I've Been There Before (Grace and Caden) novel Chapter 210

Humbert was feeling very shocked and his feelings were indescribable. He was listening to his best friend squabbling nonsense, “If only I didn’t drop my phone…”, “If only I didn’t move the nightstand away when I picked up my phone…” Humbert had a clear image in his mind, his best friend moved the nightstand away when he was trying to pick up his phone, and accidentally came across this hidden secret.

“If only I didn’t drop my phone…”

“If only I didn’t pick up my phone…”

Humbert clenched his fist, he was getting annoyed listening to his best friend repeating the disheartening “If only…” again and again. Caden was like a useless and dispirited middle-aged man whose wife had left him and whose son had died. Humbert felt like punching his best friend and beat the sense out of him. But he couldn’t do it.

“If only… If only I realized it sooner!” The whole time, Caden was very pessimistic, he was acting like a coward and was just running away from his problems, giving himself excuses. Finally, he cried out what he was really feeling deep down!

If only he realized it sooner, would the situation right now have changed?

Would his lovely wife be right next to him, along with his sweet children?

Humbert looked at Caden, his best friend of many years. He never saw Caden in this state before.

Humbert’s eyes flickered, he stood up abruptly and strode towards the exit.

Wilson was a worker who fulfilled his duty well and was rule-abiding. He waited outside of the corridor which was 3 to 4 meters away from the room. Humbert walked out of the room and saw Wilson, he said emotionlessly, “Follow me.”

Wilson hesitated briefly, but Humbert walked pass him without a pause. Wilson glanced at Caden’s room, he gritted his teeth and decided that he had no choice but to turn around and follow Humbert.

“Mr. White, where are we going?”

Wilson followed Humbert downstairs, seeing that Humbert didn’t even slow down his pace, Wilson quickly ran after him. But Humbert quickened his pace, he was silent the whole time and finally stopped in front of a small door.

“This…”

What beneath this was…

Wilson knew that Humbert was familiar with the Shaw manor, he could only follow behind Humbert. They walked down the winding stairs that led to the basement.

The stairway was dark and it led directly towards the basement. The basement was lighted with warm yellow lights that weren’t too bright, the basement also had a strong alcohol smell to it.

Humbert didn’t hesitate, he walked towards the end of the wine rack and took one bottle of wine after another, he shoved it into Wilson arms until he couldn’t hold anymore. Humbert then held 4 bottles of wine himself, he still wasn’t saying anything, he just turned around and left.

Wilson didn’t understand what was going on at all, all he could just follow behind Humbert. They both reappeared in front of Caden’s bedroom, Humbert kicked the door open and threw the wine bottles that he was holding on the bed. He was rough and didn’t care that his action might easily break the wines that probably cost a fortune.

“Wilson, put done those wines and you can take your leave.”

“But Mr. White, the master is…”

“Put down those wine and get out. I will take responsibility for whatever that happens, if he dies, I’ll die with him.” Humbert glared harshly and coldly at the butler, Wilson was having cold sweat as he gritted his teeth because he was responsible for Caden. Humbert was a respected and prestige person, but even with his promise Wilson wasn’t assured, it wasn’t his principal to walk away like this.

Humbert quietly held out his hand and took the wine bottles away from Wilson’s hand seeing that he wasn’t going to do what he said. He threw them onto the bed, the bottles were hitting each other and the noise they made give people the shivers.

Wilson was driven out of the room by Humbert as he was pondering about what should he say. Before he could even react, the door slammed shut right in front of his face heartlessly.

Humbert’s expression was frigid. In the room, he quietly took the two bottles of whiskeys on the bed and twisted them open. He held out his hand and gave one bottle to the haggard Caden who was sitting on the floor by the bedside, “Come, I’ll drink with you.”

Though Caden kept looking at his palm in a daze as if he didn’t hear Humbert at all.

Humbert squinted at Caden who was right next to him, he straightened out his leg and used his feet to kick him, “Hey, drink.”

If Humbert were to do something forceful and insulting like this towards Caden normally, Caden would beat him up already. Not to mention that Caden was a prideful man, an average person wouldn’t stand up to another person kicking them like that. But the Caden right now just wouldn’t react to anything.

Humbert's heart throbbed in pain.

Was this the Caden Shaw he knew?

Since when did the prideful and king-like Caden become like this?

