Chapter 5

Scarlett hid behind a pillar outside the banquet hall. However, she accidentally overheard a conversation between Joachim and his younger cousin, Riley Davidson.

"Say, Joe, are you really planning to live your life like this forever?" Riley asked with a frown. "You can't hide this your whole life. Even if you think you did a good job of keeping it a secret from her, Scarlett will still find out one day!"

Joachim smiled and said, "I love Scarlett, but Katrina gave birth to twins for me. I can't just abandon her like that. I'm fine living like this for the rest of my life."

"What if you can't hide it from her anymore? What would you do then?" Riley nagged. "You've been unfaithful in your marriage. You're not being fair to Scarlett."

"That day will never come. Hasn't this already been ongoing for two whole years?" Joachim asked, still feeling confident about himself. "I know that I'm letting Scarlett down, but I'll make it up to her. I'll be even better to her."

Riley gave him a hard, judgmental look and rolled her eyes. "You can't use materialistic things to replace your love just because you intend to make it up to her. I'm only warning you because we're related by blood, but Uncle Joel is coming back soon.

"You know how dogmatic he can be and how much he hates people like you who sleep around. You'd better properly hide your side chick from him. If he ever does find out, he's definitely going to expose you, and then some!"

Scarlett slid down to the floor. Her back was pressed to the pillar, and she was now sitting on the floor.

Her heart hurt so much that everything was turning numb. At that point, the only thing she felt was pure disgust.

Scarlett stumbled out of the hotel afterward.

However, the many blows she'd suffered over the events of the past few days finally got to her, and her vision suddenly blacked out, causing her to fall to the floor.

When she woke up again, she found herself in an unfamiliar bed. A man in an impeccable suit and tie was sitting on the couch next to the bed. He was wearing a pair of frameless glasses as well.

The man was going through a thick sheaf of documents in his hand. His expression was stoic, and yet, the look in his beautiful eyes was sharp, heavy, and overbearing.

Scarlett sat up at once. It wasn't until a few seconds later that she recognized the man.

He was Joachim's uncle, Joel Davidson.

Joel had a business overseas and seldom came back home. Scarlett had only seen him a handful of times. The only thing she knew was that Joachim was a little scared of Joel, who was only three years older than him.

The reason? Joachim had always been a cheeky kid since young, but his parents just couldn't bring themselves to discipline him. So, Joel would end up being the one hitting him and keeping him on his toes.

Joachim once described Joel as "Strict, stubborn, and dogmatic. And he's always enforcing his rules on other people."

"You're awake now?" Joel said while putting away the documents in his hand. "The doctor said that you fainted because you were too overwhelmed after your spontaneous abortion."

Joel then started walking toward Scarlett. "Joachim doesn't know that you lost the baby, does he? If he did, then he would have already lost his mind by now. He'd also never let you faint by the roadside."

Scarlett was quiet for a very long time. "Thanks for today, but please don't tell him about this."

Seeing that Joel didn't respond to her request, she repeated again in a low, pleading voice, "Please, I'm begging you."

Joel was stunned. He figured that something had to have gone wrong between the couple. By right, Joachim should immediately be informed of this incident.

However, for some reason, Joel felt his heart soften a little. Ultimately, he promised to keep it a secret from Joachim.

He then instructed his men to send Scarlett home.

Joachim got home a short while after Scarlett.

"Lettie! What would you like to have for lunch today? I'll make it for you!"

For the past few years, Joachim had always cooked for Scarlett thrice a day, even if they had help around the house. He often got worried that the chef wouldn't have made enough food or that the food made wouldn't be to Scarlett's liking, so he would still cook for her no matter how busy he was.

He then brought out a jewelry set. "The jewelry I ordered has finally arrived today. Lettie, want to have a look?"

Scarlett glanced briefly at the box. It was similar to the one she saw him giving to Katrina just earlier today.

She couldn't stop laughing out loud.

All this while, she had always thought that Joachim had showered all of his love on her. As it turned out, everything he gave her had already been halved and thus was worth next to nothing.

"Forget about it. I just want to go over to Glade Manor for a while."

Glade Manor was a whole manor and yard that Joachim had built especially for Scarlett five years ago, and they had created many precious memories there.

In fact, Joachim had successfully confessed to Scarlett there, on the 97th try, after being rejected 96 times.

They had also held hands there for the first time and even shared their first kiss there too.

Joachim even proposed to her there and promised her that she would be the only love of his life forever.

Still, Glade Manor was located on the outskirts of town. Since it was so far away, both Scarlett and Joachim seldom went back there after getting married.

