Chapter 7

The weekend arrived in the blink of an eye.

There were only 24 days left until the divorce could be finalized.

Over the past few days, Aster had been staying at the mansion for longer and longer periods of time. However, he was also getting increasingly distracted.

He never noticed anything amiss throughout the mansion, especially with Carina hiding the truth from him and pretending that nothing had changed.

The suitcase full of clothes had been at the front door for a few days, and nobody said a word about it.

Today was the day that Carina and Delphine had agreed upon to go house-hunting. However, Aster kept tagging along, as if he was planning to dutifully fulfill his promise to her.

Carina had no other choice but to go to the mall with him.

Plenty of things were on sale at the mall, but neither Carina nor Aster were in the mood to actually go shopping.

Carina kept thinking of ways to flee. Meanwhile, Aster kept looking at trendy clothes in styles that would only fit someone a lot younger than Carina.

"Why don't you ask Stella if she'd like to come shopping with you too, Aster?"

Aster's eyes lit up at once when he heard that. "Really? Can I do that? That might not be a good idea, though, because I promised that I'd spend all day with you today. I don't want to talk about work at all."

Carina sighed inwardly. Aster had already taken his phone out, ready to call someone.

So, why did he pretend to look reluctant to ask Stella out just now? What was the point of lying to himself as well?

Stella arrived very quickly. It didn't even take her more than ten minutes to show up.

Carina wasn't dumb. She guessed that Stella had probably already been waiting nearby. Aster had already given himself away earlier. After all, this was only something he would do.

So, the three of them continued browsing through the shops, but only two of them were happy with how things turned out.

Suddenly, there was a loud siren in the mall. A shop had caught on fire.

Thick, black smoke poured out and surrounded the crowd of shoppers, and everyone dispersed as quickly as they could.

Aster made sure to protect Stella the whole time. Meanwhile, Carina got pushed and shoved so much that she nearly lost her footing and fell.

She looked back and suddenly met Aster's gaze.

Aster looked anxious and wanted to head toward Carina, but Stella kept calling out to him. Ultimately, he turned and left.

"Wait for me, Carina. I'll come back to save you as soon as I've brought Stella out to safety."

Carina's face was void of emotion. She just watched quietly as Aster and Stella then disappeared into the crowd.

With panicked shoppers covering for her, Carina finally managed to get away and leave the mall. She met up with Delphine, and they immediately headed straight for the first house on their list.

It was dark by the time Carina returned home. She didn't think that she would see Aster still waiting for her.

He ran over to her anxiously when he saw her entering through the door.

It had only been half a day since Carina saw him, but his face had gone pale, and he looked like he'd seen better days.

"Where have you been, Carina? Your phone was turned off too! I was so worried about you!"

Aster grabbed her arms and kept checking her body for any cuts or bruises. Finally, he noticed a faint red mark on her neck.

Aster suddenly slapped himself in the face.

The sound was so loud and clear that it stunned Carina for a moment, and she froze. However, she quickly snapped back and stared at him in confusion.

"I'm sorry, Carina. Today was all my fault. It's all my fault…"

Carina suddenly burst out laughing.

She didn't feel touched because of what Aster was doing. On the contrary, she found it ridiculous, and she was quickly losing interest.

"Nothing bad happened to me. I just didn't realize that my phone went out of battery while I was shopping with Del."

She suddenly took one step away, neatly avoiding Aster's hand that was reaching out for her.

"I'm a little tired today, so I'm going to bed now."

Aster froze in place. He didn't know what to do.

He suddenly felt as though Carina was getting farther and farther from him. He couldn't even grab hold of her anymore.