My Sacrifice Became His Betrayal Chapter 07
Aside from work at the Schmidt Deep-Sea Research Institute, I dwell alone on Jarvis Island, cut off from the rest of the world.
Online rumors still lingered that Howard had gone mad searching for his missing wife. Some bloggers even opened dedicated accounts documenting everything he’d done in his desperate quest to find me.
I stumbled across a short-video account named “AtkinsonsQuest.”
As I browsed through nearly sixty videos posted there, it suddenly dawned on me that I had lived in this isolated base for five whole years.
In the footage, Howard’s mental state had deteriorated drastically compared to the man I once knew.
Gray hairs streaked his temples, and heavy dark circles permanently shadowed his eyes.
Over the past five years, he traveled to every corner of the globe, carrying my photo, stopping strangers one by one to ask if anyone knew where I was. He poured staggering sums of money into launching a worldwide campaign to search for me.
He offered a reward of 1.5 million dollars to anyone who could provide genuine clues to my whereabouts.
Yet no one could ever trace me down. It was as if I’d vanished into thin air. All my previous identity records had long been cancelled and erased.
It was only when an accidental explosion rocked the Institute’s laboratory one day, leaving critical equipment severely damaged, that I had to make contact with an inland maintenance engineering team.
Word of my whereabouts reached Howard the very next day.
The moment he arrived, I was standing in the back garden of Jarvis Island, watering the flowers.
Howard moved as if his legs were weighed down with lead. He froze for a long time before he could take a single step forward.
His throat tightened with emotion, trying to call my name, yet he could not force the words out.
Howard slapped himself hard across the face, before my name finally stumbled out in a broken voice, “Adri … Adri…”
My hand stilled on the watering can. Instinctively, I turned to leave. Howard stumbled forward in a rush to catch up with me.
He fumbled frantically to straighten his disheveled appearance, forcing a smile until tears welled up at the corners of his eyes.
“Adri… I’ve searched for you so painfully hard all these years.”
I stared at him with a blank expression, a faint trace of mockery flickering in my eyes.
Howard looked more alive in person than he had in those online videos, like a rose forcing itself into full bloom right before it withers away.
No matter how hard he tried to conceal it, the years of pain and remorse were etched deep into the lines on his face.
When he saw me stand cold and silent, Howard’s heart twisted with agony.
Before I could open my mouth, he dropped to his knees before me and broke down in tears. “Adri, I know I was wrong. I swear I’ll never hurt you or lie to you again. Come home with me, please?”
I said coldly, “Howard, what makes you think I’d ever want someone filthy?”
A sharp flicker of pain crossed his eyes, and he stared up at me with regret. “Adri, I was too young to resist temptation back then.
“It was just the mistake every man makes. I only strayed one small step, and I turned back before it was too late.
“Adri, you loved me so deeply once. Why can’t you forgive me and give me just one more chance?”
“Adri, you loved me so deeply once. Why can’t you forgive me and give me just one more chance?”
I looked down at him with a mocking sneer. “Howard, when you took Madalyn’s child as the Atkinson family heir behind my back, did you ever think we could still go back to how things were?”
Panic flashed across Howard’s face, and he stammered in shock, “Y-you know about this?”
I remained silent, and his complexion drained of all color. Just as we stood locked in an awkward stalemate, a young man’s voice drifted over from nearby. “Adri, dinner’s ready. Come and have a try.”
The panic in Howard’s eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by stunned amazement.