Addiction to Temptation: His Mischievous Sweetheart Captivates Him-Chapter 265: This Is Not Love

Natalie Vaughn sat up from Zane Thorne’s embrace. She must have seen that woman somewhere before. Zane followed her lead and sat up as well.

He remained silent, just watching Natalie, without interrupting her thoughts.

Suddenly, Natalie began rummaging through the box she’d placed in the corner. Phoebe Quinn had a habit of taking photos in high school, always taking two copies so each person had one. Natalie took out the stack of photos, unsure of what exactly to look for, but she felt she had seen that woman somewhere else.

Natalie flipped to the photos from the rally they watched years ago and realized she also had the picture of Zane that Phoebe had shown her when she learned about their blind date.

Zane raised an eyebrow and reached out to take the photo, commenting on it.

"Well taken."

Natalie set the photo aside and kept searching until, amidst a pile of competition photos, she found her answer.

"Look, it’s this woman. I told you I must have seen her somewhere else, I didn’t expect she also watched that rally back then."

Zane had initially smiled as he ruffled Natalie’s hair, but the smile vanished the moment he saw the photo.

Natalie keenly noticed Zane’s odd reaction.

"What’s wrong?"

Zane extended his hand to grab the photo, looking at the woman in it and let out a cold snort.

"You... know her?"

Zane tossed the photo back into the box.

"You know her too."

Natalie frowned, not immediately understanding Zane’s hint.

"It’s Vera Underwood."

"..."

Natalie widened her eyes, picking up the photo again for a closer look. The Vera in the photo looked so young, her face full of collagen, her eyes were bright, and she was fuller figured. Compared to the now slender, gaunt, and worried-looking figure she had become, the difference was striking.

No wonder she didn’t remember.

So... six years ago, before Gideon Sheffield’s incident, Vera was already involved with another man? Is that what this means?

Natalie glanced at Zane’s expression, hesitant to say she might have seen it wrong. But she couldn’t, remembering why she had stared at that couple and fallen into a trance; she’d known even then they weren’t just any couple.

Moreover... she had even seen the man before; he was once a business partner of Mr. Vaughn.

She remembered the woman’s face, realizing she’d seen her back then, which led her to dig up this photo.

Who could have anticipated such coincidences?

Zane’s expression wasn’t great; he thought Vera’s betrayal of Gideon only began after his accident, but he hadn’t expected it was much earlier.

If he remembered correctly, Gideon had proposed to her back then. How could she, how dare she accept a proposal so comfortably, and still act as the injured party after the incident?

Zane squinted his eyes, pulling out his phone to make a call.

"Help me check which hospital Vera had her pregnancy tested at back then and her prenatal records."

After Zane hung up, Natalie finally spoke up.

"But prenatal records won’t reveal the father’s identity."

"Check the dates."

If he wasn’t mistaken, that was the year Gideon was preparing to retire and was away from home for a long time.

Unintentional memories recalled yet inadvertently revealing past events, Natalie couldn’t fully grasp what this meant. Just that actions, good or bad, are watched by heaven above; retribution may be late but never absent.

Natalie leaned against Zane’s shoulder, asking.

"Do you plan to tell him?"

Zane remained silent for a long time.

"Not right now."

He couldn’t quite decide whether to tell Gideon. If Vera’s child back then wasn’t his, he couldn’t predict how Gideon would react after finding out.

Gideon had felt guilt and regret for years over that child, and if he discovered it’s someone else’s, he might just have a breakdown.

Now, he’s returned home, with his parents by his side, and his life had slowly moved forward. Zane wasn’t sure, after revealing this, whether Gideon would keep moving forward or end up trapped in the past.

...

Natalie called Vera Underwood.

After Gideon returned to the country, Vera, from who knows where, had reached out, asking about his situation.

Vera quickly answered the call.

"Hello?"

Hearing her voice brought back images of seeing her in Veridia, leaving Natalie somewhat unclear if Vera’s feelings for Gideon were genuine or feigned.

At the coffee shop then, she could feel Vera’s lingering thoughts about Gideon. If there were true feelings, why commit betrayal?

Natalie was straightforward.

"Was the child back then Gideon’s?"

Vera seemed unprepared for Natalie’s question.

"You..."

"Just answer yes or no, or you can stay silent. We can investigate ourselves; you know it won’t be hard for us to find out."

Vera stayed silent.

Natalie didn’t really expect Vera to respond. She just couldn’t understand, if Vera truly loved Gideon, how could she do something like that? If she didn’t love him, why pretend to care when they met in Veridia? There was no need.

After a long pause, Vera only said.

"Natalie, people from your backgrounds don’t know the hardships of the world."

Natalie let out a scoff, laughing at Vera’s lofty claims.

"I may lack hardships, but I know what’s shameful. No matter how unspeakable, unfaithfulness is unacceptable. Do you call betraying him love? If you wronged him, why accept his proposal?"

"I..."

"Vera, stop deceiving yourself, using your self-justified emotions to excuse your mistakes. Wrong is wrong. After Gideon’s accident, you left without a thought, so don’t pretend to be deeply affectionate, fishing for his news anymore."

"Don’t call me again. Pretend I was blind and missed the mark before."

With that, Natalie ended the call.

Her belief in love meant caring for your beloved and sharing their burdens in ways you can. Love, to her, doesn’t allow unfaithfulness, any supposed unspeakable reason was merely an excuse.

Natalie let out a deep breath; she hated complications, like the messy past of Vera and Gideon, and truly didn’t want to deal with it anymore. She wished Zane wouldn’t either, but she couldn’t stop him.

What did that past event have to do with Zane? Absolutely nothing, except for Zane’s strong sense of brotherhood and loyalty to Gideon, which made him shoulder events from five years ago.

But five years, such a long time is really enough.