Chapter 6

Emma Carter POV

The funeral was simple and hurried.

Because Noah had died in the line of duty, representatives from the fire department came to pay their respects. My parents fainted several times from crying and were carried to the next room by relatives.

I knelt alone before my brother’s coffin.

My eyes had dried out. I couldn’t shed another tear.

Three days had passed since Noah’s death.

During those three days, Adrian never appeared. He didn’t call. He didn’t even send a single message asking how I was.

I signed one cold document after another: the death certificate, the cremation authorization, the paperwork to close his official records.

Every signature drove my hatred of Adrian deeper into my bones.

I had thought that after five years together, even if he didn’t love me, he would feel some pity for me.

Reality slapped me hard across the face.

Numbly, I took out my phone and opened Instagram.

The first post was one Serena had uploaded half an hour earlier.

The background was a luxury private yacht beneath blue skies and bright water. Serena wore a sexy bikini and sunglasses, smiling boldly at the camera. In the center of the group photo, Adrian wore a casual white shirt, his arm naturally draped around Serena’s shoulders.

His expression remained distant as he looked at the camera, but the slight curve of his lips stabbed straight into my eyes.

Serena’s caption read:

[The investment ran into a few problems, but thank you, Adrian, for putting aside all your work to take me out on the water. I feel so much better now. I’m lucky to have you.]

Putting aside all his work.

Taking her out on the water.

Helping her feel better.

I stared at the words, finding the entire thing absurd.

My brother lay in a freezing coffin, his flesh burned black. Meanwhile, Adrian—the man who had claimed the hospital couldn’t survive without that investment—had abandoned everything to accompany Serena because of a “small problem.”

In five years, Adrian had considered it a waste of time to accompany me downstairs to buy fruit.

My finger hovered over the screen for a moment.

Then, calmly, I liked Serena’s post.

As if a spell had been triggered, a new message appeared less than a minute later.

It was from Adrian.

[Emma, Serena was upset because the investors suddenly backed out. I’ve been staying with her these past few days, and I didn’t have my phone with me.]

[I’m sorry about your brother. Dr. Harris said things weren’t looking good? Don’t panic. When I return tomorrow, I’ll arrange for the best specialists to examine him. Don’t worry about the money.]

[Also, I was too harsh on the phone that day. We’ll talk properly when I get back.]

I stared at the words, “things weren’t looking good,” and suddenly began laughing hysterically.

“Hahahaha…”

I laughed alone at the funeral, bending over as tears began pouring down my face again.

He didn’t know my brother was dead.

He hadn’t even bothered to ask what had happened at the hospital. He thought that if he was willing to offer money and arrange specialists, everything could still be fixed.

I didn’t reply.

I exited the chat, blocked and deleted Adrian’s number, then stood and brushed the dust from my knees.

After the funeral, I returned to the villa.

It was the last time I would come back before completing the handover. Most of my belongings had already been cleared out.

I went to the storage room and dragged out the black twenty-four-inch suitcase I had originally planned to take with me.

I opened it.

Inside were my essentials, along with the things I had secretly kept as souvenirs.

A cheap refrigerator magnet Adrian had brought me from his first out-of-town conference.

A photograph I had secretly taken of him sleeping on the sofa.

A diary filled with five years of love.

And the black bank card he had thrown at me all those years ago.

Without expression, I removed each item.

Then I carried everything to the spacious backyard.

There was an abandoned metal burn barrel there, usually used by the gardener to burn dead leaves.

I tore the diary into pieces and threw it inside.

Then the photograph.

I smashed the refrigerator magnet before tossing it in.

Finally, I held the black card filled with the money he had used to buy my dignity.

I struck a match.

The moment the flame touched the paper, it leaped higher.

Orange fire swallowed Adrian’s sleeping face in the photograph. It devoured the humiliating love letters I had written in the diary. It consumed the false promise represented by the black card.

I stood before the flames and watched the ashes of my five years of youth scatter in the wind.

My face was expressionless.

Even the last trace of longing burned away completely.

“Adrian.” I watched the fire, my voice so soft it seemed the wind could carry it away. “I don’t owe you anything anymore.”

Five years of unrequited love.

Five years of devotion.

One life.

This debt ended here.

I turned, lifted the half-empty suitcase, and walked out of the villa without looking back.

The front door locked behind me.

I didn’t return to the hospital. Instead, I sent the handover documents to the nursing director and bought a train ticket home that night.

To a place where Adrian Black would never exist.