Chapter 8: I Know I Was Wrong

Elena's POV

[Elena, you spineless bitch, do you even know where your husband was last night?]

Below the message was an attached photo.

The photo was taken outside a luxury hotel. My husband Lucas was walking into the hotel with his arm around a woman in an evening gown. Because the woman only showed her back, I couldn't make out her face. But Lucas — his handsome, clean-cut face was crystal clear to me.

Impossible.

No matter how busy Lucas got, he always came home to be with me. He would never go to a hotel with another woman.

There was no way I could believe it so easily. I turned to ask the maid beside me. "Did Lucas leave yesterday afternoon? Did he come home last night?"

The maid's hand, which had been tidying the coffee table, suddenly froze. She kept her eyes lowered, or perhaps she was too guilty to look at me. "Ms. Bennett! Mr. Blackwood left after you fell asleep yesterday, and then... he never came back."

I thought I'd misheard. How could Lucas possibly stay out all night?

Just as I was about to confirm with the maid again, Lucas called.

I quickly answered the call, even with a trace of anger as I questioned him. "Lucas, you didn't come home last night?"

"Sorry, Elena. I had something come up yesterday and couldn't make it back in time. I'm heading home right now—"

My ears went deaf, unable to hear whatever excuses Lucas was still making.

After hanging up the phone, I sat on the sofa, sitting there in a daze.

My mind went completely blank.

But the place where my heart was — it clearly ached with painful spasms, hurting so much I could barely breathe.

I clutched at the clothes over my aching heart as tears burst from my eyes.

The marriage I had always longed for and thought myself lucky to have turned out to be nothing but a beautiful dream. Ever since I discovered that the person my husband loved wasn't me, this beautiful dream had been shattering bit by bit, returning to cruel reality.

He actually doesn't love me!

All of this was nothing more than my own wishful thinking.

Tears fell onto the back of my hand, also beating against my aching heart.

I had never felt as wronged and helpless as I did now, because I had always seen Lucas as the light in my life. Once he stopped loving me, I didn't know if I could even go on living.

Suddenly came the sound of hurried footsteps.

Before I could see clearly who it was, I was pulled into someone's embrace.

"I'm sorry, Elena. It's my fault. I shouldn't have left you alone last night without coming home to be with you."

"Please don't be angry with me, okay?"

"I was wrong. I won't do it again."

Hearing Lucas's words begging for my forgiveness, I felt no emotion whatsoever, only finding it absurd and laughable.

I laughed at myself mockingly, laughing until I cried again.

Lucas must have felt me trembling in his arms and heard my choked sobs.

He gently pushed me away, and when he saw the tears streaming down my face... I could feel him — clumsy and helpless — wiping the tears from my face with heavy hands, not even knowing how to comfort me.

"Oh! Baby! What's wrong with you?"

"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have made you sad."

"Dear! Tell me what to do to make you stop crying. I've really hurt your heart. I'm such a bastard."

"Don't cry anymore, okay?"

I could hear every word he said. I could see every gentle gesture and expression he made toward me.

But the more he acted this way, the more I couldn't help wanting to cry with sadness. Because I was afraid of the truth. So afraid that his so-called love was all just an act. I was afraid that when the beautiful dream of love shattered, everything would revert to its most realistic and cruel form.

Thud!

My phone dropped to the floor.

Through my tear-blurred vision, I suddenly realized something important — my phone screen lit up, and the message and photo were now visible.

I didn't have time to wipe the tears from my face. Just as I was about to pick up the phone from the floor, a large hand got there first and picked it up.

I looked up at Lucas. I said nothing. I wanted to hear how he would make excuses.

Lucas held the phone in front of me. "Elena, the person in this photo isn't me. It's been doctored. Someone is deliberately framing me."

"Is that so?" I questioned him. I couldn't understand him anymore.

In any case, he had already seen it.

I might as well let him know even more.

"Then what about these?"

I took the phone and opened the previous message — the photo of Lucas giving that woman lipstick while embracing her.

Lucas took the phone, looked at it himself, and his brow furrowed like the number eight.

"No! This isn't me!"

This time I didn't need to say anything. He found the previous anonymous messages himself, and after opening them to see the messages and photos, his whole face darkened, as if he had reached the peak of fury.

"Someone is framing me!"

"Elena! How could you believe this person?"

The anger on Lucas's face was something I had never seen before.

I couldn't give him an answer now, because I truly couldn't believe every word he said. Because all of this couldn't be happening so coincidentally.

