Chapter 2

I turned mechanically like a puppet whose soul had been drained and left that suffocating place.

All I wanted was to escape.

To escape this dazzling banquet, to escape the world that belonged to Killian and Elena.

I hid in the VIP lounge at the end of the second floor, wanting to calm my trembling hands and retrieve my coat.

Before the door could close, a slender hand blocked it.

It was Elena.

Her hospital gown looked jarring against Killian's black suit jacket, but the pitiful expression on her face was gone.

Replacing it was a chilling smugness.

"Sis Halen, leaving so soon?"

She locked the door and approached me step by step.

"Killian is still socializing downstairs, aren't you going to wait for him?"

I looked at her coldly.

"Move. I don't want to talk to you."

"Don't be so fierce."

Elena chuckled lightly, her fingers stroking the suit jacket that carried the scent of Killian's cologne.

"I just came to inform you. The birthday trip Killian promised you... the trip to Iceland to see the aurora tomorrow night, is mine now."

I looked up sharply.

"What did you say?"

"I said, I'm going to Iceland."

Elena leaned close to my ear, her voice lowered to a whisper, like a hissing venomous snake.

"I said I wanted to see the aurora, that it was my dying wish. Killian agreed without a second thought."

"As for you? You saw it too, just now on the terrace, he couldn't even bear to push me away."

"Halen, admit it. On his scale, a single tear of mine weighs much more than your dignity."

She didn't look like a seriously ill patient at all, even aggressively approaching me.

I raised my hand, wanting to push away her encroaching body.

Just as my fingertips touched the corner of her clothes.

Elena's expression suddenly changed.

She abruptly grabbed the glass of red wine on the table, splashed it fiercely on her own face, and then fell backward screaming.

"Ah—!"

Accompanied by the crisp sound of the glass shattering, she fell heavily onto the carpet, her palm pressing on the broken glass, blood gushing out instantly.

"What's going on?!"

The door to the lounge was slammed open.

Killian rushed in.

"Killian... save me..."

Elena cried, trembling all over like a frightened little deer.

"I just... just wanted to explain to Halen what happened just now... wanted to beg for her forgiveness..."

"I didn't know mentioning the Iceland trip would make her so angry... I won't go... I won't go... you won't blame me, right..."

Killian's pupils contracted sharply.

He strode over me, knelt on one knee, and carefully cupped Elena's bleeding hand.

Then Killian slowly stood up and turned to look at me.

Those peach blossom eyes that were usually full of affection were now frosted over.

"Halen."

His voice was deep, carrying a unique oppressive feeling and disappointment of a superior.

"I always thought you were a sensible, well-bred woman."

"Killian, she splashed the wine herself, she fell herself! She's acting!"

I eagerly tried to explain, tried to grab his arm.

But Killian took a half step back, avoiding my touch.

That evasive movement hurt more than any verbal abuse.

"Acting?"

Killian sneered, pointing at the bloodstains on the floor.

"To act, she hurts herself all over? She is a late-stage brain cancer patient, she can't even stand steadily!"

"And you? Halen, you are a healthy, strong person."

"For two flight tickets, for a so-called 'birthday', you could lay such a cruel hand on a dying person?"

He shook his head, that expression as if judging a hopeless criminal.

"Your jealousy disappoints me too much."

"I didn't..."

"Enough."

Killian interrupted me, his tone returning to that cold gentlemanly demeanor.

"Since you care so much about that aurora trip, then fine."

"As punishment for your vicious behavior, this trip is cancelled."

"I will take Elena to Iceland to recuperate and complete her wish list."

"Killian! That was the birthday gift you promised me!"

I shouted in despair.

"Birthdays can be celebrated every year, but Elena doesn't have much time left."

There was even immense heartache in Killian's tone.

"This is the apology you owe her."

After saying that, he bent down and picked up Elena from the floor, his movements gentle as if holding a rare treasure.

Elena nestled in his arms, looking at me over his shoulder.

Tears hung on her face, but the corner of her mouth raised in a victor's smile.

Silently mouthing two words to me:

"Deserved it."

Killian carried her to the door, paused in his steps, but didn't look back.

"Halen, take a taxi back yourself."

"Don't appear in front of me for a while."

The door closed.

The world went quiet.