It was now 12:00 pm. She would be leaving this life behind forever at 3:00 pm later that day. She just wanted to see Glade Manor for the last time and bid it a proper goodbye.

Joachim's body stiffened. He looked a little flustered. Katrina had been bugging him forever, asking that he let her stay at Glade Manor, so he'd given the key to her. Coincidentally, Katrina had just gone over today with the twins.

"Alright. We'll go there after lunch," he said. He then quickly snuck into the kitchen and texted Katrina, telling her to leave immediately.

…

Joachim and Scarlett arrived at Glade Manor at 1:00 pm.

As soon as she stepped into the manor, Scarlett immediately sensed that something was amiss.

The roses in the garden had all been replaced with lilies. The mint green curtains had been replaced with pastel pink ones. There was even a baby crib in the middle of the living room.

Obviously, someone else had been living here.

Scarlett pretended not to have noticed a single thing and went straight upstairs.

There were still a few photo albums of her and Joachim. She wanted to take those photos with her and burn them to ashes.

It was disgusting just thinking about leaving them intact in the manor.

However, when Scarlett opened the photo album, she was rooted to the ground at once.

The photo album was filled with photos of Joachim, Katrina, and the twins. There were photos of them in the lavender fields, under the Payris Tower, in a hot-air balloon… And Joachim had also brought Scarlett to every single place they'd been to, and they had left deep impressions in Scarlett's mind.

As it turned out, Joachim had also brought other women to all of their sacred places on those godforsaken nights, poisoning every last memory that had once belonged only to Joachim and herself.

When he saw that Scarlett's face was getting paler by the second, Joachim walked over and asked, "What's wrong, Lettie?"

Scarlett immediately slammed the photo album shut and smiled at him. "Nothing. I just miss home."

She then turned to go back downstairs. Suddenly, Joachim's phone rang for quite a while, and he turned anxious at once. "Lettie, I'm going to use the bathroom for a bit. Go down and wait for me, okay?"

Scarlett nodded and left the room.

However, a few seconds later, she headed back in and heard Joachim's frantic voice as she stood outside the bathroom.

"Didn't I tell you to leave the place with the kids? What are you still doing here?"

"I just wanted to do something more thrilling with you…" Katrina's saccharinely sweet voice oozed from the bathroom. "We've already done it on your bed right under your wedding photos. But now that she's actually downstairs, don't you think it's a lot more thrilling like this? Don't you think you can feel everything even more?"

Joachim's breath turned loud and heavy. "You… You little minx!"

Wet slapping sounds were soon heard, accompanied by a cacophony of loud, melodious moans.

Scarlett stood outside the bathroom door, and her heart was deathly calm. She just couldn't help wondering how her beloved husband ended up like this.

He was like a rotten flower blooming in the swamp—somewhat charming yet emitting a foul stench wherever he went.

Or, could it be that Joachim had always been this type of person, and she hadn't known about it until now?

Scarlett recalled the last time Joachim had introduced her to his elite inner circle of friends.

His friends had all wished them well on the surface, but called Joachim a fool behind his back for tying himself down to only one woman in his life. With how much money they were swimming in, they could afford to even play with ten women at once if they wanted to. It wouldn't have been a problem.

Back then, Joachim told her, "I'm not like them. I'll only love you forever."

As it turned out, he was exactly like them. He was just as stinky and rotten as his friends. It had only been a matter of time.

Scarlett chuckled and made her way down the stairs quietly.

…

Scarlett had come from a poor village in the mountains. Her mother, Darla Meyer, had been sold into the village. As Darla was unable to give birth to a boy, Doug had made sure that both Darla's and Scarlett's lives were made a living hell. He often beat them up.

When Scarlett was 13 years old, she had run away from the mountains, and the first thing she did after that was to send her father to jail.

Doug kept yelling curses at her the whole time. And yet, even though Darla had been set free from her husband's tyranny, she didn't feel grateful toward Scarlett at all.

That was because Scarlett was living, breathing proof of a dark, rotten streak in her life that she never wanted to revisit.

Because Scarlett had grown up in a broken and twisted family, she had learned to hide her heart away beneath walls of steel. She managed to keep a fair distance from everybody in her life.

However, when she was 18 years old, Joachim had barged into her life like a freight train. He was like a ball of fire, glowing brightly in her chest while melting away the layers of ice and steel guarding her fragile heart.

His warmth had comforted all of her pains and struggles. He had showered her with so much love that she gradually and eventually regained the energy to learn to love others in return.

Yet, just when she thought she couldn't be any happier in her life, Joachim had personally delivered the most fatal blow to her, hitting her exactly where it hurt the most.

And this time, the wound would never heal for the rest of her life.