Chapter 3
1153 Words
I was leaving.
There hadn't been much of my stuff left in this house to begin with.
After sorting through everything, I managed to fit all my belongings into a single suitcase.
Lily walked in carrying a breakfast tray. She hesitated for a few seconds before finally speaking, "Mrs. Victor, I don't think Mr. Victor is completely heartless. Last night, when I got up, I saw him sitting alone in the living room for a long time.
"Maybe whatever is going on between him and Miss Lane is really just for the cameras. The two of you went through so much to be together. Don't you think... you should think about this a little more?"
I was putting away the last few pens when my fingers stopped.
After I lost the baby, James had become almost excessively attentive.
He insisted on handling every detail of my life himself, from my meals to my clothes to my schedule.
If Yvonne hadn't sent me those photos, I might have actually forgiven him.
But there had been photo after photo.
Each one more painful than the last.
Two naked bodies. Skin covered in red marks.
One of them was even dated three days after my miscarriage.
That meant while he was sitting beside my hospital bed, apologizing and telling me how much he loved me, he had also been in another woman's arms, losing himself with her.
The thought sent a dull ache through my chest.
I looked at Lily and gave her a small smile.
"Don't try to persuade me, okay? Some things can be forgiven. Some wounds can heal. But there are things that leave scars too deep to erase."
Her eyes immediately filled with tears.
She didn't say anything else. She only nodded quietly before leaving the room.
I placed my suitcase against the wall.
My phone buzzed once on the desk.
I looked down.
It was a message from Colin West.
Colin: Want me to come pick you up?
Colin was the head of the Colin family in Aurelia. He was young, but his methods were so decisive and ruthless that even the most experienced businessmen in the industry feared him.
James had once competed with him over a piece of land in the Meridian Isles.
In the end, James had suffered a crushing defeat and walked away empty-handed.
A few years ago, when I desperately wanted to escape the Victor family's control and find a way to build a life of my own, I had done everything I could to get in touch with Colin.
I never expected that once we connected, he would refuse to let me go.
He had pursued me relentlessly, asking me to give him a chance and constantly trying to convince me to move in with him.
Just thinking about it made the corners of my lips lift unconsciously.
I sent him a voice message.
"No need. I'll go there myself."
"Where are you going?"
A deep voice suddenly came from behind me.
It was James.
He stood by the doorway, his expression dark and unreadable. I didn't know how long he had been there.
I froze for a moment.
Then I locked my phone screen calmly and slipped it into my coat pocket.
"Anna asked if she needed to pick me up for our shopping trip tomorrow. I told her she didn't have to."
He stared at me for a few seconds but didn't question it.
Instead, he changed the subject.
"Let's go out for dinner tonight."
I thought about it for a moment and didn't refuse.
Some things were better discussed face to face, such as the divorce, and what happened to Molly.
After we registered our marriage, James's mother Molly had moved abroad and later died in a sudden car accident.
He had been devastated and withdrawn for a long time, which was why we never held a wedding.
But recently, I discovered something.
The driver responsible for the accident had received a large, unexplained payment shortly before the crash.
And the account that sent the money was connected to Yvonne.
I had no intention of getting involved in their mess.
I would simply hand the evidence to James during dinner.
What he chose to do afterward had nothing to do with me.
*****
That evening, when we left, James drove the car out of the garage and reached over to adjust the passenger seat for me.
I ignored him.
Instead, I opened the back door and sat down.
His hand stopped in midair.
After a few seconds, he turned around and looked at me in confusion.
"Rory, why aren't you sitting in the front?"
"I don't dare."
His brows furrowed.
"What do you mean you don't dare?"
I lifted my eyes and met his gaze.
"I'm afraid people will misunderstand. I'm afraid Yvonne's fans will send me threatening packages or throw things at me."
Yvonne's fans were completely obsessed.
In their eyes, Yvonne was the only woman worthy of standing beside James.
Any other woman who got close to him was nothing more than a shameless homewrecker.
Especially me.
After all, James and I had been involved in dating rumors before.
Once, when I wasn't feeling well, I took James's car to the hospital.
Some of Yvonne's fans recognized us.
They followed us all the way there.
The moment I stepped out of the car, a can flew straight toward my face.
"b***h! Stay away from Mr. Victor!"
"Trying to steal Yvonne's man? Why don't you just disappear!"
Those girls threw everything they could grab at me while screaming the cruelest insults imaginable.
They even cursed my entire family.
I ended up needing three stitches.
The scar on my forehead remained to this day.
James had been furious back then.
He threatened to have every single one of those fans arrested.
But Yvonne stopped him.
She said she didn't want the situation to become a bigger issue. She claimed her fans had only lost control because they loved her too much.
If James pressed charges, she said she would feel guilty forever.
And just like that, the matter was buried.
No one faced any consequences.
Because James let them off, Yvonne's fans only became more reckless afterward.
Eventually, it became an unspoken rule.
No one except Yvonne was allowed to sit in the passenger seat of James's car.
The story of the woman who had been attacked for taking that "special seat" even became one of their favorite jokes.
They treated it like a victory they could brag about.
James must have finally remembered.
The color drained from his face.
He looked at me, countless emotions flashing through his eyes.
"Rory."
His voice was rough and hoarse.
"I know I let you get hurt before. That will never happen again. I swear."
He stared at me.
"Can you trust me?"
I turned my head and looked out the window.
"Whatever you say."
- Writer
