Chapter 4

That villa was my eighteenth birthday gift, the last memento my mother left me.

I had once smiled and told her that it would be our home once we were married.

Now, it was just a chip in her mouth, to be casually sold off to save another man.

How dare she? How dare she say such monstrous things just because I loved her?

I looked at her utterly entitled face and suddenly smiled.

"Alright,"

I heard myself say in an unnervingly calm voice.

"Seraphina, you and him can stay locked together, and don't you dare infect anyone else with your toxicity."

"I wish you both a hundred years of happiness. Don't disappoint each other."

With that, I turned to leave, resolute.

But Seraphina panicked. She rushed after me, grabbing my wrist.

"Julian, what do you mean?!"

"I told you I'm just repaying a debt! As soon as he's better, I'll marry you!"

I looked at her anxious face, then abruptly shook off her hand, letting out a cold laugh:

"Seraphina, there's no need anymore."

I had given up on her.

I didn't want her.

I turned and pressed the elevator button.

Seraphina, however, charged over like a maniac, blocking the elevator doors with her body.

Her face was filled with anxiety and a hint of thin anger at being defied.

"Julian! I can't believe you're such an ungenerous man! I always thought you were different from all those ordinary guys out there!"

"It's just selling a house to save a life, why can't you understand me?"

"Four years of our relationship, just over this little thing, you want to break up with me? Have you forgotten how many times I rejected him for you? Can't you sacrifice for me just this once?!"

I watched her hysterics coldly. From inside the apartment, Caleb's timely groan drifted out.

"Sera… my head hurts so much…"

A flicker of struggle crossed Seraphina's face, but she ultimately gritted her teeth, spat out, "Wait for me here," and rushed back inside.

The elevator doors slowly closed.

In the final second before the gap shut completely, I clearly saw Caleb leaning on Seraphina's shoulder, flashing me a victor's defiant smile.

I got into my Bugatti Veyron and calmly dialed my dad.

"Dad."

"I've made up my mind. I'm coming home."

On the other end of the line, my dad's booming voice first fell silent, then erupted in wild joy:

"Made up your mind?! My love-struck fool has finally seen sense!"

"That gold-digging vixen finally disgusted you? I always knew she was trouble! An opportunist who clawed her way up with her looks, thought she was hot stuff, didn't she? Why should my son suffer such humiliation?!"

"Wait! I'm sending someone to pick you up right away! And that villa, I'll have that place scrubbed clean, sterilized three times over, inside and out. Not a single trace of her will remain!"

Listening to my dad's roar, I leaned against the car window, a wry smile on my face.

"Alright."

The car sped to the villa entrance.

But as I opened the main gate with my fingerprint, a nauseatingly sweet smell assaulted my senses.

The living room was a mess, the carpets and sofas covered in suspicious, wet stains.

The cloying, almost fishy smell made my stomach churn.

Seeing the used toys on the floor, I couldn't hold it in anymore and rushed to the doorway, vomiting violently.

Just as I was seeing stars, my vision blurring, a sharp blow landed on the back of my neck.

The world instantly flipped upside down.

In the last moment before consciousness plunged into darkness, I saw Seraphina's face.

When I woke again, I was handcuffed in a basement.

Seraphina sat on a chair opposite me, watching me silently, her eyes obsessive and deranged.