“I’m so sorry…”
I couldn’t bear to hear his
I hung up directly.
y apologies anymore.
I threw away my SIM card. Declan couldn’t reach me.
He had no choice but to go and ask Seraphina what was going on.
When he reached the room, he saw Seraphina teaching the eight children.
Through the crack in the door, Declan watched her, her expression stern, holding a ruler.
“When Auntie Aria comes
do you all remember what to do?”
The children nodded
Sagerly.
“Now, repeat it!”
“I’ll bite her when Daddy isn’t looking, and if she pushes me, I’ll call Daddy.”
“I’ll throw away her and Daddy’s pictures!”
“TI…
Declan froze, standing rooted to the spot.
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
One by one, these innocent children were being taught by Seraphina to do the most wicked things to Aria Maxwell.
He kicked the door open. Adults and children alike froze.
“Mr. Thorne, weren’t you going to work?”
Declan raised his hand and slapped her across the face.
Her head snapped to the side as she stumbled and fell to the floor, clutching her cheek and screaming.
“Didn’t I tell you that even if I acknowledged the children, you absolutely couldn’t cause trouble in front of Aria?!”
“I didn’t…”
<
Declan closed his eyes in disappointment.
“I saw all those photos you sent!”
Seraphina froze, then crawled to Declan’s feet, clutching his leg.
“Mr. Thorne, I truly love you. If Mrs. Thorne…”
“If she leaves, I’m willing to…”
Declan scoffed.
“You? You’re not worthy! Aria is my wife, and that will never change!”
Declan turned and walked to our bedroom.
He ran his fingers over the thin layer of dust on the cabinet. The wedding photo, my favorite, that used to sit there, was gone.
Declan’s heart ached. He still fantasized about meeting me and explaining everything.
But no matter how many phone numbers he changed, he could never reach me again.
Haunted by delusion, he took the divorce certificate to the city hall to verify it.
The certificate was real.
He staggered out of the city hall, falling to his knees, weeping uncontrollably.
Passersby called him crazy; some even recorded short videos and posted them online.
He returned to his company to check shareholder information.
But the shares that had belonged to me had already been sold to someone else.
He had completely lost contact with me.
Because of those photos and the viral videos from the city hall entrance, his company was entangled in public backlash. The stock price plummeted daily.
His assistant, Ms. Jenkins, came into his office. He was staring blankly at my picture.
“Mr. Thorne, what do we do now? Which side should we prioritize?”
Declan swept everything off his desk.
“Is that even a question?”
“Find Mrs. Thorne first!”
“Yes! Arrange for our photos to be displayed on all the large screens in shopping malls across the city.”
“Remember to add a message, begging Mrs. Thorne to come home!”
“She cried with when I proposed with that last time. It’ll definitely work this time too!”
As soon as I could walk, I insisted on being discharged from the hospital.
The hospital was simply too stifling. As I stepped out, I saw our old couple’s photo on a huge screen across the street in the mall, and a wave of nausea washed over me.
9:51 AM C
<
“Fiancé, is that expensive? I don’t want to see him.”
I turned to Liam, pointing at the screen across the way.
Liam’s face flushed at my endearment.
But he only calmly muttered, “Hmm.”
The Hayes family was originally a powerhouse in the city’s elite circles, but they had moved their corporate headquarters overseas, so they weren’t as famous locally as the Thorne family.
But in terms of wealth, ten Declans couldn’t compare to one of Liam’s little fingers.
The photos were quickly dealt with thanks to Liam’s immense wealth.
The next day, Declan was furious at his young assistant at the company.
“What happened?!”
“It was taken down in just one day? Increase the bid! Buy out all the screen time!”
Ms. Jenkins hung her head.
“Mr. Thorne, the recent public outcry has severely impacted the company’s stock price.”
“The shares are plummeting daily, and our cash flow is in crisis…”
“And last month’s employee salaries haven’t been paid yet.”
Declan frowned.
“Finding Mrs. Thorne is more important right now!”
Employees eavesdropping outside the door clenched their fists in anger.
“He cheated and got dumped, what does that have to do with us?!”
“Exactly! Our lives as workers matter! Why aren’t we getting paid?!”
Their
anger simmered and boiled, their fists clenched tightly.
When Declan left work, his car tires were deflated.
He bent down to check, only to have a sack thrown over his head and be dragged into a corner of the parking lot, where he was
beaten.
He could only cover his head with his arms, begging for mercy.
.
His body was bruised and swollen.
Every breath brought a searing pain in his chest.
He limped back home.
At the door, he heard a commotion inside.
“If you don’t give me money, I’ll tell Declan about you getting sperm from a donor.”
“Don’t worry, darling. You’ll get plenty once I’m a rich madam.”
Seraphina’s voice was meek, pleading.
brutally
<
Declan froze at the door for three minutes, processing what he’d just heard.
Inside, the man started to get handsy.
“Since you can’t pay me right now, how about something else?”
The man’s lecherous hands roamed over Seraphina, who could only try to evade him without making too much noise.
Declan, however, paid no mind to her. He immediately ordered his butler to take all eight children for DNA tests that very night.
He sat in the testing center all night, recalling everything from the first time he met Seraphina.
That year, he had just gotten all his company’s operations in order.
He went to a karaoke bar with friends to celebrate.
His friends had brought a variety of girls.
At first, he disdained being like them.
But after a few drinks, Seraphina was in his lap too.
That night, out of pity for Seraphina, who was supposedly working as a hostess just to ensure the children of her nearly extinct Sacred Sea clan could get an education, he broke his rule for the first time. A year later, Seraphina found him with a boy and a girl.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Thorne, I didn’t want to bother you, but they…
Looking at what Seraphina claimed were his children in her arms, he felt a surge of pity.
He bought her a house outside the city.
Whenever he faced setbacks in business, he would go there to sit.
Gradually, he grew accustomed to that life.
He thought he could balance everything between Seraphina and Aria Maxwell.
Until the truth came crashing down recently.
A pile of cigarette butts lay at his feet. Declan, consumed by worry, found a strand of white hair. At dawn, a staff member handed him the test
results.
Declan’s hands shook like a sieve.
The results were neither as bad as he’d feared, nor as good as he’d hoped.
