His Regret Can’t Bring Us Back Chapter 06
When Nicole opened her eyes, she was in an old, abandoned factory.
Several men stood around her. “Well, look who’s awake. That sedative must’ve been strong.”
Nicole watched them warily.
They were dressed like members of the gang, but she could tell at a glance that they weren’t survivors from the Catskills hideout.
Those men had been brutal and ruthless, with eyes far more vicious than these street thugs.
“Enough. Hurry up and do what you came to do!” Anastasia’s voice suddenly rang out from behind them.
The moment Nicole saw Anastasia, her pupils tightened. “What are you trying to do?”
Why was Anastasia here?
The men rushed forward. Nicole instinctively shut her eyes, but the pain she expected never came.
Instead, they searched her, took her wallet and pen, then stuffed papers and letters she had never seen before into her clothes.
Nicole’s brows twisted tight. “What the hell are you doing?”
Then, to her shock, they tied Anastasia up and suspended her from the roof, several stories above the ground.
“Ms. Bradford, did we do it the way you wanted?” One of the thugs untied Nicole and shouted the words at her loudly.
Nicole’s mind went blank as she watched the setup play out right in front of her.
She saw the smug smile at the corner of Anastasia’s mouth, and in that instant, she understood everything.
Anastasia was framing her for colluding with the gang.
Nicole turned and tried to run, but in the next second, police sirens blared.
The fake gang members scattered in every direction.
Sebastian stormed in with his team and saw only their fleeing backs.
Nicole stood on the ground, completely unharmed.
Meanwhile, Anastasia was hanging in midair, her life at risk.
“Sebastian, help me! I accidentally found out Nicole was working with the gang. She was the one who got Eunice killed, and now she’s trying to kill me too!”
At those words, Sebastian snapped his head up and stared at Nicole.
In that moment, the disgust and shock in his eyes sent her straight into hell.
Nicole’s face turned pale, and she clenched her fists. “Sebastian, I didn’t do it!”
The team quickly rescued Anastasia.
Then, Sebastian rushed forward and seized Nicole hard. “Don’t move!”
He broke her wrist.
Her face went deathly pale. The pain was so sharp she couldn’t even scream.
Expressionless, he threw her into the police car as if tossing away a pile of trash.
“Nicole, I wondered why you spent a night in that hideout and somehow weren’t badly hurt! I wondered why we couldn’t find anyone based on the sketch you gave us. So this whole time, you were working with them!
“I’m so disappointed in you!”
Sebastian’s voice was full of anger, and his eyes brimmed with disappointment and contempt.
“That’s not true. I—”
The car door slammed shut.
Nicole’s heart dropped into the abyss.
At the police station, Nicole spent three full days repeating the truth again and again. All she got in return was Sebastian’s indifference and a shake of his head. “There are witnesses and evidence. What else do you have to argue?”
He questioned her the way he would question a violent criminal, then used relentless pressure to break her down.
Nicole lost control and screamed at him, “Why?! Why do you never believe me?!”
He only lowered his eyes coldly. “Anastasia would never use Eunice’s death to frame you.”
Nicole laughed bitterly and closed her eyes in despair.
Then, an urgent manhunt in the neighboring city pulled Sebastian away. Before he left, he gave her one last cold warning, “Nicole, when I get back, you’d better name your accomplices. Otherwise, don’t blame me for forgetting what we used to be!”
She watched him leave and closed her eyes, drained of all strength.
After he was gone, a new investigator took over the case and finally cleared her name.
Nicole was released without charges.
Like a walking corpse, she stepped out of the police station and left behind the place where she had spent five years working herself to the bone, giving everything she had.
Step by step, she walked slowly away. Not once did she look back.
At the courthouse, she sat at the counter and accepted the divorce certificate from the clerk. “Ms. Bradford, this is your ex-husband’s copy.”
Nicole lowered her eyes to the name “Sebastian Crawford” and felt nothing but indifference.
“Tell him to come pick it up himself.”
She went home, picked up her two bags, and headed straight to the train station.
On the train, the conductor was going over the safety precautions for entering Alaska.
Nicole turned her head and looked out the window as the scenery slowly slipped backward.
For one brief moment, the harsh sunlight stung her eyes so sharply she almost cried.
Then, she pulled down the shade and gently closed her eyes.
