I'm Afraid I Won't Be Able to Leave

Chapter 156: Chapter 156: Who Are You?

Brandon Jacobs’s heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t expected that with so much happening these past few days, Leah Sinclair would have still noticed these details. He looked at the young woman staring at him with open hostility, and after a moment of silence, he smiled and shook his head.

"You and Mabel... you’re so much alike. Not just in your looks, but you’re just as clever."

"So, who are you, really?"

Leah Sinclair’s gaze was icy. She knew Mabel Grant couldn’t have gotten to her current position by being a fool. If there was something wrong with Brandon Jacobs, her mother would have known. But she just couldn’t figure out what role he played in all this.

"What if I told you that I am Tobias Sterling?"

Leah Sinclair’s face went white. "Wh-what?"

Brandon Jacobs’s eyes reddened as well. He reached out a trembling hand, wanting to caress Leah’s face, which had gone deathly pale in an instant. But his hand hovered in midair, shaking for a long while, before he finally let it fall. He didn’t dare.

"Back then, when the ’accidents’ kept happening one after another, I knew that unless I died, Thomas Sterling would never let me go. My driver was always completely loyal to me. He... was also the only person in the Sterling Family who was ever kind to me."

"Thomas Sterling kidnapped his family and used them to force him to go through with it. But my driver told me everything anyway. We devised a plan and paid to find a man who had the same blood type and a similar build. The man was already on the verge of death. We gave him a sum of money to provide for his family. After the ’accident,’ I went abroad, had plastic surgery, and took on a new identity."

For Tobias Sterling, his identity had never been what he wanted. From the very beginning, all he had ever desired was to be with Mabel Grant.

So, when he learned of the plot, he decided to play along. He faked his death in that accident, cast aside his identity as the second son of the Sterling Family, and had his appearance surgically altered so he could remain by Mabel Grant’s side as another man.

"Does... does my mom know?"

"She does. She started investigating me the moment I got close to her. Even though I’d had plastic surgery, when I learned that you... were gone, I could feel how devastated she was, so I went to her."

"I hadn’t managed to change many of my old habits back then, so she might have sensed something from the very start. Eventually, I told her the truth. The only ones who knew were her and me. Now... there’s you. Even Mason doesn’t know."

"Why are you telling me the truth?"

"Because you are my and Mabel’s child," Brandon Jacobs finally said, his voice thick with emotion.

"I’ve lived for nearly fifty years, and the happiest days of my life were the day I found out Mabel was pregnant with you, and the day Mabel and I got married."

Brandon Jacobs gazed at Leah tenderly. "The day I found out Mabel was pregnant with you, I ran all over Riverfall to every jewelry shop. In name, I was the Second Young Master of the Sterling Family, but in reality, I didn’t have much money of my own."

"I looked at so many things before finally picking out a small golden lock. I was so ashamed back then that it was all I could give you. I was worried you’d think it wasn’t good enough. When your grandmother sent you away, Mabel cried for over a month. She went out searching for you again and again. The problems she has now with her eyes and legs are from the toll it took on her back then."

"So... Leah, Mabel and I... we truly love you very much. Please... please forgive us. For taking so many years to finally find you."

’These past few days, having to see Leah right in front of him yet pretend to be just her stepfather, unable to be close to her like a real father and daughter... for him, what was it if not torture?’

That day, when Leah stood seething with rage at Wisteria Gardens, he had wanted nothing more than to tear the three members of the Sinclair family limb from limb. But he could only grit his teeth and hold back.

After Leah and the others left, Brandon Jacobs had given the remaining members of the Sinclair family—everyone except for Jason Sinclair’s wife and child—a brutal lesson before throwing them in a police station, reporting them for concealing a crime.

Leah Sinclair had never known a father’s or a mother’s love, but today, she felt it with every fiber of her being. Her parents hadn’t abandoned her because they were ashamed of her. On the contrary, they loved her dearly.

"Leah, I know you resent us. I’m sorry. I’m truly so sorry. Can you forgive me? Let your mother and I properly... make it up to you, please?"

As he finished, Brandon Jacobs’s voice suddenly turned desolate. From the initial shock of discovering that his and Mabel Grant’s daughter was still alive, to the thrill of meeting Leah, and now to his confession—the turmoil and uncertainty in his heart were every bit as intense as Leah’s.

"In the past, I resented you countless times in my heart. I thought you abandoned me because you were ashamed of me, that you didn’t love me."

Leah took the golden lock from her pocket as tears began to stream down her face. "This golden lock... I don’t think it’s not good enough... I love it."

Brandon Jacobs could no longer hold back. Two streams of tears streamed down his cheeks. He walked over and pulled Leah into his arms. "Leah, I’m so sorry. It’s all Daddy’s fault. If I hadn’t been so cowardly back then, you and Mabel would never have had to suffer so much."

The father and daughter held each other and cried for a long time before their tears finally subsided. Leah looked up at him and asked, "From now on, should I call you Dad, or Uncle Jacobs?"

"As much as I long to hear you call me Dad, for now, you should probably keep calling me Uncle Jacobs. Once some time has passed, you can start calling me Dad, and no one will have grounds to say anything."

Brandon Jacobs wiped away his tears and looked at her with a benevolent expression. The word "Dad" was what he had longed to hear from Leah’s lips more than anything these past few weeks.

"Then I’ll call you that in private. It’ll be like we’re in *Infernal Affairs*," Leah said.

Leah let out a small laugh. It held the playful affection of a daughter toward her father, and Brandon Jacobs suddenly felt as if the darkness of the night had brightened completely.

"About Mom..."

"Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her. She’s been too excited to sleep properly ever since she found out you were alive. Especially after Mason told her you’d been found, she had several sleepless nights. She hasn’t been sleeping well here in Riverfall either. She just took some medicine and is asleep now. That’s why I came to find you."

Seeing that Leah was exhausted too, Brandon Jacobs didn’t stay for long. Like any ordinary father, he gently reminded her to get some rest.

Leah had thought the past few days had been a rollercoaster, but the shock she received tonight was just as staggering. In this new environment, she found she couldn’t sleep.

Lying in bed, she couldn’t stop thinking about Asher Keating. Clutching his shirt, she curled up into a small ball and cried silently under the covers.

When Ethan Shaw arrived at Asher Keating’s hotel, he found him drinking alone with an icy expression on his face. Ethan tentatively spoke up. "Asher, are... are you alright?"

"Just fine," Asher Keating replied icily.

Ethan Shaw shivered involuntarily. ’He doesn’t seem fine at all.’ Though Asher’s tone was flat, it only convinced Ethan that he was, in fact, very far from fine.

"Leah... I think... there must be a reason she went back to Kingsford," Ethan said. On the way over, he had been carefully thinking about what Sheila Hughes had told him.

He knew Leah wouldn’t just leave Asher for no reason to return to the Grant Family in Kingsford, a place completely foreign to her. She had lived a hard life from childhood, and things had only started looking up for her after she got together with Asher.

And while the Keating Family couldn’t compare to the Grant Family, it was more than enough for her. Besides, she was so in love with Asher.

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