“Caden, where is your pride, where is your confidence, where is your strength? Where are they? The Caden I knew was apathetic, full of confidence, firm, persistent and strong, where is he right now? Where did the Caden I knew go?”

Who was this drunkard before his eyes?

He didn’t know him!

“Stand up, if you stand up right now, I’ll get Ingemar to book flight tickets. We can go anywhere. Maybe by chance, you would meet her among the crowd!”

“Fate might bring you two lovebirds together again!”

“No, that wouldn’t happen, she would never see me again.”

Caden stared at his palm all dejected, he mumbled to himself, “She left, she ran away as far as she could. She hates me, I knew that she hates me…” As he was mumbling he unconsciously picked up a wine bottle lying next to him, he held it up and raised his head, he tried to drink from the bottle by holding it high in the air. He tried to pour the wine out of the bottle, but nothing came out.

Caden looked at the bottle listlessly, he tried to pour wine out of the bottle again, “Where is the wine? Where is the wine? Why couldn’t I pour anything out…”

Humbert lowered his head looking at Caden in this state, there was a hint of agony in his eyes. How could a person become like this!

He then gazed at Caden’s palm, he thought to himself, Grace, you thought you left this person a heartfelt letter about the truth, you thought it was just a letter… But it wasn’t just a letter, it was more like a punishment for Caden! A death sentence! It cut Caden’s heart into myriad pieces!

Humbert gazed at Caden again, he knew how strong and overbearing of a person Caden was, he knew how rational and logical Caden always acted. It was his first time seeing Caden in this state, Caden who had lost everything.

His felt pain in his heart, because since they were children, he had never seen Caden bowed down or lower his head for anybody else before. “Who, who was the one that stole away your pride?” The answer was obvious, it was none other than Grace!

It was as if the name was cursed, memories of the past came rushing in his mind. The scene before him was something he had witnessed before.

Didn’t they meet again for the first time at the Royal Club’s exquisite private room after Grace got out of prison?

At that time, Grace was so humble. They couldn’t believe that the arrogant and confident Grace would throw away her pride just in three years. She was humbly begging for mercy.

What he was seeing right now, was the same thing with Grace three years ago!

Was this Karma?

Caden was the reason why she went to prison, the reason why she lost all her pride, arrogance and confidence.

And now she had left him for about three years, pushing Caden to the brim and destroying his arrogance and confidence,

Three years for three years, a different person on different dates.

Humbert suddenly felt like he understood the situation, his brain felt clearer. But he still couldn’t just give up on Caden and let him continue acting like this.

Caden changed a lot because of Grace and that was why Humbert hated Grace. But he also knew that Caden loved Grace with all his heart, and that was why he tried to not be prejudice against her. He only wanted to help his friend and preventing him from making the same mistakes, he wanted to help him overcome the pain from the past.

If Caden never loved Grace, he would probably have tried all he could to drive her away back then. But Caden was so in love with Grace, that was why he helped Caden and asked Grace to stay. Humbert knew very well how selfish he was, he was Caden’s best friend, not Grace’s. Humbert was selfish and he never denied it, it was a fact and he never hid his intentions.

Without any expression, Humbert twisted open the bottle and slowly tilted it. The alcohol smelled strong, Caden who was sitting on the floor was now drenched with the transparent liquid from head to toe, “Is this enough? I have more if you want.”

It was as if time had stopped.

Caden protected the letter in his palm all flustered, it was as if the letter was his life. No, the letter was something more important than his life!

Humbert felt even more distressed seeing him protecting the letter so carefully, he hated it but he couldn’t do anything about it.

“There is no use protecting that piece of paper, Caden. You put the cart before the horse,” said Humbert plainly, “I don’t know if she hates you, but Caden, what you should do is to apologize sincerely to her.”

Humbert flung the bottle on his hand away upon finishing his sentence, he then walked over the shitfaced Caden. He opened the door, paused for a while and then he said, “Think about what you should do, think carefully about it yourself.”

This time, he didn’t stay any longer. He took a big step and slammed the door behind him.

It was as if outside the bedroom door was another side of the world.

Inside the bedroom was dim, dirty and filled with a weird stench again.

Wilson who was standing outside the bedroom saw Humbert came out, he hurriedly went up to Humbert and asked, “How is the master?”

