hapter 13
That night, Reina, drunk out of her mind, stumbled back home. Suddenly, she spotted a tall, slender figure busy in the kitchen.
Her heart leapt with joy. She ran over and hugged him from behind. “Xavier, you’re finally back! I knew you still loved me. You would never leave me!”
“Reina, it’s me,” came the soft reply.
Reina’s excitement quickly turned to disappointment as she pulled away from Hugo. Her voice grew cold. “You shouldn’t be here. Go home and get some rest.”
“Reina, it’s been a week since you spent time with me. And now that we’re finally seeing each other, you want me to leave?” Hugo looked hurt. “My stomach’s been hurting terribly these past few days, and I can’t eat anything. I just wanted to be with you for a little while.”
Reina closed her eyes and said nothing.
“I made hangover soup. You should drink some,” he suggested softly.
“No need,” she replied coldly.
“I can tell you have a bad headache. Let me give you a massage.”
“I don’t need it.”
Hugo trembled with anger at her indifference. But then he thought about the past few days. Without Reina controlling him, he had been indulging in a lavish lifestyle, spending his nights with various women. The thought calmed him a little.
He placed the bowl of hangover soup beside her and tried again. “Reina, maybe it’s for the best that Mr. Caldwell is gone. You were planning to divorce him after signing that billion–dollar contract, weren’t you?”
Reina’s voice turned sharp. “I never said I was going to divorce him.”
事
Hugo was surprised by her answer. His tone shifted to one of hurt. “Why won’t you divorce him? You’ve signed the contract anyway. Why not bring me home and introduce me to your mom? Have you fallen for him? Are you tired of me? Fine, I’ll go. I’ll make space for him!”
He slammed the door behind him, only to find that Reina didn’t chase after him to placate him.
Hugo’s surprise quickly turned to anger. He pulled out his phone and saw a new message.
“Mr. Fenton, the man who took Xavier works for Madam Yarrow. It seems they signed some secret agreement. Xavier will never be allowed back into Valdoria.”
Hugo grinned. “Looks like Madam Yarrow can finally see the truth. She knows Reina can’t live without me, so she’s clearing the way for me. Xavier is gone for good. No one will compete with me for Reina anymore!”
As he glanced back at Reina, who was crying hopelessly inside the villa, a victorious smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
He knew Reina didn’t love Xavier. She was just not used to his absence. He believed that in less than a week, she would forget Xavier entirely.
Then, he would become the rightful son–in–law of the Yarrow family.
Reina’s headache was unbearable. She tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. She instinctively reached out, wanting to pull the person beside her into her arms, but the space was empty.
Without Xavier, the room felt suffocating. The air was thick and hard to breathe.
Desperate, Reina took some sleeping pills. In the haze of half–sleep, she found herself back in the dark days of the mental hospital.
With a sharp cry, she shot awake and ran out of the villa. Her voice trembled as she shouted, “Xavier, where are you? They’re forcing me to take the pills again!”
She wandered down the dimly lit street, searching frantically.
Suddenly, she spotted a young couple sitting by the window at Xavier’s favorite burger joint. The man in a white shirt had his back to her, but his figure unmistakably resembled Xavier’s.
