?Chapter 1573:


    Ste fixed Nina with a piercing stare, her voice cold enough to cut ss. “You turned William into a monster and still dare to me him for it. Nina, you make me sick.”


    Nina mped her lips together, her gaze driving into the floor with poisonous resentment. She refused to acknowledge what Ste had said — even though she knew it was undeniable. If she had never taken William to Arlo, none of what followed would have happened.


    She looked up at Ste, jealousy and bitterness flooding her eyes. “What choice did I have, Ste? You drove me to this! If you had not taken everything from me, I would never have turned to Arlo, and I would never have handed William over to him!”


    In reality, regret gnawed at her over the torment William had endured. But at that time, Arlo had been the only one willing to extend a hand. William had been hovering between life and death after jumping off the cliff for Ste, and she had no option but to let Arlo save him. The price, however, was the maniption of his memories and binding him to Arlo’s control.


    Nina strained violently against the handcuffs biting into her injured wrists, struggling uselessly toward Ste. “This is all because of you! Why did you have to steal everything from me!”


    Ste had no intention of debating fantasies that had never existed. As a member of the Carter family, being brought back was only natural — it was Nina’s jealousy that had twisted the truth, not Ste taking anything from her. She also knew that no exnation would ever reach Nina now. If Nina had possessed even a shred of genuine remorse, things would never have reached this point.


    Marc sat off to one side, listening to the exchange between the two women as though his spirit had already left his body. Only when Ste rose to leave did he suddenly lift his head, eyes fixed on her, lips trembling as if he wanted to speak.


    Ste held his gaze for a fleeting second before turning away. The wounds Marc had inflicted left her unwilling to have anything to do with him. Yet seeing that he wanted to say something — and recalling William’s chilling detachment — she paused and slowly sat back down.


    A spark red in Marc’s eyes the moment she did. “Stel, I will tell you everything I know. Please — can you forgive me?”


    Disgust crossed Ste’s face. “Marc, if forgiveness is what you want, do not treat the truth like a bargaining chip. Say it or do not. I truly do not care.”


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    The hope drained from his gaze. His shoulders slumped, and after a long silence, he spoke in a low voice. “When I found you at the cliff that day, Nina had already taken you and was about to inject you. I fought her like a madman to pull you back. She never nned to let you survive.” Even now, the memory sent a chill crawling down his spine. Had the dosage been stronger, Ste would not have merely lost her memories.


    He slowly lifted his head and met her eyes, emotions tangled and heavy. “Everything afterward was also part of her design. She ordered me to move against the Briggs Group, and this time she told me to run away with you and promised we would be safe. I never thought she would turn on me too.” He should have taken Ste far away himself, instead of trusting Nina.


    “That Arlo is a mercenary leader — cruel and ruthless. All he wants are your mother’s memories so he can restart the old experiment.”


    “Enough, Marc!” Nina suddenly cut him off, her eyes sharp and venomous. “You useless coward.” She locked onto him with a sneer. “What is the point of pretending now? Were you not the one who wanted William ruined? You drugged Ste to suppress her memories and lied about her being in aa for two years. None of that came from me.”


    Marc went silent, fury burning red across his face.


    As the two turned on each other, Ste signaled Luca to watch them. She sank back into her chair, her breathing growing uneven.


    Her mind filled with imagined scenes of William’s memories being altered, day after day, under Arlo’s control. She did not know the exact method — only that it must have been unbearable. The image of William locked alone somewhere, screaming until his voice broke, stabbed painfully at her heart.


    Only now did she understand that what he had endured far exceeded anything she had imagined. She could notprehend how someone as proud as William had been forced — through drugs and hypnosis — to ept such twisted, fabricated memories into his mind. Thinking back to how he had imprisoned her in the vi, his cruelty and hostility suddenly made sense. Those emotions had been born from memories forced into him against his will. It was no surprise that such tampering had left him with severe bipr disorder as a devastating aftereffect.


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