Goodbye My Arrogant Ex (Marguerite and Leonard) novel Chapter 363

Watching them, Marguerite felt she was seeing the very worst of human nature, a raw and merciless display of selfishness.

“Leonard, my heart aches for you,” she said softly, her voice filled with empathy. “I can’t imagine what it was like growing up in that kind of environment. I honestly don’t know how you manage to face them every day.”

It was baffling to her. He seemed to be weathering this storm all on his own. His mother, for all her outward charm and charisma, had never been a responsible parent. She’d spent years chasing her own pleasures, traveling and socializing, rarely sparing a thought for her son.

“I’m used to it,” Leonard said with a shrug, though his eyes held a flicker of old pain. “And you don’t need to feel sorry for me. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be as strong as I am today. They are the reason I became who I am.”

From a young age, Leonard had learned a crucial lesson: the only way to beat them was to become stronger, to build an inner fortitude so powerful that he would never have to live under their thumb again. He knew that if he had been anything like them, his grandmother never would have entrusted the company to him. His success was a product of his own relentless effort.

If anything, it was he who had been cast out, treated like an outsider in his own home despite having built its modern success single-handedly while the rest of them reaped the rewards of his hard work. The injustice of it all sometimes gnawed at him, but he’d learned to let it go. The only bond he truly cherished was with his grandmother. As long as the elderly Mrs. Murphy was safe and healthy, and he could still sit and talk with her when the world felt too heavy, that was all that mattered.

But some things were beyond his control, and his family’s cruelty was a constant, draining battle. He wasn’t afraid of confronting them, but he couldn’t bear to see Marguerite hurt. The thought of anyone speaking ill of her, of her being subjected to their venom, was a pain sharper than any he could endure himself.