Chapter 5

"Crash!"

The next second, the voices outside were cut off by the sound of a glass I deliberately knocked to the floor.

The door was pushed open almost immediately. Felix strode in, brows knitted tight.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing." I lowered my eyes. "No strength. I dropped it."

He didn’t ask about the sentence he’d been interrupted mid-way through. He clearly chalked it up to an accident, me being weak from being unwell.

He came closer, reaching out as if to check my forehead. I tilted my head away just slightly.

His hand paused in midair, then withdrew.

"I’ll have someone clean it up," he said. Then he turned toward the hall. "Dad. Mom. That’s enough. Elena needs rest."

There was a brief silence outside, followed by his parents’ footsteps as they left—heavy with suppressed anger.

In the days that followed, Felix canceled a lot of work and stayed home.

He tried to talk to me, asked how I was feeling, what I wanted to eat. His voice was softened on purpose, careful, gentle.

But I only shook my head, or said, "My head aches," "I’m tired," and closed my eyes to pretend to sleep.

Or I hugged a pillow and retreated to the guest room to be alone.

I didn’t want to look at him.

Every time I did, I remembered the wind on that deserted road, the darkness in the elevator, the way his arms had wrapped around Serena.

I could feel his patience thinning day by day, worn down inch by inch.

But another emotion, something more complicated, kept overriding the irritation.

Maybe guilt.

He probably thought I’d overheard the argument in the hallway, heard his parents’ cruel words, so I was hurt and sulking.

He likely believed that if he stayed with me a little more, “made it up to me” a little more, everything would return to the way it was.

So when an invitation arrived, from Mr. Howard, a business magnate, for a private dinner, Felix barely hesitated before deciding to take me.

"You have to go." He set the gold-embossed invitation in front of me. "A private dinner at this level requires an official partner. Elena, we need to show up together. It’ll be good for both of us."

I knew exactly what he meant by “good.”

Keep me steady. Maintain the appearance of harmony. Let the outside world believe we were still in love and the wedding was still on schedule.

That way, he could keep moving forward with arrangements no one else was meant to know about.

I was silent for a long time.

My new-identity documents still weren’t in my hands. The lawyer said it would take a few more days to finalize everything.

Right now, I couldn’t afford trouble.

"Fine," I said at last, my voice flat. "I’ll go."

The dinner was held at an elite private club under the Howard family.

I wore the dress Felix picked out, held his arm, and wore a polite smile.

Everything was perfect, like a scene rehearsed a thousand times.

But the faint, lingering looks made my skin crawl.

I made an excuse about needing some air and slipped out of the main hall.

As I passed a staff lounge, the voices inside drifted out clearly and caught me off guard.

"Did you see her? The one beside Mr. Felix just now, his date?"

"Tch. That one… the daughter they found in the countryside? She’s got some nerve showing up here."

"Right? Look at her. Does she have even a hint of a socialite about her? I heard back then she practically clung to him, forced her way into the rehab center."

"Seriously. Skin thick as steel. Mr. Howard values pedigree and polish more than anything. If it weren’t for Mr. Felix, she wouldn’t even make it past the front door. If I were her, I’d hide before I embarrassed myself."

My steps stopped.

I didn’t feel angry, only a cold understanding.

In a place this rigidly hierarchical, servants would never dare gossip this brazenly about a guest unless the people above them allowed it.

So in their eyes, I was always an intruder. A joke.

I drew in a breath and forced myself calm.

Arguing with these people or their words meant nothing.

I turned to leave the suffocating hallway.

Just then, a commotion rose from the direction of the main hall.

The staff inside instantly fell silent and poured out the door, faces tight with nervous excitement.

"Hurry—go! I think Miss Serena is here!"

"For real? The real socialite? No wonder it’s such a big deal. I heard Mr. Howard himself went to the entrance to greet her!"

"Now that’s what you call a match… Come on, let’s see!"

Through a gap in the crowd, I saw Serena swept in like royalty.

The one personally escorting her into the hall was Mr. Howard himself.

Guests surged forward to greet her, the atmosphere buzzing.

But my eyes locked on her neck.

A pearl necklace, each bead round and luminous.

Pearls…

It was like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head, chilling me to the marrow in one breath.

All these years, among the jewelry Felix gave me, pearls showed up the most.

Necklaces, earrings, bracelets… every style.

I’d never cared much about jewelry. If it came from him, I treasured it, wore it often.

I’d told myself it was simply his taste or that he thought it suited me.

Not until this moment did I finally understand.

He hadn’t chosen pearls casually at all.

He remembered that Serena loved them.

He gave me pearls because he was missing someone else.

Something clogged my throat, making it hard to breathe.

The warm air of the hall suddenly felt cold against my skin.

I didn’t want to look anymore.

I turned quietly, ready to leave this place where I had nowhere to hide.

"Elena?"

A familiar, overly warm voice rose behind me.

Serena. Somehow she was already at my back.

"I’m so glad to see you," she said brightly. "I heard you weren’t feeling well recently. I’ve been so worried."

She lifted a dark bottle of red wine. "I brought this specially to celebrate your recovery. I hope you like it."

Her voice was clear and sweet, loud enough for the people nearby to hear every word.

As she held the wine out to me, I met her gaze.

"Thank you for your kindness," I said.

"But I don’t drink."