My fingertips twitched, and I ended the call in my hand first. My gaze fell on their interlocked hands—Liam Foster’s palm tightly wrapped around Vanessa Bennett’s hand, intimate in a way that made my stomach turn. Even though I had long prepared myself, knowing he and I had already reached the end, my chest still felt like it was being pricked over and over by countless tiny needles, the pain sharp enough to steal my breath for a second.
I lowered my eyes to hide the sting in them. After steadying my emotions, I looked up at them again, my tone flat, as if I were talking about something unimportant.
“A friend asked me to help her rent a place. Why—do you have a house you’re trying to rent out?”
Liam’s attitude toward me had been growing colder by the day—cold, even cutting. Even if I ever came back to this city in the future, I would never have anything to do with him again. So there was no reason to tell him I was about to go abroad. One more explanation would be one more unnecessary word.
At my answer, Liam’s brows immediately knit together. There was scrutiny in his eyes. Before he could speak, Vanessa cut in first.
“Sister, what are you saying? Isn’t your friend our friend too?” Vanessa leaned into Liam’s arms, her voice sweet to the point of cloying, but calculation glinted beneath her lashes. “I happen to have a one-bedroom apartment downtown. It’s empty anyway—do you want your friend to stay there first?”
I didn’t respond. I only looked at her in silence.
Liam’s face darkened even more. He stepped forward and blocked my way directly, anger practically spilling out of his voice.
“Clara Bennett, and you still have the energy to worry about helping someone rent a place?”
“Vanessa got burned because of you yesterday, and she still has red marks on her leg. How can you stand here so calmly?” His tone was rigid, leaving no room for argument. “You’d better apologize to Vanessa right now and beg her to forgive you. Otherwise, forget borrowing an apartment—don’t even think you’ll get a single opportunity from me, even if you pay to rent!”
After that, he didn’t give me any chance to argue. With his arm around Vanessa’s waist, he strode into the villa, leaving only a cold, indifferent back behind him.
I watched the flicker of smug triumph that flashed in Vanessa’s eyes when she looked back, and a self-mocking smile tugged at my mouth.
I didn’t linger. I turned and went straight back to my room. The moment I shut the door, it felt like all the strength in my body had been drained.
Early the next morning, not long after dawn, I got up. The moment I stepped out of my room, I caught the smell of breakfast drifting from the living room—Liam and Vanessa were sitting at the dining table eating, looking like some loving couple in a cozy domestic routine.
Vanessa glanced at me and deliberately lifted a hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. As she moved, a patch of deep and shallow kiss marks across her neck was exposed completely. She stared at me with open provocation, her tone laced with smugness.
“Sister, there seemed to be a lot of mosquitoes in the villa last night. I got bitten a bunch of times on my neck. Should we have the property management come over and handle it thoroughly?”
Liam lifted his eyes and swept a glance over me. He didn’t say a word. He only picked up an elegant brocade box from the table and held it out to me, signaling for me to open it.
I hesitated for a moment, but I still reached out and took the box. The instant I opened it, a translucent jade bangle came into view—smooth, luminous, its color like distant mountains softened by mist, quiet and refined, unmistakably expensive.
I tugged at the corner of my mouth, a cold mockery curling on my lips.
“To make me apologize, you really are willing to spend money.”
Vanessa leaned in to glance at the bangle, and jealousy immediately colored her tone. She grabbed Liam’s arm and shook it lightly.
“Liam, I didn’t realize your relationship with Sister Clara is this good. You even exchange such expensive gifts normally.”
Guilt flashed across Liam’s eyes for a split second, and his tone turned slightly unnatural. Avoiding my gaze, he explained to Vanessa.
“It wasn’t specially bought for her.”
Only then did he turn to me, forcing himself to speak.
“The wedding date we set has to be postponed. Clara, take this bracelet as compensation from me.”
The fingers holding the box tightened slightly. I said nothing. I just looked at Liam with a gaze full of mockery.
Postponed?
This was already the ninth time. Every single time, it was because of Vanessa. Every single time, he could use such a casual tone to crush my expectations into dust.
Seeing I stayed silent, Liam looked even more uncomfortable, like he couldn’t sit still. He quickly stood up, grabbed his suit jacket from the back of the chair, and said to Vanessa.
“There’s an emergency at the company. I’m leaving first. Rest at home. Call me anytime if you need anything.”
After that, he practically fled the living room, as if staying one more second would torture him.
Watching his hurried back, I instantly lost any appetite. I set the box down, picked up a slice of bread from the table and took two bites, but it tasted like cardboard. I turned and went back to my room—I simply couldn’t stand the suffocating feeling of being in the same space as Vanessa.
In the afternoon, I took a nap. When I woke up, the sun had already tilted west, spilling through the slit in the curtains onto the floor. I stretched, then habitually reached for my wrist—only to find nothing there.
The silver bracelet my mother had left me—her only keepsake—was gone.
That bracelet had been with me for more than ten years. It had never left my body. My heart sank instantly, emotions flooding up all at once: panic, anxiety, unease… I forced myself to calm down, replaying everything from yesterday to today, trying to remember where it might have been left.
Just as I stood up to go look for it, I heard a soft click from the living room.
I hurried out—and saw Vanessa sitting on the sofa, casually playing with my bracelet in her hand, tossing it high into the air and catching it again and again.
“Give it back,” I said, my voice turning cold in an instant. “Give me my bracelet.”
Vanessa acted like she hadn’t heard me. Instead, she deliberately tossed it even higher. I instinctively reached out to catch it, but the bracelet traced an arc through the air—I missed.
It slammed hard onto the marble floor.
Crack—
A crisp, brutal snap rang out. The silver bracelet shattered into several pieces, scattering across the ground.
“How dare you break my bracelet?” My voice shook uncontrollably, red veins blooming in my eyes. That wasn’t an ordinary bracelet—it was my mother’s last trace, the only warmth I’d ever had to hold onto in this cold house.
Vanessa lifted her head slowly and looked at my collapse. She smiled—triumphant and arrogant.
“Didn’t Liam just give you a new jade bangle, Sister Clara? I’m helping you deal with the old one.” She tilted her head, her voice lazy and cruel. “After all, useless trash belongs in the trash can.”
“Who are you calling trash?!”
I shook all over from fury. The grievance and rage I’d held down for too long exploded completely in that moment.
I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
I rushed forward and shoved Vanessa to the floor, then crouched down, hands trembling as I reached to pick up the broken pieces of the bracelet. Tears spilled out uncontrollably, dropping onto the fragments.
