Chapter 5

Stella POV

The next morning, Lucas pushed open the villa door carrying a bone-chilling coldness.

Serena had only suffered a minor superficial injury, but he'd still watched over her at the hospital all night.

As he walked into the living room, he saw a maid carrying a black trash bag toward the exit.

"Stop. What are you holding?"

Lucas asked coldly.

The maid jumped in fright and quickly answered.

"Sir, these are things the madam asked me to throw away this morning. They're all old things..."

Lucas's gaze sharpened, falling on the half-open trash bag.

Inside was a pile of cut-up clothes. All the cheap items he'd casually bought me over the years, which I'd treasured and worn for three years.

And in the middle of those fabric scraps, a familiar wooden ring appeared in Lucas's line of sight.

Lucas snatched the trash bag, pulling out the wooden ring.

The ring had some age to it now. The edges had been worn smooth, and the inside still faintly bore the initials of our surnames.

"Where is Stella?!"

Lucas looked up sharply, his eyes bloodshot as he roared at the maid.

"M-Madam is in the glass greenhouse in the back garden..."

The maid trembled all over in fear.

Lucas clenched the wooden ring and strode toward the back garden with long, determined steps.

On this early autumn morning, a cold drizzle began to fall.

The glass greenhouse had no heating. It was as cold as an icebox.

I wore thin pajamas, using my left hand to awkwardly pull up withered rose bushes by their roots one by one, throwing them into a nearby trash can.

These roses. I'd planted them by hand when I first married Lucas.

I'd naively believed that if I tended them with care, they'd bloom brilliantly someday, just as I'd believed that if I loved him enough, he'd look at me eventually.

Now the flowers were dead. So was my heart.

"What are you doing?!"

An angry roar suddenly came from behind me.

My movements paused. I didn't turn around, just said flatly, "Clearing out trash."

"Clearing out trash?"

Lucas rushed forward in a few strides, grabbed my shoulder, and forcibly turned me around.

"Stella, what kind of madness are you having? What's the deal with this ring? Where did you steal it from?!"

He shoved the wooden ring right in my face, his expression fierce as if he wanted to devour me.

I looked at the wooden ring, then at Lucas's enraged face, and suddenly felt it was unbearably ironic.

He'd forgotten me, forgotten everything, yet only this ring triggered a reaction in him.

Too bad. Too late.

"Stole it?"

I laughed softly.

"If Mr. Thornfield says I stole it, then I stole it. It's just a worthless piece of junk anyway. Throwing it away is no big deal."

"You!"

Lucas grabbed my throat and pinned me against the cold glass wall.

"Stella, do you think playing these tricks will get my attention? I haven't settled the score with you for pushing Serena last night! Now, go to the hospital immediately and get on your knees to apologize to Serena! Otherwise, I'll make you wish you were dead!"

I was forced to tilt my head back, breathing becoming difficult.

My right hand hung limply at my side, the thick bandage already soiled with rainwater and mud, faintly seeping bright red blood.

But Lucas didn't notice at all.

"I... won't... go..."

I forced these words through gritted teeth.

"Good! Very good!"

Lucas was so angry he laughed, suddenly releasing his grip.

I lost support and fell sitting in the cold mud, coughing violently.

"Since you love staying here so much, then stay here! Without my permission, no one is allowed to let her out! And no one is allowed to bring her food!"

Lucas turned and strode away.

With a loud "bang," the greenhouse door was locked tight from the outside.

The cold autumn rain pounded against the glass, making suffocating sounds.

I curled up in a corner, hugging my shivering body tight.

Three days until the "Deep Sea" agreement took effect.

Night fell. The autumn rain turned to freezing sleet mixed with ice.

The temperature in the glass greenhouse dropped to freezing.

I curled up on the muddy ground in the corner, my whole body burning, my consciousness beginning to blur.

Excruciating pain came from my right hand wound, accompanied by the bone-deep aching brought on by high fever, as if countless ants were gnawing at my flesh and blood.

"Lucas..."

I mumbled that name carved into my bones in my feverish delirium.

In my haze, I seemed to return to the fire scene when I was eighteen.

Scorching flames devoured everything. The moment the beam fell, the young man held me tightly beneath him.

"Stella, don't be afraid... I'll protect you..."

The young man's voice was gentle and firm, but in the next second, it transformed into Lucas's ice-cold mockery.

"What do you think you are? How dare you compare yourself to Serena?"

"Draining you of your blood is what you owe her!"

In the interweaving of ice and fire, I fell completely into darkness.