Chapter 129 Let's Settle This
After Seb sat down, Susan felt uneasy and quickly said, "I'll make some coffee."
Without waiting for a response, she headed to the small kitchen.
There wasn't any hot water, so she hurriedly boiled some, then grabbed coffee grounds and put some in a cup.
Susan hadn't expected Seb to come today; she was extremely nervous, like her heart was about to jump out of her chest.
The small apartment was quiet, except for the kettle boiling.
Seb stayed on the sofa outside. Maybe he felt the same way?
After five or six minutes, Susan finally came out with a cup of coffee.
"Here you go," she said, placing the cup in front of Seb.
"Thanks." Seb was unusually polite today, a bit distant, with sunglasses hiding his emotions.
Susan couldn't see his eyes and felt awkward standing there.
Maybe Seb noticed, so he pulled out a bank card and placed it on the coffee table.
"This is from George and Vivian. There's eighty thousand dollars: ten thousand for medical expenses, thirty thousand for ending your contract with their law firm, and forty thousand for emotional distress and lost wages. My lawyer calculated it all, so it's pretty fair. Are you satisfied with this?" Seb asked, looking at Susan.
Without thinking, Susan crossed her arms and said, "Since a lawyer did the math, I can't argue. First time I got slapped and got forty grand for it. Guess my face is worth something."
Her words were bitter and self-mocking. Over the years, she'd taken quite a few slaps, some she fought back, some she couldn't. This was the first time she got paid for it.
But why did she feel so uncomfortable? She'd thought about compensation before and accepted it, but now that she was actually getting the money, it felt like she was always the one getting hit.
Seb frowned but didn't say anything. He pulled out two papers and said, "If you're okay with it, sign these settlement agreements."
Susan found a pen and signed both copies.
Seb left one copy on the table and pocketed the other. "The bank card password is 123456."
"Okay," Susan nodded.
After the business talk, Seb hesitated. Susan wanted to say something, but they had nothing to talk about.
Seb stood up and said, "I'll be going now."
Susan opened her mouth but only managed a soft "Hmm."
Seb seemed to glance at her, then turned to leave.
"How's your foot?" Susan suddenly called out, looking at his back.
Seb stopped in his tracks, his back stiffening. "How did you know?" he asked without turning around.
"I saw blood on the hospital floor," Susan replied honestly.
After a pause, he said, "It's just a small injury, almost healed."
"That's good," Susan said, struggling to keep her voice steady.
When she didn't hear anything else, Seb lowered his head. "I'm leaving."
Susan frowned.
As Seb lifted his foot to go, Susan couldn't hold back. She rushed forward, bumping into his back and wrapping her arms around his waist.
Seb was stunned for a moment, then lightly frowned.
Resting her head on his back, Susan murmured, "Seb, I don't mean anything else. I know we probably have no future together, so I just want to express my feelings."
"What do you want to say?" Seb's deep voice came.
"No matter why we were together before, and no matter if we will become two parallel lines that never intersect in the future, I just want to tell you that I once liked you!" A tear rolled down Susan's cheek.
This was her most genuine feeling, one she had kept inside for a long time. Saying it in front of Seb today made her feel relieved.
She said this not to rekindle anything with Seb but to make a clean break from the past.
Let this relationship end with her expressing her true feelings. From now on, she would find a new job and was even planning to leave Maple Valley to start fresh somewhere else, so she could completely leave everything about this place behind.
Hearing these words, Seb's body visibly stiffened, and he held his breath.
The next moment, Susan let go of his waist, took two steps back, turned her face away, and said without looking at him, "Alright, I've said what I needed to. You can go now."
Seb suddenly turned around, took off his sunglasses, and stared at her with piercing eyes. "Susan, what do you mean by this? Are you telling me this just to make me leave?"
"I just want to put an end to this. Let's not see each other again. Even if we do, let's just be strangers," Susan said, holding back her pain.
Seb stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders, sneering, "Susan, I was about to leave with the same thought, to act like we never met. But you're too cruel! You tell me you like me and then tell me to leave. Don't you think that's unfair to me?"
"What else can I do? Ask you to stay? What about Cynthia? The one you love is her, not me!" Susan couldn't hold back her frustration and shouted at Seb.
"When did I ever say I love Cynthia? Which ear of yours heard that?" Seb tightened his grip on her shoulders, clearly struggling to control his emotions.
"Isn't Cynthia your first love? Aren't your families close? Weren't you childhood sweethearts? If it weren't for her family's troubles, you might have had kids by now. And there's a photo of her in one of the books in your study. Am I right?" Susan blurted out all the evidence she could think of that Seb loved Cynthia.
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