Chapter 5

Celeste always said “soon.”

She was so absorbed in her own world, she didn’t see the poisoned hatred in Jaxon Miller’s eyes when he looked at me.

Jaxon began to secretly take my medication.

He didn’t know that Celeste, afraid I’d discover their dirty little secret, was adding even more pills to my food every day.

Large blanks began to appear in my memory. I would often sit by the window for an entire day, doing nothing.

Celeste was quite pleased by this. She just thought I wasn’t clinging to her anymore, and even inexplicably seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

It was laughable. She’d gone to such lengths to turn me into a useless shell whose world revolved only around her, and now she found it tiresome.

I said nothing, merely existing, slowly, steadily, falling out of love with her.

Until that evening at dinner, the mansion door burst open.

Jaxon Miller stumbled in, disheveled and frantic, collapsing to his knees directly in front of me.

“My mom has a heart condition! Come for me, but leave my family out of this!”

He cried hysterically, as if I had committed some heinous crime.

Outside the villa, flashbulbs erupted, reporters had swarmed the mansion, practically blocking out the light.

“Ms. Hayes, what’s your comment on your wife publicly exposing your affair with Mr. Miller online?”

“Ms. Hayes, was ten years of deep affection just a facade?”

For ten years, Celeste’s deep love for me had been a fairy tale, whispered about by everyone in our circle.

Now, with the fairy tale shattered and a third party exposed, all fingers naturally pointed at Jaxon Miller.

Reporters’ microphones practically poked Jaxon Miller’s face, their questions harsh, their tone accusatory.

Celeste’s face instantly darkened. She stared at me, her eyes a maelstrom of barely contained fury.

But in the end, she still didn’t touch me.

She simply pulled Jaxon Miller aside, saying she would handle it.

Turning away, she called her assistant, instructing them to prepare for Jaxon Miller’s entire family to move abroad.

Jaxon Miller’s eyes hardened. He tapped his phone a few times.

Less than a minute later, Celeste’s phone rang.

Jaxon Miller’s parents, reeling from the shock, had been in a car accident and died.

Jaxon Miller crawled over, desperately tugging at my pant leg.

“I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry…”

He sobbed, his words a jumbled mess, yet with chilling clarity, he twisted all the blame onto me.

“You warned me in high school not to try and take what was yours… I was expelled then, why didn’t I learn my lesson… Now I’ve caused my parents’ deaths, I’ve ruined our whole family…”

Celeste’s eyes flashed crimson. She clamped onto my wrist, her grip so tight I thought my bones would shatter.

“Why are you so cruel?!”

Jaxon Miller wailed, kowtowing to me:

“Please, I beg you, spare my family! I don’t want anything anymore…”

Celeste let go of me, reaching to help him up.

But Jaxon Miller swayed, then deliberately collapsed, tumbling right into me.

A sickening pool of vibrant crimson bloomed beneath him. I looked down, seeing the stark red spread under him.

Clutching his stomach, he cried out pitifully:

“I told you I wasn’t going to fight you anymore! Why are you still trying to ruin me?! You secretly stopped your meds, faked your amnesia, all just to wait for this moment to get your revenge, didn’t you?!”

That last sentence detonated in Celeste’s mind like a thunderclap.

Her face was a mask of dark fury as she sharply ordered a servant:

“Search his room!”

Soon, a servant returned from under my bed with a dusty box.

Inside, it was packed full of the unused pills I’d saved over the years.

SLAP! Celeste’s hand connected with my face, sending me sprawling to the floor.

Every word was squeezed out, venomous and precise.

“So all these years, you’ve been lying to me!”

“You never loved me!”

I was locked away, forced to press my handprint onto divorce papers.

Through the servant who brought my meals, I learned that Celeste was going to marry Jaxon Miller.

In the public statement, I was portrayed as the homewrecker.

Our marriage, merely a form of revenge against her.

Now, everything was back on track.

I was the one being sent abroad.

Even with ten times the normal dose of medication pumping through my veins, Celeste still wasn't reassured.

She believed I would never love her.

The excessive medication often left my mind in a haze.

I couldn't even distinguish the passage of time.

On the night before my flight, Celeste came to my room.

She traced my face.

“If only you could have loved me.”

I looked at her and smiled, a vacant, foolish grin.

As soon as dawn broke, I was escorted onto a private jet.

I was bundled up, my face mostly hidden, and no one recognized me.

Everyone around was buzzing about Celeste and Jaxon Miller’s wedding of the century.

They chattered on, full of excitement.

Only I wondered, who was Celeste?

But once the plane took off, I cast the question from my mind.

Strangers’ affairs weren't worth the effort.