Chapter 17
Giselle, her face still swollen from Rebecca’s slaps and her illness lingering, endured a night outdoors by Stephan’s villa, never gaining entry. That sharp fall breeze somewhat diminished her seething anger, but by the following morning, her fever had returned. She wept uncontrollably, sending Stephan a stream of piteous messages, only to receive no response from the latter.
It wasn’t until the following midday that the formidable gates of the villa gave way. Giselle jolted awake from her fitful slumber at the creaking sound of them opening. She groggily opened her eyes and caught sight of Stephan getting into the car. She hurriedly got to her feet before rushing forward to grab his hand.
Her eyes, always so adept at eliciting sympathy, brimmed with tears again. Her voice trembled with profound sorrow, bemoaning, “Please look at my face, Stephan! It’s all Rebecca’s doing! And she even threatened to teach me another lesson if I dared to tell you…”
Stephan merely glared at Giselle. He then said, with a voice bereft of its former tenderness and indulgence, “You got hit, huh? You probably brought it upon yourself! You’d better stay away from her from now on. Got it?”
His complete indifference was a far cry from what Giselle had anticipated, causing her to stand frozen in place with a look of profound disbelief etched across her features. “What’s gotten into you, Stephan? How can you even say such a thing? You said you’d dote on me my whole life, didn’t you?”
Upon hearing her fake cries, Stephan’s eyes narrowed in disgust. He quickly pulled his hand away from her grasp and shoved her away. “I was just toying with you. You didn’t seriously believe it, did you? You couldn’t possibly think I actually liked you, right, Giselle? You ought to know that everything before was merely a pretense and that the only person I’ve ever loved has always been Rebecca!”
Stephan’s remarks utterly demolished all of Giselle’s hopes.
She, unable to come to terms with it, dropped her pretense of fragility and roared, “You’re lying to me, aren’t you, Stephan? I’m the one you’re supposed to be in love with! I mean, if you really loved Rebecca, then why did you do nothing when I hit her? Why did you abandon her time and again to be with me?”
Stephan involuntarily clenched his fists, an uncontainable surge of intense frustration welling up inside him.
His mind raced, replaying a series of vivid memories–the plunge into the river near the bridge, the calendar in the villa, and the heated argument at the auction house. In each memory, Rebecca’s isolated, lonely figure was present, her eyes betraying a palpable disappointment.
At was only after he had irrevocably lost Rebecca that Stephan belatedly grasped the sheer extent of his past transgressions, causing a crushing wave of regret to wash over him, leaving him utterly consumed.
He had no desire to hear her dredge up the past, but Giselle, like an unlatched floodgate, relentlessly prattled on. “You’re clearly too invested now, Stephan—even if it was just an act to begin with. You couldn’t possibly like Rebecca; otherwise, why would you agree to the divorce? It’s because you feel something for me, right?
Upon hearing the word “divorce“, Stephan was dragged back to the brutal thoughts he had momentarily pushed aside. His rationality completely disintegrated at that moment.
He lost all restraint and clamped his hands around Giselle’s slender throat, the veins on the back of his hands bulging from the force exerted.
In an instant, the flush of blood ascended Giselle’s neck, gradually turning her face into a morbid purplish–blue hue.
Giselle fought desperately, but Stephan’s brutal strength was overwhelming. Her eyes dilated, registering the horrifying sensation of air being steadily choked from her lungs.
Yet, just as she resigned herself to death, Stephan suddenly released his grip. She then immediately collapsed in a heap, her body as lifeless and broken as a discarded marionette.
Stephan didn’t spare Giselle another glance. He instead turned to Calvin and handed her off to him, instructing, “I never want to see her again.”
