Left for Dead Came Back for Everything novel Chapter 124

She took a deep breath and continued.

"Of course, my dad was a piece of work too. He brought a string of different women around, turning the house into a circus. Hudson ended up taking me to live in the old family estate. We had a small army of staff and never wanted for anything materially."

She looked up, a beautiful but desolate smile curving her lips.

"Eliza, Hudson and I are just exquisitely dressed orphans."

She suddenly turned her face and flashed Eliza a wide, forced grin, desperately trying to look unbothered.

"So you see, we're a perfect match. Your mom treats you like an ATM she can sell to the highest bidder, and my mom treated me like baggage she had to throw out. One thinks her daughter isn't profitable enough, and the other thinks her daughter is too inconvenient."

"Different paths, same destination. They're both absolute garbage."

Eliza couldn't hold back anymore.

She put her food down, reached out, and pulled Gwen into a tight embrace.

Gwen's entire body went rigid.

"What are you doing! I wasn't even crying—"

"You don't have to cry," Eliza said, her voice feather-light. "If you don't want to cry, don't. But please, just stop smiling like that."

"When you smile like that, it hurts me more than if you were sobbing."

Gwen's lips trembled.

That impenetrable armor finally cracked.

She buried her face in the crook of Eliza's neck. She didn't make a sound, but Eliza could feel the fabric of her shirt slowly growing hot and damp.

Two girls, deeply bruised by their own families, held each other quietly in the dead of the night.

Outside the window, the wind rattled the balcony railing with a low, mournful howl.

A long time passed.

Gwen finally lifted her head from Eliza's shoulder. Her eyes were as red as a rabbit's, and the tip of her nose was bright pink. Yet she still forced a fierce, tough expression onto her face.

"If you ever tell anyone I cried, our friendship is officially over."

"Right, you didn't cry," Eliza agreed earnestly, gently wiping a stray tear from Gwen's eye. "My shoulder just started sweating on its own."

"...Shut up."

They stared at each other for a second before bursting into laughter simultaneously.

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