Chapter 18
Jonathan’s game improved slightly. For a moment, he truly believed it was Anna standing before him.
“Anna! You’re back! You’re finally back! I’ve been looking for you for so long, searched all over the city and couldn’t find you.”
He immediately pulled her into his arms. A few warm tears fell onto her clothes, causing her to…
But in the next instant, he snapped back to reality and realized something was wrong. Her scent was nothing like Anna’s.
Jonathan pushed her away with a forceful shove, sending her sprawling onto the table. His grip tightened, almost choking her; her eyes rolled back as she gasped. She struggled relentlessly, trying to push Jonathan’s iron grip away.
“Jonathan! Stop! You’re going to kill her!”
Several of his brothers quickly grabbed his arms, trying to stop him. Only then did he slowly come to his senses, withdrawing his hand. He cast a cold, sweeping glance over everyone present, taking note of who they were.
“I think I warned you all before, but some couldn’t hold back. Fine, from now on, we’re no longer friends.”
“From now on, we’ll only be opponents, not friends!”
“If it weren’t for you guys, maybe I wouldn’t have done something to hurt Anna.”
Jonathan mercilessly threw down these words, chilling the hearts of everyone present. In the city, they were at the top, with Jonathan at the helm. Who could contend with him?
Everyone exchanged nervous glances, each growing more uneasy. One, mortified, slapped himself in the face, wishing he had never done such foolish things. One by one, the men slapped themselves, each filled with a regret so deep they could hardly bear it. If only they had said nothing, done nothing, and simply kept Jonathan company as he drank away his sorrow. Things wouldn’t have turned out like this. If they hadn’t pushed Jonathan to find another way, perhaps none of this would have happened. But sadly, there were no ifs.
Jonathan, drunk and heavy-hearted, seemed to be cold bone. The photos Anna had disposed of—some of them still had backups. He printed them out and placed them back where they used to be. Some did not have backups and were lost forever.
He had tried so hard to bring the house back to its former state, but it still felt different. Without Anna, the house had lost all its life.
Standing by the window, Jonathan realized that from this angle, he could see everything in the landscape clearly. So, on the day she left, she had witnessed him kissing Isabella with her own eyes. His heart twisted painfully, and he pressed his hand tightly against his chest, gasping for breath. The pain, however, only made him more awake, more aware of what he had done.
“Assistant, Daniel… Anna…”
“Sorry, President Jianan, there’s nothing…”
Jonathan hung up the phone. The result was still the same. Over the past few days, he had sent many people to investigate Anna’s whereabouts. But she had canceled her identity information. Even when she went to the airport that day, she used temporary identification. She had also bought several tickets to different corners of the world. Though the Jianan family was vast and powerful, their influence was limited, and finding Anna was as difficult as climbing the heavens. Her identity had been canceled, which was as good as erasing her existence from the world. That meant their marriage no longer existed.