Chapter 3
My phone slipped from my grasp, shattering into pieces on the floor.
The sounds of the entwined man and woman abruptly ceased, but I clearly heard the sound of my own heart fracturing.
Tears splashed onto the screen. Liam Knight rolled his wheelchair over to me.
He wiped the tears from my eyes, his voice low and hoarse.
“Don’t cry. You deserve better.”
Liam Knight arranged my hospital stay. For nine full days, Julian Thorne didn’t come looking for me once.
But during those nine days, he and Amber trended on Ins countless times.
Paparazzi photos showed Julian had booked an entire hotel, spending days in his suite, seemingly tireless with a woman.
The photos only showed half of the woman’s body, but it was clear Julian Thorne lavished her with extreme affection.
The woman’s waist and arms were covered in hickeys, and a lustrous, emerald-green bracelet hung on her wrist.
That was the Thorne family heirloom. Julian had personally promised me:
“Stella, when you’re older, you’ll be the most respected woman in the Thorne family.”
A sharp pain pierced my chest. I silently waited for the last IV drip to finish.
Liam Knight dropped me off at the Thorne family mansion. Before he left, he pressed a new phone into my palm.
“Call me if you need anything.”
The White family and the Knight family had long been close, generations of family friends. When my parents were still alive, our families had even discussed an engagement.
But I was so utterly obsessed with Julian, I swore I’d marry no one else, and gradually drifted away from my childhood sweetheart, Liam.
I pushed open the villa’s front door. Julian, who claimed to be a germaphobe, was meticulously peeling a mango for Amber White.
Amber provocatively glanced at me, then familiarly snuggled into Julian Thorne’s arms.
Julian Thorne stood up guiltily, offering the freshly peeled mango towards my mouth.
But I was allergic to mangoes. Even a tiny bit could be deadly.
I forced a bitter smile. The stinging pain all over my body was nothing compared to the agony in my heart.
Julian Thorne was a cruel executioner, torturing me slowly, leaving me utterly broken, as if by a thousand cuts.
He gently wiped the remaining juice from my lips. “Sweet?”
I didn’t answer. Then Julian Thorne pulled a property transfer agreement from his briefcase.
The beneficiary was Amber White.
The tight string in my brain snapped with a buzzing sound. I raised my voice in disbelief.
“Julian Thorne, you want me to transfer all my property to my parents’ killer?”
He frowned, displeased, his eyes cold enough to kill.
“Amber just made some mistakes in her youth. How is that ‘killing your parents’?”
Amber White had been envious of my father’s expanding company and deliberately sold our business secrets to a rival company.
That rival company had then tracked my father’s whereabouts and deliberately engineered a car accident, causing my parents to perish in a fiery car crash.
Julian Thorne had taken me in and raised me in the Thorne family mansion, promising to thoroughly investigate the accident for me.
Everyone involved in the crash’s conspiracy had been sent to prison, except for Amber White, who fled to another country to seek refuge.
I bit the inside of my cheek, snatching Julian Thorne’s phone to scroll through years of bank transfer records.
For six years, every single month, he’d wired ten million dollars to Amber’s account.
Amber White walked over, feigning sincerity. “Stella, don’t be mad at Julian.”
“It’s all my fault. If only I hadn’t come back, Julian wouldn’t have to force you…”
She cried, a picture of delicate sorrow. But Julian Thorne, a sucker for her tears, forcibly grabbed my wrist and scolded me.
“Stella, for years you’ve been the city’s most pampered princess, someone I truly cherished.”
“You have everything. Why do you still have to fight Amber for these small things?”