Chapter 4: The Walls That Heard His Breaking Heart

The dinner had been cold in every sense of the word.

On the surface, it sparkled, chandeliers dripping with gold, glasses clinking, guests laughing politely. But beneath the pristine tablecloths and polished smiles, Jerome felt something rotting, something hidden, something dangerously close to the surface.

Vanessa barely touched her food.

She barely spoke.

And every time Akihiko shifted in his seat, she stiffened like a trapped bird sensing a hunter.

Jerome wanted to reach for her, to comfort her, but he couldn’t ignore the feeling gnawing at him,a silent, ugly truth whispering at the back of his mind.

There was something between them.

Something he wasn’t supposed to see.

And tonight, he would.

When the dinner ended and guests began to disperse, Vanessa rose quickly, almost too quickly, her movements sharp and tense. She excused herself, claiming she needed a moment alone.

But Jerome knew her well enough to recognize a lie.

So, after a minute, he followed.

He kept his footsteps quiet as he trailed her down one of the side hallways of the sprawling Astoria Hall. The corridor was dim, lit only by soft golden sconces that cast long shadows across the marble floor.

Vanessa’s heels clicked nervously.

Her breathing was shallow.

She kept glancing over her shoulder, as if she feared someone would catch her.

She wasn’t afraid of being caught by Jerome.

She was afraid of not arriving fast enough.

Jerome’s chest tightened.

At the end of the hall, Vanessa slipped through a half-opened door.

He hesitated only a moment before moving closer.

He pushed the door open just enough to see.

And his heart stopped.

It was a private lounge, lights low, curtains drawn, the faint hum of city traffic muffled behind thick walls. A single lamp cast a soft, golden glow over the room.

Vanessa stood in the center, wringing her hands.

And then…

Akihiko stepped out from the shadows.

Jerome’s breath caught in his throat.

“Finally,” Akihiko murmured, his voice low, intimate, far too familiar.

Vanessa didn’t run.

She didn’t flinch.

She didn’t push him away.

She collapsed into him, like someone starved, finally reaching water.

Jerome’s fingers went numb against the wall.

“Akihiko…” she whispered, her voice soft, trembling in a way that shattered Jerome’s chest. “Someone could see us.”

Akihiko cupped her face, tilting it upward. “Let them. You’re not the secret here.”

Vanessa exhaled shakily,not in fear.

In longing.

Jerome lowered himself into the shadowed corner of the doorway, almost collapsing, watching, unable to move, unable to even breathe.

Her next words broke him apart:

“I missed you.”

Missed.

You don’t miss a mistake.

You miss someone you want.

Akihiko leaned in, brushing his lips over her forehead, then her cheek, trailing slowly down the line of her jaw. Every touch seemed to unravel her.

And Vanessa… she melted under him.

Her hands slid up his chest, gripping him as though she belonged there.

“Vanessa…” Akihiko whispered, his voice a dark caress, “look at me.”

She did.

And in her eyes, Jerome saw everything he had prayed wasn’t true.

Desire.

Familiarity.

Comfort.

A history he hadn’t known existed.

Her next breath came out like a confession.

“I needed you tonight.”

Jerome’s nails dug into the wall.

How long?

How long had this betrayal been blooming behind his back?

His heart hammered violently, but his body refused to move. He was trapped between denial and the agonizing clarity in front of him.

Akihiko’s hands slid around her waist, drawing her closer. Their bodies aligned with practiced ease, the ease of lovers.

And then...

Akihiko lowered his head.

Vanessa gasped softly when his lips met her neck, her eyes fluttering shut. Her fingers tightened around his shoulders as she leaned into him, arching subtly, offering herself in a way Jerome had never seen her do for him.

Jerome’s vision blurred.

Pain, hot and suffocating, tightened around his ribs.

He wanted to storm inside.

He wanted to drag her away.

He wanted to scream, to demand answers, to tear the room apart.

But he couldn’t move.

His legs wouldn’t obey.

His voice wouldn’t come.

He was frozen, forced to witness the death of the love he thought he had.

Akihiko brushed a slow, deliberate kiss along Vanessa’s collarbone.

She trembled not with fear, but anticipation.

“Akihiko…” she breathed, the sound painfully intimate. “We shouldn’t…”

“You don’t sound like you want to stop,” he murmured against her skin.

And she didn’t.

Her hands slid around his neck, her lips finding him with a hunger that sliced Jerome straight through the heart.

Their kiss was deep, needy, unmistakably familiar, the kiss of two people who had done this many times before. There was no hesitation, no uncertainty. Only desire.

Jerome’s tears finally fell.

Silently.

Helplessly.

Hot and relentless down his cheeks.

The room blurred through a haze of grief as their bodies pressed closer, as soft sounds filled the dim space, whispered breaths, quiet moans, the rustle of fabric, the rhythmic closeness that left nothing to the imagination.

He knew what was happening.

He didn’t need to see every detail.

The intimacy in the air was enough to tear him apart from the inside.

He pressed his wrist to his mouth to stop himself from making a sound.

Vanessa gasped softly, clinging to Akihiko, her voice breaking on his name in a way that felt like a knife sliding between Jerome’s ribs.

And Akihiko,

He held her like she belonged to him.

Touched her like he had every right.

Kissed her like he had claimed her long before tonight.

Jerome slid to the floor, his back against the cold wall, trembling as the truth finally collapsed entirely over him:

Vanessa hadn’t drifted away from him.

She had drifted back to someone else.

To Akihiko.

To his mother’s fiancé.

To the man who would soon call himself Jerome’s stepfather.

The betrayal wasn’t just sharp, it was catastrophic.

A soft whimper escaped him without warning.

They didn’t hear it.

They were lost in each other, in something he had never been part of.

Jerome buried his face in his hands,

And for the first time in years, he sobbed.