It absolutely wasn't groundless. I wanted the truth, a result that could convince me.

"This is your attitude, Elena? I know you don't believe me right now."

"Wait here. I'll make you understand my true feelings for you."

Lucas called over a senior employee from the company's technical department. Right in front of me, they used a computer to break down and analyze the image layers, finally finding many traces of photo manipulation.

It was photoshopped?

Had I misunderstood Lucas?

I never should have believed those anonymous messages. Never should have suspected my husband.

Just as I was beginning to feel guilty inside, I heard Lucas's special assistant Jude Coleman explain to me:

"Ms. Bennett! Last night Mr. Blackwood had to handle urgent business, so he went to the winery and worked all night. He was actually worried about you the entire night."

Hearing Jude's explanation, I suddenly looked up, only to see Lucas's face full of disappointment.

He wasn't looking at me, but told the company people to leave.

"Lucas, no no, I'm sorry! I really didn't think it would be like this—"

Lucas pushed me away, looking at me with eyes that held a trace of exhaustion. "Elena! There's a pile of matters at the company waiting for me to handle. I might come home late tonight."

"You don't need to wait for me. Go to sleep first!"

I wanted to grab Lucas's hand, but saw him deliberately avoid it, turn around and leave without looking back.

Through the glass window, I watched Lucas's departing figure, the guilt in my heart growing deeper and deeper.

Thinking about how ever since I received the first anonymous message and photo, I rushed back from Paris and had been suspicious of my husband Lucas all along.

Thinking about all the absurd things I had done one after another, was Lucas already disappointed in me, utterly disheartened?

I clearly knew that trust was the most important thing between spouses, yet I repeatedly broke this principle to suspect him?

As I wallowed in remorse and regret, the account with the rose profile picture [Sweet An] sent me another friend request.

This time, I didn't think twice and directly rejected it.

I had to trust my husband. Only then could our love last long.

To show my apology, today I personally prepared an entire candlelit dinner.

But when it got to the end of work hours, I called Lucas and he didn't answer.

I called his company, and the person on duty at the company said Lucas had already left.

Was Lucas really angry?

No no!

This was all my fault!

Just as I was anxiously unable to find Lucas, a string of unfamiliar phone numbers called.

When I answered, I heard a young woman's mocking voice from the phone.

"You're Elena? I kept adding you as a friend — why won't you accept? Are you scared?"

I knew her purpose and of course wouldn't be easily provoked by her.

"No matter who you are, I won't believe your lies!"

The other party heard my words and laughed coldly. "Lucas isn't answering your calls, is he? That's because he's sick of you."

"Right now he's at the estate taking a walk with me. If you don't believe me, add me as a friend and I'll send you the location!"

"Don't think you can make me believe you, you fraud." I hung up the phone.

It wasn't until almost midnight that I still couldn't reach Lucas.

And the account with the rose avatar [Sweet An] sent another friend request at that moment.

Possessed by something, I accepted it, and soon a location was sent over.

Then came a photo of the estate. I saw Lucas standing under an ancient tree in the estate, staring blankly at the sky, his expression so lonely and sad.

Lucas!

It was Lucas!

This was all my fault. I was the one who made him sad.

I couldn't think twice. I grabbed my car keys, rushed out the door, got in my car and drove straight toward the estate location.

I don't know how long I drove before I stopped the car in front of a hilltop estate with its gates closed.

I quickly got out of the car. Before I could press the doorbell...

The gate actually opened?

Could it be that Lucas knew I was coming and opened the gate for me?

I didn't think much of it and ran into the estate.

"Lucas—"

I thought Lucas could see me, so I called out to him. Suddenly a dark shadow flashed by.

The silhouette looked very much like Lucas.

"Lucas!"

I called Lucas's name while chasing after him, unknowingly breaking into the back mountain of the estate.

And that silhouette stopped in its tracks.

"Lucas, is that you? I know I was wrong. I really know I was wrong—"

I walked step by step toward that silhouette, but saw what looked like huge beast claw prints in the mud beneath my feet.

Looking at the trees beside me, they not only had scratch marks but also traces of being broken.

Where was I?

Why would Lucas bring me here?

ROAR!!~

The roar of a wild beast.

I was so frightened my legs were shaking, and even my voice trembled.

"Lucas—"

When I called out to that silhouette again, accompanied by the crackling sound of tearing fabric, it suddenly turned around and ran toward me.