I stood in the empty lounge, looking at the glaring bloodstain on the carpet.

The child in my belly seemed to sense my sadness and kicked me hard.

It hurt.

But not even a ten-thousandth of the pain in my heart.

That night, I didn't know how I got home.

I only knew that when the bell struck midnight and my twenty-fourth birthday arrived.

My phone screen lit up.

It was a special follow notification from Instagram.

Killian posted a photo.

Under the sky full of green aurora, he held the heavily wrapped Elena, his back view heartbreakingly affectionate.

The caption was brief:

"Accompanying you to complete your final wish list. Next stop, Blue Lagoon."

I looked at those words and suddenly laughed out loud.

Laughing and laughing, tears smashed onto the cold floor.

One week later, I went alone to the best private obstetrics and gynecology hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

I originally wanted to do the first official prenatal checkup, wanted to listen to the heartbeat of that little life.

But the receptionist nurse held my insurance card, looking troubled.

"Mrs. Smith, I'm sorry... your medical insurance supplementary card has been frozen."

I froze in place: "Frozen? That's impossible, this is the unlimited black card under Killian's main account."

"It was an order signed personally by Mr. Smith this morning."

The nurse turned the computer screen towards me, a hint of sympathy in her tone.

"The system note shows that the credit limit of the main account was urgently called upon to pay a hefty bill from a Swiss laboratory... it seems to be a new type of targeted drug for brain tumors."

"Because the drug is expensive and not covered by medical insurance, Mr. Smith suspended all other non-emergency medical expenses under the family account."

I felt cold all over, my fingers clutching the edge of the counter tightly, my knuckles turning white.

He was willing to deny resources to his own flesh and blood to treat his benefactor.

At that moment, grief greater than death seized my heart.

"Help me schedule an abortion for next week."

I said calmly to the nurse, my voice devoid of any emotion.

---

Walking out of the hospital, I went back to the family manor.

I wanted to retrieve the jade jewelry set my mother left me for emergency use, after all, I was penniless now.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I entered the door, my father handed me an envelope.

Inside was a one-way ticket to Paris.

"Halen, your stepmother and I have discussed it."

Father sat on the high velvet sofa, his tone unquestionable.

"Elena wants to spend her last days happily. She has always envied the environment of the Smith manor and wants to live there before she passes away, spending time with Killian day and night."

"This is a ticket for ten days later, you go to Europe to relax and take some art courses."

I held that thin ticket, feeling incredibly ironic.

This was my father.

To please the current head of the Smith family, to make room for Killian and his "true love", he unhesitatingly drove away his own biological daughter.

"Halen, don't overthink it."

Stepmother wiped her tears hypocritically on the side, that compassionate look making me sick.

"We are also doing this to accumulate virtue. Elena is also a pitiful person, just take it as doing good deeds, fulfilling her last wish. When she's gone, Killian will still be yours, and that home will still be yours."

I looked at this hypocritical couple.

This was the family I once desperately wanted to protect.

"Understood."

I interrupted her performance indifferently.

"I will leave."

I didn't want Killian anymore.

I didn't care for this cold-blooded family anymore either.

Father was obviously surprised, not expecting the stubborn daughter who once dared to kneel all night in the rain for Killian to be so obedient this time.

His tone softened a bit: "That's right. By the way, Killian is throwing a party for Elena at the hotel in three days, remember to come and show some generosity."

"Okay."

---

Returning to the place where Killian and I lived together for four years.

I found a huge black garbage bag and started clearing out everything related to Killian in this house.

No longer cherishing them carefully like before, but throwing them in like garbage.

That was the hand-painted mask he gave me under the Bridge of Sighs when we went to Venice for our honeymoon.

It was the burnt oven mitt from the first time he cooked for me.

And that memorial album filled with our photos from the past four years.

Every page was evidence that I had loved him.

Every page now looked like a joke.

Just as I threw the photo album into the garbage bag.

The "beep" sound of the fingerprint lock unlocking came from the entryway.

Killian was back.

He was wearing that dark gray cashmere coat, his shoulders still carrying the cold air from outside.

Seeing the mess in the living room and the nearly full black garbage bag.

He paused in loosening his tie, his brows instantly furrowing, and walked over quickly.

"Halen, what are you doing?"