about you.”

Keeps an eye on me… Probably just because she was the woman he had to marry. It was a matter of appearances—if she embarrassed herself, it would make him look bad too.

Husband and wife, tied at the hip.

Yunice glanced at Wyatt again, then pointed at his sulking expression and asked Jordan, “Why does he look so mad?”

She’d noticed that the people around Wyatt were all pretty decent—friendly, even. As long as it was something they could talk about, they were never stingy with words.

Jordan glanced up and checked the rearview mirror, not clear if he was looking at Wyatt or Yunice. He smiled and said, “Of course, he’s mad at you.”

“You’re Wyatt’s woman, but instead of coming to him, you went to that slimy old Quinton for help. Doesn’t that make it seem like you look down on Wyatt?” Jordan’s tone lifted playfully at the end, like he was deliberately putting her on the spot.

But Yunice could tell—this wasn’t a trap. Jordan was throwing her a lifeline. More friends, more options; fewer friends, more hoops to jump through.