Gu Rong turned pale. Thankfully for him, Yating was at school or else there would have been a huge commotion in front of him.
Duan Ren gasped with her mouth gaping wide in shock. "Is it true? You killed your first wife?"
He clenched his jaw. "It's not what you are thinking-"
"Don't even lie to me! I heard it just now! Don't try to cover it up. I-I have been living with a murderer all this time?"
Butler Mo rushed out. "You are misunderstanding, Mistress. Master is not a killer."
"Lies! You killed your wife and then you lied to me!"
Gu Rong clenched his fists. It was true that hid the truth because he felt it was too complicated to explain. He didn't know if Duan Ren would understand his side of the story and he didn't want to carelessly reveal the truth if she rejected him.
He thought to tell her in the later years as more time passed but he simply didn't find the chance. She was doing well with Yating and he didn't wish to jeopardize their relationship.
Gu Rong tried to calm down and explain to her the real situation but Duan Ren held no interest.
She sneered. "I admire your shamelessness, Rong. You expect me to abide by the contract when you broke it from the beginning! You kept such a huge reality hidden from me."
He closed his eyes. He admitted he was wrong in keeping it from her. She had the right to know. But he was so desperate in completing Yating's life with a mother's presence that he chose to keep his silence.
Luo Liuxian was in a delicate mental situation when she kidnapped Yating. Rather than believing that Gu Rong killed her to protect Yating, it was easy to believe that he did so to take revenge from her for her affair and betrayal when she was in her weakest state.
"Then what? You were planning to kill your second wife too?" Duan Ren narrowed her eyes.
He gritted his teeth. "Enough Ren. I will apologize how much ever you want for hiding the truth but please know that I had my reasons-"
Just the thought of it was enough to make his chest frenzy.
He looked up at her and said, losing any remaining hope he held to give Yating a happy life with a mother's love in it, "Let's divorce, Ren. I will give you whatever money you want. But you absolutely won't utter a word about this to Yating."
*Flashback ends*
At present, Gu Rong slowly opened his eyes which expressed how fatigued he felt. Telling the whole story was akin to living through the nightmare once again.
He forced himself to look at Yating though his heart was trembling to gather courage for it.
"I am sorry, Yating. I killed Liuxian. I failed with Ren too. In the end, I couldn't give you the life I always envisioned for you. Instead, I kept fighting and arguing with you, challenging your dreams and ideals...But I felt I had no choice. I didn't want to lose you," he coughed.
"You were walking down the same path as me and I have seen nothing but complications and betrayal. That's why I wanted you to lead the company. You will never have to face any problems. I don't want you to go through the same struggles like I did. That's why I could never like Zhou Ai for you. She reminded me of my difficult times and of Liuxian.
I couldn't trust her. I *cough* don't care if you call it bias. I don't care if it was unfair to her. To me, that only looked like history repeating itself."
His eyes turned wet as he let out everything he had been hiding from Yating so far.
"But it's such an irony, right?" He weakly laughed at himself. "The problem between me and Liuxian was communication. Yet I failed to do the same thing with you. The more you grew, the more I started feeling afraid that you will leave my side. It felt like this happiness was temporary...So I thought that if you take Gu Corps after me, then everything...will be alright.
Your future is secured and you will always...be with me.
But you dreamed of becoming an editor and to me, it's still not a career I would like you to have. I worked hard for the Gu Corps because I didn't want you to worry about your future. But you wanted to make a name for yourself. You wanted to be free from my shadows just like how I wanted at one point in time. And that...scared me, Yating.
I was scared to drift away from you like I drifted away from them...I am sorry. I am so sorry for being such a terrible father..."
With that and for the first time in years, Gu Rong wailed freely like a child would, letting those deeply buried tears, guilt and fear once and for all.