A Night of Desire

Chapter 390 - 383: Don’t Touch Me

Cedric Grant froze, seemingly not expecting the usually gentle Skylar Hayes to be so sharp.

"I admit it, we were wrong for the twenty-odd years that followed. But we never truly meant to hurt you. At the time, I didn’t know what had been done to you... so I had no reason to hurt you on purpose."

"Besides, Jean was the first one to find you. Your clothes were a mess when she did. She was suspicious, but she didn’t say much about it, and she never mentioned it to me again afterward."

"It wasn’t until a year ago, when by a strange twist of fate I had a paternity test done with Clara, that I discovered she wasn’t my biological daughter. That was when Jean finally recalled why your clothes were in such a state when she found you all those years ago..."

"If Jean had really wanted to hurt you, she could have easily voiced her suspicions more than twenty years ago."

"And she and Chloe wouldn’t have been left to wander for over twenty years."

"Stop!" The usually gentle Skylar Hayes suddenly snarled, her arms wrapping tightly around her shoulders.

Ever since she learned a year ago that she had been raped, the memory would send a chill down her spine. For the past year, whenever she thought about it, an unstoppable panic would seize her.

The last time this happened, she’d had to tell her daughter the truth, and it took her a long time to recover. This morning, she saw the man who had kidnapped her all those years ago, and she was still shaken from the encounter.

And now, Cedric Grant was bringing it up again. It was like rubbing salt in a wound, making her heart ache with a fierce, sharp pain.

Seeing her intense reaction, Cedric Grant didn’t dare say more. He instinctively moved to sit beside her, intending to pat her back comfortingly, but she stopped him with a low, firm voice. "Don’t touch me!"

Cedric Grant froze mid-motion, not yet seated. He frowned, and a flicker of revulsion flashed in his eyes before vanishing instantly.

’If Clara Grant weren’t still useful to him, would he even be here?’

’The thought of her body having been touched by some other brute, and that he’d then unknowingly been with her for twenty-some years... it made him sick to his stomach.’

’But he was the one who wanted to use Clara Grant. And to use her, he had to smooth things over with Skylar Hayes. That way, after Clara married into the Quinn family, Seth Quinn would consider him one of them.’

At this thought, he suppressed his inner revulsion and sat back down in his original seat. He softened his voice. "Skylar, it’s okay. Don’t be afraid, it’s all in the past. It’s my fault. I don’t know why I brought that up. I’m sorry I scared you."

Skylar Hayes kept her eyes squeezed shut, silent, but held up a hand to stop him from speaking. Cedric Grant fell silent.

After a long while, Skylar Hayes seemed to compose herself. Her body relaxed slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.

Cedric Grant cautiously glanced at her face and asked tentatively, "Skylar, are you all right now?"

Skylar Hayes took another moment to steady herself. Once she felt completely calm, she spoke without looking at him. "You should leave. Don’t come back. There’s no reason for us to see each other anymore."

The whole reason Cedric Grant came was to earn Skylar Hayes’s forgiveness and patch things up with her; naturally, he wasn’t willing to leave so soon.

His gaze fell on the teacup on the coffee table. He remembered how Skylar Hayes’s hands and feet were always cold, and how she was in the habit of drinking hot water even in the summer. He reached for the cup. "Skylar, let me get you some water. Have a sip, it’ll help you calm down."

As he spoke, he picked up the teacup, walked over to a nearby cabinet, and lifted a thermos to pour some water.

"I said, get out!" Skylar Hayes shot to her feet. As she spoke, she rushed toward him and smacked the teacup out of his hand.