Resent, Reject, Regret By Aqua Summers Chapter 4
Chapter 4 Miss McKinney Is Awake
“No, Brendan! Pleaseeeeeeee! I’m begging you, pleaseeeeeeee don’t!” His lips cracked into a cruel
smirk. “Don’t? Don’t what? Aww, Deirdre, Deirdre, Deirdre. Are you ying hard to get now? How low
can you sink?” he jeered. He could not care less about how she felt. If anything, hearing her sniffle and
wail only frustrated him even more. “B-B-Bren… Please, think of our child!” she heaved, pleading.
Tears rolled out of the corner of her eyes like a stubborn stream. “Our… child…” “Our what?! That
thing inside you is the son of a wh*re. I have no rtion to it!” The coldness in his eyes could chill
anyone’s blood. He wanted to punish her. To eviscerate her. To humiliate her. To jolt her awake from
her delusion. To make the child perish in the brutality of it all. “Brendan—!” she cried out again, her
arms iling in her struggle. Suddenly, the man’s phone shrieked out of his pocket, forcing him to stop.
He answered the call and put it on speaker. “What?!” he grunted. Steven Young’s voice was palpably
overjoyed. “S-She’s up, Mr. Brighthall! Miss McKinney is awake!” ….. Brendan drove away in the thick
of the night. It was past midnight, and yet a minute after the call, the man leaped into his car and
hurtled into the darkness. His reaction showed his anxiety and excitement. How could he not act that
way? The woman of his dreams had returned. He no longer needed to put on a charade with this
revolting pretender. Deirdre rose and redressed in her battered state, putting on her night clothes. She
looked through the balcony windows, her eyes tracing the car’s silhouette, which was fading at the end
of the road. She felt a chill in her heart that echoed the innumerable pangs prickling through every inch
of her body, forming a cacophony of unbearable pain. Six years ago, Deirdre McKinnon had met the
man on stage during a charity drive. He had been in a suit and tie, and she had fallen in love at first
sight. The next time they had met, however, it had been amid the cackling mes of a house about to
be ruined. He had been almost swallowed by the fire until she had selflessly dived inside and saved
him. Before falling unconscious, he had promised her that he would find her when he recovered. He
had said that he would marry her, pledging to shower her with love for that single act of heroism. After
waking up, however, he had be Charlene McKinney’s fiance. Deirdre had re-entered his life as a
Charlene impersonator. Now that the genuine thing had finally woken up, it was time to
retire. …… Deirdre fell asleep on a wet pillow, but her phone jerked her awake after a while. The pain
caused by his forceful activity had not fully subsided, so she shrank into a fetal position before grabbing
her phone. Her lit-up screen revealed Brendan’s name. The sight of it drained all her sleepiness away.
There could only be one reason he would call her this early in the morning, but still, it was sooner than
she had expected. Charlene had just woken up. Was he really so excited to divorce Deirdre—to cast
her aside and remove every trace of her from his life? Another call from the same man shook Deirdre
out of her stupor. Too terrified to ignore it, she answered it and set it close to her ear. Brendan’s
impatient snarl red from the other side of the line. “I want you here right now!” “I’m not feeling well,”
Deirdre replied softly. She had seen bloodst night, and even now, she could feel jolts of pain
assaulting her senses. “Can you let me rest a little bit? I’ll file the divorce papers afterward,
okay?” Brendan went strangely quiet for a moment. “Juste back. There’s nothing to be afraid of.
I’m not asking you to file for divorce now and I’m not interested in hurting your kid.” It was the first time
Deirdre had ever seen him make concessions. It shocked her, but more importantly, it stirred something
deep inside her. Brendan never lied. If he promised he would not hurt her kid, then he would not. But
that still left one question unanswered: Why the urgency to bring her back? Could it be? Could he have
realized that—even though Charlene was awake—he harbored some feelings for Deirdre after all?
That she, at the very least, deserved a heart-to-heart? The thought sparked a wildfire in her mind. She
knew the possibility was slimmer than a straw, and yet she found herself moved. She quickly covered
herself with an overcoat, got out of the house, and hailed a taxi. The journey gave her imagination
ample time to run wild. What was going to happen next? She wondered and wondered until she
stepped inside the mansion. The living room was more packed than Deirdre had expected. As soon as
Brendan saw her, his furrowed brows rxed. “She’s here. Collect her blood.” ‘Collect her
blood?’ Deirdre did not have any time to react. Someone leaped from the couch and closed their
fingers around her arm. “What are you doing?!” Deirdre cried out and tried to wriggle her way out of
that grip. Brendan narrowed his eyes in impatience. “Charlene’s unconscious, you mewling pest.
Someone has to donate blood, and that someone is you. You’re going up there right now, so stop
wasting precious time and save Lena’s life!” Deirdre could not believe her ears. “You… You told me to
but the vibe between them could not have been more different. Unlike her, Charlene felt like a natural
princess born to be nurtured by a man’s love and devotion. “Miss… McKinney…” Deirdre called out.
Just parting her chapped lips to speak hurt. She did not know how to feel about Charlene. Was she
jealous? Well, it felt as though even being jealous of her was beyond her status. Deirdre was too low in
the mud topete with Charlene in any way, was she not? She envied her. She envied the privilege
Charlene held—the privilege to be loved by Brendan Brighthall. Charlene shed her a smile. “Call me
Lena. It’s the nickname Brendan gave me,” she replied. “He gave you a world of trouble for my sake,
didn’t he? I’m so sorry you had to live through that for two years.” “It’s n-nothing,” Deirdre huffed quietly.
Charlene’s show of kindness only made meeting her gaze even more difficult. “We… We were just
using each other.” “Huh,” Charlene hummed, her lips curling. Her eyes fell on Deirdre’s abdomen
before they darkened. “And one of the ways you used him was by doing whatever it took to have him
enter you.” Deirdre was stunned. It felt like a punch. Before she could react, however, Charlene
suddenly grinned. “I was kidding! Can you pass me a ss of water, Miss McKinnon?” “A-Alright.” Her
head was spinning from the aftermath, but Deirdre forced herself to reach out for the mug on the
bedside table. She was about to pass it to Charlene when thetter suddenly pped it away from
her. “It hurts!” she shrieked. Boiling water scalded Deirdre’s hand, and the pain drained any faint color
she had on her face. She hardly had the time to wonder why Charlene had done that when a blurry
figure emerged from the door. A force knocked Deirdre off her bed, making her crash on the
floor. “What the f*ck are you doing?!” she heard someone say. She lifted her head and saw Charlene
snuggling in Brendan’s arms, his face pale from panic and concern. It was as if he wished the two of
them could merge into one, especially if it meant he could protect her forever. Charlene’s eyes
reddened. “I-It was nothing, B-Bren. She was just worried, you know? I get it—now that I’m awake,
she’s gonna lose it all. She just wanted to warn me about stepping out of line,” she said. “I really wish I
could tell her that she didn’t have to do that. I’ll always honor your choice, Bren, even if that choice isn’t
me. I’ll leave the two of you alone.” “Her? My choice?!” Brendan growled, glowering at Deirdre as
though he was hoping his look alone could tear her apart. “Over my dead body! She has never been a
choice—she was just a f*cking bitch I called when I felt like it!”