Humbert rubbed the middle of his brow and his head was throbbing, “Just let him be.”

“What…what do you mean?” Was the master unable to pull himself together even after Mr. White visited him?

“Also, there is no need to prepare his meals for him, just prepare some hangover soup at all times.”

“How could he not eat?”

“Well, you couldn’t possibly stop him from dying if he wants to die.” Humbert slightly raised his brows.

Wilson had nothing to say.

“I see that you understand your master’s temperament very well.” Humbert snickered, “There wouldn’t be any meaning to it if that door wasn’t open by itself from inside. Don’t knock on the door, don’t try to open it from outside.” The person inside would naturally open the door and walk out of the room when he finally had everything figured out.

“I’ll come again tomorrow.”

On a certain social media site was an anonymous post about an unethical homestay in Erhai Lake. The poster was describing everything vividly in details, the homestay was described as not even worth a penny. The poster said that the homestay was making dirty money, driving their guests away even though they paid in advance, that they picked on people who weren’t their own size, and that all the workers generally harassed the guests together. The online post was small, but it attracted a lot of attention because of its sensational title.

There were so many reposts and replies in the post that one had to scroll forever to get to the latest reply.

Though, in the end, this matter only managed to spark a hot debate in a forum.

Very quickly, the post that had many reposts and replies suddenly disappeared, the hype was short-lived and long gone.

At the same time, a mansion in a suburban area.

The mansion stood alone amidst the greeneries, there was also a golf course next to it.

The large mansion had a western feeling to it, it was lavish and luxurious.

In the study room on the third floor of the mansion.

“Boss, we managed to get rid of the online post. The technician found the anonymous poster and they had people interrogate the young couple. This is the recording of their conversation.” A man with a buzz cut in a black suit who looked very stern handed a recording device to the other man sitting behind the office desk.

The other man held out his long arms across the office desk, he used his index and his middle finger to take the recording pen. He turned on the device familiarly and the recording was played.

The man hiding in the dark squinted as he listened to the recording, and then there was a small beep, signalling the end of the recording.

The person with the long arms started playing with the recording pen with his hands, the end of his thin lips was slightly arching up smirkingly in the dark.

Was it really her?

“The photo in the original post was a bit blurry, did you ask for the original photo from the poster?”

The thin lips moved seductively, and his voice was husky, he spoke slowly with a deep voice.

The man in the black suit was prepared, he reached into his pocket and got out his phone, “Boss, I have the original picture, we found it in the poster’s phone and had it sent to my subordinate’s phone.”

As he said that, he handed the phone to his boss with two hands.

The person with long arms received the phone from his subordinate, the screen was already showing the photo he wanted. He looked at the photo carefully, it was obvious that it was taken without permission.

The angle of the photo was bad.

But it might be because the couple just wanted to take a quick snap of the homestay and accidentally took a picture of the woman as well.

Her side profile was blurry, but the woman in front of the window was about to turn around, and hence the photo managed to capture her face.

The man went on the forum to take a small break from his tiring and endless work, he clicked into the post and was just reading it half-heartedly. Another post about a complaint. The photo caught his eyes as he was about to close the page, he was shocked.

The photo in the forum was very blurry and nobody would normally notice the woman in the photo. Even though it was only a side profile, he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

The original photo in his hands right now was clearer than the one in the forum, but the person in front of the window was still not clear enough to tell who it was.

Even so, the side profile of the person was familiar.

“Was it really her?” The man squinted his eyes while looking at the phone in the dark, his eyes flickered and he felt suspicious, in a split of a second he raised his head, “Go to the airport and contact the workers, check on Latdin before takeoff.”

The man in the suit was stunned, Latdin was a private jet, why would his boss suddenly want to go somewhere right now?

He hesitated but he proceeded to relay the boss’s order to the other workers involved.

The man behind the desk was still hidden in the dark, even in the dark one could see that his face was exquisite, his dark eyes were lightened up.

As if he suddenly remembered something, his slender fingers made a phone call, “The incident that you posted about ends here, I don’t wish to see the post on the internet again and that nobody is allowed to repost and reply to the post anymore. Most importantly, I don’t want it to be seen by people who shouldn’t see it. Do you understand?” The man’s voice was frigid and decisive.

He then hung up.

He turned around and stood in front of the window with charming curtains. He was about to end things and start all over.