Chapter 3

Keith returned home alone.

The villa was spacious but felt hollow and cold.

After changing his shoes, Keith went upstairs and began packing his things.

He had actually been secretly packing his things over the past few days. Now, all he had left to do was finish up.

From his wardrobe, he took out all the clothes that were similar to the ones Quinton wore. Then, he folded them one by one and packed them into a box.

He would never wear any of them again.

The sound of the front door opening came from downstairs.

Celine was back, but she wasn't alone.

Standing at the foot of the stairs, Quinton smiled when he saw Keith. "Keith, it's been a while."

Keith said nothing.

"Quinton said he wanted to see Pudding," Celine explained somewhat awkwardly. "He said it's been a long time since he last saw him."

Pudding was the dog Celine and Quinton had raised when they were together. After Quinton went abroad, Pudding stayed with Celine.

Ever since Keith and Celine got together, Keith had been the one taking care of Pudding.

"Suit yourself," Keith said, then turned to head back to his room.

"Pudding! Pudding!" Quinton was already crouching down and clapping his hands to get Pudding to come to him.

A fluffy white Samoyed came bounding around the corner. The moment Pudding spotted Quinton, he rushed toward him, leaping excitedly with his tail wagging like a propeller.

"Oh, Pudding! You still remember me!" Quinton hugged him, his eyes crinkling with delight. "Looks like even after another man has been taking care of you all these years, you still know I'm your daddy."

His words were an obvious provocation.

Keith stopped in his tracks.

Celine frowned and said, "Quinton, the moment you left the country without a second thought and abandoned Pudding, you lost the right to call yourself his father. Now that you've seen him, you can go home."

Quinton looked up. "It's dark and raining heavily outside. It wouldn't be safe for me to go back alone. Could I stay here for the night?"

Celine wanted to refuse, but it really was pouring outside, with thunder rumbling in the distance.

She instinctively looked toward Keith, hoping he would agree to let Quinton stay.

Whenever Quinton came over in the past, Keith would get upset, and she would have to spend quite some time soothing him.

But this time, before she could even say a single word, Keith said calmly, "The guest room is the last room on the first floor. The sheets are clean. You can stay if you want."

With that, he turned and went back to his room.

Celine was stunned.

Quinton was also taken aback for a moment, but he quickly broke into a smile.

"See, Celine? Even Keith agrees."

Celine stared at Keith's closed bedroom door, that strange feeling rising in her chest once again.

She shook off Quinton's hand. "Just behave yourself."

Just then, her phone rang. It was a work call.

Celine shot a glance at Quinton, saying, "Stay here and don't cause any trouble."

She then went to the study, leaving him alone in the living room.

Quinton's smile immediately vanished. He walked over to Keith's bedroom door and knocked.

Keith opened the door.

Leaning against the doorframe, Quinton looked him up and down.

"Why are you pretending to be so generous? Do you think letting me stay will make Celine think you're being understanding? It won't work, Keith. I'll show you just how pathetic you really are.

"After all these years, you've not only failed to win Celine's heart, but you haven't even managed to win Pudding's affection."

He let out a whistle, and Pudding came running over.

Quinton pointed at Keith. "Go on, Pudding. Bite him."

Pudding paused for a moment, but at Quinton's urging, he eventually lunged forward and bit Keith on the calf.

Keith was caught completely off guard. He cried out in pain, his face turning deathly pale.

Quinton laughed triumphantly. "See? You can't even get a dog to be loyal to you, yet you actually thought you could steal Celine away from me? Why don't you just give up already?"

The pain and humiliation left Keith feeling cold all over. But he bit down hard on his lips, refusing to make a sound.

Then, he looked up coldly at Quinton.

"There's something I forgot to tell you, Quinton. All the common areas of this villa, including the stairs and hallways, are under round-the-clock surveillance. The cameras have both audio and video recording capabilities.

"If you still want to stay here and rekindle things with Celine, I'd advise you to stop provoking me. Otherwise, I'll hand the footage straight to her. Tell me, do you think she'll still let you stay after that?"

Quinton's expression changed.

Without sparing him another glance, Keith turned around and went back to his room.

The door slammed shut behind him.

He walked over to the bed and took the first-aid kit out of the drawer to tend to his wound.

The antiseptic stung fiercely as he applied it, but his expression remained unchanged.

After finishing, he lay down and closed his eyes.

Unlike before, he no longer prepared a glass of warm milk for Celine or waited for her to finish working so he could say goodnight.

Instead, he simply went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Keith woke up choking on smoke.

He opened his eyes. Smoke had filled the room, making him cough violently.

He scrambled out of bed and threw the door open.

The hallway was engulfed in flames.

The villa was on fire.

Keith braced himself against the wall and inched his way toward the exit. But after only a few steps, the effects of inhaling too much smoke made him weak in the knees, and he collapsed to the floor.

The floor was scorching hot. He struggled to get back up, but he had no strength left.

Just when he thought he was going to die there, a figure rushed into the sea of flames.

It was none other than Celine.

She was in her pajamas, her face covered in soot as she frantically looked around the room.

Keith tried to call out to her, but his throat was so choked with smoke that he couldn't make a sound. He stretched out his hand, hoping to catch her attention.

But Celine didn't even look at him and rushed straight toward the corner of the room instead.

Pudding was huddled there, trembling in fear.

Celine scooped Pudding into her arms and turned to leave without so much as looking back at Keith.

Keith watched her disappear into the flames and suddenly laughed. Tears soon began streaming down his face.

She had come to save Pudding. In Celine's heart, Keith wasn't even worth as much as a dog.