CHAPTER 5

EUDORA

“What exactly is happening here?” I asked, my voice shaking as my eyes stayed fixed on Camellia. “How… how is she even here?”

She didn’t look the least bit bothered. With a bored sigh, she slid off the desk and smoothed out her dress like this was all normal. “I thought you said she wouldn’t be show up here.”

A dry laugh slipped out of me. “Is that really what you should be saying right now?”

Camellia ignored me completely. She reached into her purse, pulled out a small mirror, and calmly adjusted her makeup. “That wasn’t meant for you, it was for Desmond.”

I blinked hard, turning to Desmond. “Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Desmond sighed. “What are you doing here, Eudora?”

I stared at him, stunned. Out of everything he could have said, that was it?

“Are you serious right now? I walk in on my husband kissing my own sister! my sister who was supposed to be on a wheelchair, by the way and the best you can ask is what I’m doing here?”

“Husband?” Camellia let out a mocking laugh.

She picked up her purse, swung it over her shoulder, then stepped closer to Desmond like I wasn’t even there. Her arm slipped around his neck, pulling him down toward her.

Before I could even process it, she pressed her lips against his again, bold and unapologetic.

He didn’t pull away, instead, he responded by circling his hand round her waist, pulling her closer.

I couldn’t move.

It felt like my body had completely shut down, rooted to the floor while everything unfolded right in front of me. My mind screamed at me to leave, but my feet refused to listen.

So I just stood there… watching.

She slowly pulled away from him, her thumb brushing over his lips, wiping the lipstick stain.

“Husband, you say?” she repeated as she began walking towards me. “Do you even hear yourself? How selfish… how completely heartless can you be?”

My hands clenched tightly at my sides, my fingers curling into fists, my thumb subconsciously rubbing over the gold band on my finger.

She stopped right in front of me, so close I could feel her breath. Leaning in slightly, she smiled, a wide, unsettling smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Trying to run me over with your car,” she continued, “just so you could take my place… just so you could marry my fiancé?”

Before I could even find the words to defend myself, her hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, forcing my hand up between us.

“And look at this,” she said, her gaze dropping to my finger. “You’re even wearing my ring.”

My throat tightened.

I wanted to shout at her, to tell her none of this was my choice, that I had been pushed into this marriage, forced into wearing that ring, forced to live in a house filled with memories that were never mine, even forced to sleep in a room that has her pictures all over the place.

But the words refused to come out because right now, none of that even mattered.

All I could think about was her.

The woman standing in front of me didn’t look like someone who had just returned after being gone for so long.

If anything… she looked like she had never left at all.

“When did you come back?”

She let out a soft, amused chuckle, tilting her head as she looked at me. “Oh… is that what you’re really asking?” she said slowly. “Or are you trying to find out how long I’ve been seeing my fiancé behind your back?”

Her words barely registered. At this point, I didn’t care what she and Desmond had been doing together. That wasn’t even the part tearing me apart anymore. What mattered was finding out how long I’ve been lied to?

And why?

My jaw tightened. “Just answer me.”

She rolled her eyes like I was wasting her time, lifted her hand and gave my shoulder a light, mocking tap.

“Why don’t you ask your husband, Eudora?” she said, her voice filled with sarcasm, especially on the word husband.

Then she walked past me without another glance.

A second later, the door slammed shut behind her.

Outside, I could faintly hear her arguing with the secretary, something about why she let me in, but I drowned them out, focusing on Desmond, who stood in front of the full-length mirror, completely unbothered as he wiped his lips.

“Explain.”

He let out a low chuckle, reaching up to adjust his tie, which had gone crooked. “And what makes you think I owe you an explanation?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Once he seemed satisfied with his appearance, he finally turned to face me.

That same cold, unreadable expression was back, the one he had worn ever since the accident.

“Get out of my office, Eudora.”

For a moment, I thought I heard him wrong.

I blinked once. Then again.

“What?”

“I’m guessing you enjoyed the way everyone treated you when you walked in here,” he said lazily as he strolled back to his desk. “All that respect… all those polite smiles.” He paused, glancing at me briefly. “You might want to leave before I decide to ruin that for you by calling security to drag you out.”

My hands trembled uncontrollably at my sides. I pressed my lips together, biting down hard as I tried to steady my breathing.

“Do my parents know she’s back?”

A low, amused sound escaped him. “What do you think?” he replied, his expression completely blank, though there was something almost entertained in his tone, like he found me amusing in that moment.

Slowly, I reached down and picked up the brown envelope I had dropped earlier, the one holding the pregnancy test results. My fingers curled around it, gripping it so tightly the edges bent under the pressure.

His gaze flickered to it almost immediately. “What’s that?”

“The holiday expenses I mentioned last time.”

He gave a small nod, already losing interest as he opened his laptop. “Then maybe this is the perfect time to finally take that holiday.”

Of course. Send me away! So you can have more space to fuck my sister.

My throat burned, but I swallowed it down.

What did I ever do to deserve this from everyone?

“I need to understand something,” I said quietly. “Do you actually still believe I’m the villain in all of this?”

He didn’t bother lifting his head from the laptop. “I don’t think Eudora, I know you are the villain.”