Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 424: Too Late For Repentance

Chapter 424: Too Late For Repentance

Jerome looked at Ralph and his voice was as calm as a trickling stream. There was no anger, there was no vengeance; just calmness.

"Your truth was never THE truth, Ralph. You were lied to by Dorothy. There might be two sides to a story, but there are no sides in truth. There is only one truth. There can’t be versions of the truth. The truth might be bitter like medicine, but it is good for your soul to heal if you accept it. Accept it and-"

"Will I be let go?" Ralph looked at Jerome and then ended up laughing maniacally. "If I accept THE truth, will I be let go?"

"Why? Why Jerome? Why didn’t you show me all these ten years back? Why did you make me do all those things to hurt others?"

He knelt on the floor with his forehead touching the ground and started banging his head.

"If I had known... If I had an idea... Even if I had a little doubt that Dorothy lied, I wouldn’t have dedicated my life to this... What a waste! My entire life was a waste... With everything I had... I could’ve ... Even Arnold Belfauger advised me to live well with what I have... But I..."

He crawled towards Talia.

"I even did that despicable thing to her... I hurt her and I..." he banged his hands on the floor and blood started to ooze out from the wounds.

"Why didn’t you show me these earlier, Jerome? Why?"

He wailed loudly.

Talia saw her grandpa rubbing his chest and brought him out. She saw him getting pale and she got scared.

She asked the big guy to not stop Ralph from killing himself if he attempts to anymore, and to keep him away from any potentially harmful objects at the same time.

He looked at Talia for a good two seconds before giving her the acknowledgement and salute.

The Princess is ruthless!

Talia held her grandpa’s hand as they walked out and Arthur silently walked behind them. He could see everything that happened inside and understood that Jerome revealed the truth.

He was curious about what was said there, and he knew his Iris will talk to him about it and so he was not in a hurry to learn it.

More than his curiosity, he could see the stoic exterior of Jerome Brunton cracking down and he saw him walking with drooped shoulders and it hurt him.

The ride back was filled with stifling silence. Talia sat in the back with her grandfather and held his hand to support him.

"Jerald wanted to keep the secret forever. In my attempt to keep it a secret just like my brother wished, and in my rage against Dorothy, I ignored basic humanity which led to everything. If I had brought in that boy and his mother in for a tea and carefully explained that Jerald cannot be his grandmother, everything would have been different."

Jerome spoke and started coughing. Talia rubbed his chest and it pained her to see her grandpa like this.

He cannot blame himself for what Ralph did to me! Ralph had a lot of choices to make and he chose this path and executed his plans to hurt others when he could have backed off any moment.

"Grandpa, don’t think about anything, alright. I am fine, see!"

She smiled brightly and she saw her grandpa’s face brightening up a bit.

"Don’t feel bad for that dreg of the society and ruin your health, grandpa. Don’t let him get to you. Even if you threw his mother out of your estate without telling them everything you knew, you were in the right. Also, look at me! It’s not like I never faced rejection or got any nasty comments from people. Do I know why they do it every time? I don’t go around killing people for fun and drug people, who go against me, do I?

And Lord Lockhart... Even after he saw the video of his son getting killed by me, he didn’t plan on ruining our family or you this actively without searching for the truth, did he? Ralph is inherently evil and if not for his crusade for his perceived cruelty against his mother, he’d have found another reason to be evil to hurt another. Don’t fall for his victim act."

Talia didn’t feel a bit sad for Ralph. The guy who had a hand in Cyrus’ death and who almost ripped out her uterus deserves this and much more.

"You’re right. I know," Jerome patted Talia’s back and smiled at her.

Talia knew her grandpa is still feeling guilty about what happened with Ralph but she didn’t want to lose her grandpa over it.

Talia made sure her grandpa is thoroughly checked by the house doctors before they had lunch together. After making sure he is resting, Talia walked out of the room.

Arthur was waiting outside the room for Talia. He watched her every step of the way as she comforted her grandpa while she herself has suffered a great loss.

He wanted to give her a tight hug and as soon as she came out of the room, he did what he wanted.

"Fred, you’ll never think I am losing myself to vengeance, will you?" she asked burying her head in his chest.

"Never . And unless you go on a rampage killing innocent people, I won’t stop you."

"I know."

Talia found herself understanding Arthur more and more and she wondered if there will come a day where she won’t have to explain anything to Arthur anymore.

Talia and Arthur went for a short walk in the garden. The evening breeze and the little chirping birds, the fragrance of flowers, combined with the warmth from Arthur’s hand gave her an uplifting mood.

Talia spoke to Arthur about the letters and he listened to everything silently.

"So Jerald Brunton was gay. That explains it..."

Arthur rubbed her back and Talia had her light bulb moment.

"How do you know what those words mean?" she asked.

"Some boys use those derogatory words still," he said with a little sadness in his eyes. It is not fair to treat someone badly for who they love.

"Oh! So that’s what that is! Now I understand why my granduncle wanted to keep it a secret. It was almost five decades ago and times were different back then and people were not that accepting."

Talia felt really sad. She was raised to judge people with the content of their character and nothing else. But there still are many prejudices in this world separating humans.

Just to protect the Brunton family from an embarrassment, her granduncle made a hard decision. He was pushed to that decision by the greedy and reckless act of Dorothy.

No wonder grandpa still holds his brother dear to his heart. He left this world early because of the stigma in the society and lack of support from his peers just because he was different from them even though he never hurt them.

Talia leaned on Arthur’s shoulders with a sigh.

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