Chapter 5

He shoved me hard, and I laughed.

"Jason, I never intended to cling to you. Why won't you just leave me alone?"

"I'll be leaving here soon, and I won't appear again..."

Jason's eyes, however, were full of doubt and disbelief.

Sarah scoffed.

"Who are you trying to fool? You think you'll give up that easily?"

"And your deadbeat parents, using sponsorship as an excuse to force Jason to marry you. Your whole family was scheming against him."

"Let me tell you, if you dare show your face in front of Jason again, I'll have someone desecrate your parents' graves."

My face turned cold.

This time, I grabbed Sarah's hair and slammed her head into the mangled, scattered roses.

She shrieked.

Her eyes were dangerously close to being pricked by the thorns.

Jason wrapped his arms around me from behind, dragging me back.

Finally, the bodyguards who rushed in pinned me to the ground, screaming hysterically.

Sarah took the opportunity to play the victim, crying as she hugged Jason.

"Jason, I'm so scared! She tried to kill me and our baby..."

"If you touch my parents' graves, I swear I won't let you go!"

Jason held her tightly.

His face was cold, his eyes like ice.

"Amber, how do you know I wouldn't?"

My pupils contracted.

My parents had brought Jason home, sponsored his education, and treated him like their own son.

He had knelt before their ashes, sobbing, vowing through tears that he would never forget their grace, that he would protect me until his last breath.

But now, his words were utterly merciless.

I had thought, at the very least, he would spare their memory.

It wasn't until a bodyguard handed him a phone, displaying a picture of my parents' desecrated graves, the tombstone shattered.

Jason's eyes showed no flicker of emotion, silently condoning the insult.

My heart wrenched, and my whole body convulsed with pain.

My eyes, fixed on him, felt like they would bleed.

"Jason, why?! What did they do wrong..."

What did I ever owe him?

He shifted his gaze, avoiding my question.

"You provoked Sera. She's carrying my child."

I laughed. Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably.

Despair, powerlessness, and suffocation drowned me.

Even a second life didn't make me worthy of the truth.

"Just let me go. I won't bother you again."

Jason's gaze wavered for a fraction of a second. Then it hardened. "Sera will cover the cost. But you will apologize to her."

I took a deep breath and stood up.

Under his doubtful gaze, I slapped him hard across the face.

He looked at me in disbelief, mixed with anger and hurt.

But I'd had enough of his performance. I turned and left the flower shop.

Jason moved to follow me, but Sarah cried out that she felt faint.

He had to quickly scoop her up and get into the car.

Then, he pulled out his phone and sent a message to his assistant.

"Check Amber Reed's hospital records."

...

Days later, en route to the airport, the investigator's encrypted file hit my inbox.

As I read the contents of the first page, my hand trembled violently, and my blood ran cold.

So that was why. That was why he'd changed overnight, faking amnesia to look me in the eye and lie.

That was why he'd tossed away a decade like it was nothing!