Chapter 5

Anthony and Sasha's ridiculous lies had desecrated the old residence that carried the memories of Isobel's parents.

Isobel knelt on the floor in pain. Finally, she came to the decision to sell it off. After she did what was needed, she dragged herself back home.

The last brilliance of the dusk poured into the bedroom, where she and Anthony had shared sweet memories.

She stood rooted at the same spot until the sky darkened. Everything around her—the decor pieces, the photos, the slippers, the pajamas, the toothbrushes, and the love letters he wrote to her—looked jarring. They made her want to cry.

She swept all the couple items she could see into a cardboard box like an emotionless robot. She no longer wanted something that was lovely on the outside but rotten to the core. She no longer wanted Anthony.

She would get rid of all of it.

…

Anthony returned to an empty house. He found Isobel spacing out on the couch.

"What's happened to our place? Where are my slippers? Where are our photos?"

She returned to reality and calmly explained, "Isn't minimalism trending now? We had all this stuff for seven years. I want to replace them with something new. So, I threw out all the old items."

Her words carried a subtext. He came to a slight pause before regaining his composure.

He took a seat beside Isobel and pulled her into a hug. "You can throw out anything you like, as long as it's not me."

She smirked. He offered, "Here's a card for you. Use it to buy anything you want."

"It's fine."

Anthony remembered that he had given her quite a number of credit cards. Hence, he didn't take her rejection seriously.

After some silence, something struck him. He wandered into the bedroom and rummaged through the drawer.

"Belle, where's that Perler bead couple portrait you gave me?"

"I threw it out too."

A wave of panic set in. He hurried back to Isobel. "But Belle, you made that for me."

She looked up at him wistfully but said nothing.

Anthony had an ominous feeling that she might have seen through him. Looking away, he grabbed his coat and walked out of the house.

"You can throw out anything you want, but not that Perler bead portrait! I'm going to look for it now."

"I threw it into the dumpster downstairs. The garbage truck might have collected it," she reminded him.

"No way, Belle! That was your first gift to me after we started dating. It means a lot to me. I don't want to throw it out."

Isobel did not stop him. This time, she watched him search the dumpster from the warmth of her bedroom.

Surprisingly, Halthorne City experienced snow that year.

Anthony personally searched the dumpster for two hours, disregarding the snow and putting aside his pride. Finally, he reclaimed that Perler bead portrait.

Sensing her eyes on him, he turned around and looked up while holding the portrait. Their eyes met. He raised the portrait high in the air and smiled like a child fishing for praise.

Isobel watched the scene, her feelings growing complicated. She wondered if that was Anthony's true self or the man who had betrayed her.

Regardless, she was no longer curious to find out. She drew the curtains without smiling back at him.

…

That night, the Johnsons reached out to Anthony, requesting that he attend the family dinner that weekend.

He looked at Isobel with a frown.

She had been in a foul mood lately and always responded flatly. She even lost some weight.

"I won't bring Belle with me. She's been tired, and she doesn't have an appetite. I'll make some homemade meals for her."

"It's a family dinner, you little rascal! You can't miss it! You need to be here, even if Isobel isn't attending," Frank Johnson lambasted his son.

"But I told you that I need to take care of Isobel!"

"You scoundrel…"

Isobel grabbed the phone and spoke to Frank softly. "Frank, we'll be there this weekend. Please calm down."

Since she agreed to go, Anthony said nothing more. After ending the call, he said, "You didn't have to agree. It's just a family dinner. We can skip it once."

She replied, "There's no point in upsetting your parents."

In fact, she had no idea if the Johnsons were aware of the relationship between Anthony and Sasha when they opened their house to the latter.

Regardless of her doubts, she didn't want to make a scene before leaving the Johnson family, as she was grateful to them for raising her.

She held onto the sliver of hope that Anthony had merely fooled all of them.