Chapter 4
Her steps halted. She spun around and marched back to me, her eyes bloodshot, her jaw clenched tight.
"Julian Vance, did you forget what you did to me? How dare you say that to my face?!"
How could I ever forget?
Because of that confession letter, Chloe had been mocked like a clown at my birthday party.
My childhood friend, Sarah, had led the crowd in humiliating her.
Chloe had grown so overwhelmed and hysterical that she grabbed a steak knife from the table, screaming for them to give her letter back.
In the chaos, Sarah got cut and collapsed, looking frail and helpless.
Meanwhile, Chloe stood there with trembling, blood-stained hands, crying, "It wasn't me... I didn't mean to..."
I couldn't focus on Chloe back then; I scooped Sarah up and rushed her to the hospital.
Afterward, the prominent family refused to let Chloe off, threatening to press charges and send her to prison.
Chloe's father came begging me to intervene. In the end, I convinced the family to drop the charges and send Chloe to a psychiatric facility instead.
Chloe gripped my collar now, her face twisted in rage and venom. "Don't worry, Julian. For what I went through these past two years, I will make you pay it back, piece by piece!"
A luxury sports car pulled up to the curb. The dashing, polished Marcus Evans stepped out.
His eyes locked onto Chloe immediately.
"Chloe, why are you wearing so little out here?"
He wrapped his coat around Chloe's shoulders and guided her into the car, shooting me a sharp, hostile glare.
They drove off into the night.
A blinding pain ripped through the back of my head. Watching the red taillights vanish into the darkness, my entire body began to shake, and I collapsed onto my knees on the sidewalk.
That night, I got dead drunk in my tiny, rundown rental apartment, my mind replaying the image of Marcus holding Chloe over and over.
Painkillers couldn't numb the agony tearing through my heart.
On my phone screen, a video was playing on an endless loop.
Two years ago, Chloe's father had brought this exact video to beg for a settlement.
In the footage, Chloe was locked in her room, crying day and night, refusing to eat or drink.
She kept screaming that she was going to starve herself down to eighty pounds just to see me.
Her mother had passed away when she was young. When the family housekeeper brought in her favorite strawberry cake, Chloe screamed and smashed it to pieces on the floor.
She kept chanting like a madwoman, "Julian likes skinny girls. I'm never eating cake again."
Chloe... my sweet Chloe, whom I loved with all my heart.
Do I still have enough time left to bring a smile back to your face?