Too Late, Mr. Cooper: Your Bride Ran with Your Baby novel Chapter 372

As he celebrated Liliana's growing obsession and confidently assured himself that she could never leave him, he forgot the most important thing—Liliana was not someone who could ever be controlled.

In their relationship, she was the giver, the one with all the power. He was merely the recipient. How could he have been so foolish as to think he could reverse their roles? Unsurprisingly, his plan backfired spectacularly. Reality slapped him hard across the face, jolting him awake. He had been wrong.

He shouldn't have tried to be the one in control. From the very beginning, he should have lowered himself, assumed the position of the passive recipient. He should have been on his knees, hands outstretched, gratefully waiting for whatever scraps of affection Liliana chose to bestow upon him. She had so many options; he was never irreplaceable. She was the one who had every right to be proud and arrogant.

Linton kept his eyes downcast. The once proud, aloof man now looked utterly broken. His Adam's apple moved slowly as a dark, uncertain light flickered in the depths of his eyes. A thoughtful expression crossed his handsome face as he murmured in a hoarse, cold voice, "Perhaps... this is the price of pride."

He couldn't help but laugh at himself. He and Liliana had both been so immature. Two people stumbling through life together, both trying to express love for the first time, clumsy and childish. But Linton had no intention of using "youthful indiscretion" as an excuse for his past mistakes. A mistake was a mistake, and it couldn't be erased by simply saying, "I was young and didn't know better."

Because when you make a mistake, the harm you cause to the person you love is irreversible. When you have truly hurt them, all excuses and justifications become pale and meaningless in the face of reality. Linton's eyes fell as he took a sharp, gasping breath, a suffocating tightness seizing his heart. It felt as if a heavy stone was crushing his chest, as if countless sharp threads were wrapped around his heart, squeezing until it was raw and bleeding.

His chest rose and fell erratically. His face turned deathly pale as a cold sweat beaded on his forehead. A numbness crept into his hands and feet, and his scalp tightened as a wave of dizziness washed over him. His vision blurred, his fingers trembled uncontrollably, and he felt like he couldn't breathe. Gabriel watched him quietly, his brow furrowing. "Linton, you..." he began, his cool voice tinged with an uncharacteristic hesitation.

Gabriel wanted to warn him, but Linton cut him off with a slight raise of his hand. Just then, a sharp ring pierced the air. His phone was ringing. Linton took a deep breath, trying to calm his ragged breathing. His sharp, phoenix-like eyes hardened, and his face settled back into its usual mask of cool arrogance as he answered the call. "What is it?"

Lucas’s voice came through the line, urgent and serious. "Mr. Cooper, as you instructed, I've handed all the evidence over to the police. We've coordinated with them to arrest the Nightfall brothers. Seeing that it was over, they confessed to everything." Lucas paused for a few seconds, his urgent tone shifting to something more complex and hesitant. "Mr. Cooper, based on the Nightfall brothers' confession... I sent my men out. We found Matthew's belongings in the mountains."