Chapter 85
85
When we arrived at the hospital, Julianne was standing on the rooftop.
The freezing winter air was biting, the temperature well below zero. Snowflakes drifted down from the sky , painting the night with a cold , silent beauty.
And there she stood , in nothing but a thin white slip dress, her figure trembling in the fierce wind.
She looked so fragile, so broken, like a tragic figure ripped from a storybook. Even a stray dog passing by might have felt sorry
for her.
And Irvin? He looked like he was about to explode.
Grabbing Jeremy by the collar, he demanded, “What’s going on? Why is Julianne on the rooftop?”
Before Jeremy could answer, Mom caught sight of me. She rushed over, her face twisted with rage, and raised her hand to slap
To my shock , Irvin–despite being laser–focused on his precious Julianne–managed to intercept her hand before it made
contact.
“Catherine, don’t hit Emilia,” he said, his tone firm but slightly distracted. “She didn’t-”
“What?” Mom cut him off, her voice shrill and hysterical. “Do you even know what she did? Do you?”
Irvin frowned, sensing this wasn’t just about the earlier fight. “What happened?”
“She–she told everyone!” Mom shrieked. “She told everyone about Julianne and your father! Now the entire city knows! Everyone’s calling Julianne a gold digger! How is she supposed to live with that kind of humiliation? How, Irvin?”
Her voice cracked as she glared at me, her face contorted in fury.
“Emilia! How could I have given birth to such a vicious, heartless monster? You’ve already ruined Julianne once. Wasn’t that enough? Did you really have to destroy her a second time?”
She pointed a trembling finger at me, her voice breaking as tears filled her eyes. “You’re evil , Emilia. You’re pure evil. If only you’d died when you fell from that cliff!”
For once, Julianne’s usual fainting spell wasn’t an act. Earlier that night, she’d been so shaken by what happened that she’d actually passed out, leaving her unable to control the narrative right away.
With no one to manage the fallout, the truth about her brief marriage to Irvin’s father had spread like wildfire through the upper
-class circles.
By the time Julianne regained consciousness and tried to have the story buried, it was already too late. Everyone knew.
Devastated by the backlash, she’d fainted again. When she woke up a second time, she ran to the rooftop while Dad and Mom were distracted, discussing her condition with the doctors.
It wasn’t until Julianne’s phone, left behind on the ground, revealed the full extent of the scandal that my parents understood why she was so distraught.
Hearing all this, Irvin’s fury reached a boiling point. He grabbed my shoulders with a grip so tight it felt like he was trying to
crush me.
“Emilia,” he growled, his voice low and trembling with anger. “How could you be so cruel? You’re trying to pus Tulianne to her death, aren’t you?” His eyes burned with rage. “Is that what you wanted?”
I flinched under his glare, his words cutting deep.
“Julianne’s been through enough because of you, and now you’ve driven her to this! How can you live with yourself?”
85
His grip tightened painfully , lifs face inches from mine.
+25 BONUS
“ You’re heartless, Emilia,” he hissed. “You’ve always been heartless. And if anything happens to Julianne, you won’t live to see the next day .”
Before I could respond, he yanked me along with him, dragging me toward the rooftop like a rag doll.
When Julianne saw me being hauled onto the rooftop like that, a flicker of malice flashed in her eyes.
That brief look told me everything I needed to know–this wasn’t cry for help. She had no intention of dying tonight.
This entire stunt was meant for me. She wanted to use this to destroy me, and she was willing to go all in to make it happen. When Irvin looked at her , though , she morphed back into her fragile, helpless persona. Tears welled up in her soft , almond- shaped eyes as she gazed at him with heartbreaking sorrow.
“Irvin,” she murmured, her voice trembling. “In this life, we’re not meant to be. I can only hope that in the next life, we might share even a fleeting moment of happiness … ”
She took a shaky step closer to the edge, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Tonight is the day I leave you for good.”
And with that , she stepped closer to the ledge.