Chapter 49

Azalea

Next Morning

The next morning, I woke up with a heavy feeling in my chest. I tried to ignore it, telling myself it was just because Cassian was away and I had to meet Chiara today. But something felt wrong.

At work, I couldn’t focus on anything. Every time my phone made a sound, my heart jumped. I hoped it would be Cassian calling, but there were no calls or texts from him at all, not even a “good morning” message. This wasn’t like him at all.

I tried calling him, but it went straight to voicemail.

I told myself not to worry too much. Maybe his plane was already in the air. Maybe he was busy with his boss.

But I couldn’t stop the bad feeling growing inside me.

That evening, I called Chiara.

“Where do you want to meet?” I asked.

“Come to the cafe near the old bookstore, Silver Bloom. Do you know it?”

“I do. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

I dressed in simple clothes, not wanting people to notice me. I didn’t know why, but something about this meeting made me feel like I needed to be careful.

When I got there, Chiara was already sitting at a table.

“Azalea,” she called, standing up to hug me. “You look even more beautiful than before.”

“You too,” I said with a smile as I sat across from her.

“How is work?” she asked.

“Good, honey. How are you?”

“Good.”

“Here is your coffee, ma’am,” the waiter said, putting our drinks on the table.

Chiara picked up her coffee and took a sip before putting it down.

“I’m still looking for that girl,” she announced. “When I find her...”

Her smile twisted into something cold and predatory. I felt sorry for whoever this girl was!

“You should calm down, love,” I murmured, picking up my coffee. “Maybe it’s not what you think.”

“I don’t care,” she replied angrily. “I will make her sorry she ever thought about stealing my man.”

“Don’t hurt someone who might be innocent, Chiara.”

No matter what I said, she wouldn’t listen to me.

“Are you listening to me, love?” I asked.

Her eyes looked tired but full of anger. “I didn’t just bring you here to talk,” she stated. “I brought you here to show you something.”

My heart started beating fast.

She reached into her bag and took out her phone. After touching the screen for a moment, she turned it toward me.

There, clear as anything, was a picture of her with a man. They were standing together, both smiling.

I couldn’t breathe.

It was Cassian.

My Cassian.

My man.

Only… she didn’t call him Cassian. She called him Leo.

“He’s the love of my life,” she said softly. “My fiancé.”

My hands became cold. My mouth opened, but no words came out.

I stared at the photo, trying to tell myself it wasn’t real. That it was just someone who looked like him. But I knew that face. I had kissed that face. I had fallen in love with that face.

“Azalea?” Chiara’s voice brought me back to reality.

I looked up at her, trying to hold myself together. “Where was that photo taken?”

“Today. We went to a resort outside the city. He said he wanted to get away from the stress of planning our wedding.”

Wedding. Today.

My stomach felt sick. Didn’t he tell me he was going on a work trip? Was he really with Chiara instead? What the hell was happening?

“Azalea,” I heard someone calling, but I felt far away. “Azalea.”

Chiara shook my arm. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“I—” My voice cracked. “I didn’t know.”

“You don’t know??” she asked. “Is something bothering you?”

“No,” I replied, trying to hide the pain in my voice. My heart hurt. Every part of my body hurt. Why? How could this happen to me?

“Are you sure?” she kept asking, but I made her believe everything was fine.

“You two look perfect together,” I said with a fake smile. I tried my best to make it look real as Chiara’s face lit up with happiness. “How long have you been dating?”

“I loved him first,” she muttered, her cheeks turning red. Even a blind person could see she was deeply in love with him.

“We come from the same background. Our parents were friends, and his mother always treated me like family. Actually, we’ve been engaged since we were children.”

I stayed quiet as she continued talking. “So we decided to get officially engaged when we became adults, and our wedding is happening soon.”

She took my hand. “You are my friend, Azalea, so I want you to be my maid of honor at my wedding.”

The room was spinning. She wanted me to watch her marry the man I loved. The man who had lied to me about his name. About everything.

“Will you do it?”

I didn’t even feel my own body anymore. My lips moved, but I wasn’t in control. I was watching myself from far away, a ghost in someone else’s skin.

“Of course,” I heard myself say. “It would be an honor.”

“Thank you. How is Adriano?” she suddenly asked.

“He is fine,” I managed to say.

We talked for another hour. I don’t remember what we said. I smiled and nodded and died inside.

After Chiara left, I stood in the middle of the street, drowning in the memories I had made with the man I thought I would spend my whole life with. Those memories felt horrible now. I held my chest and cried as hard as I could.

“Why?” I screamed at the sky. “Why did you do this to me?”

I kept asking myself as I put the pieces together. Leo was actually the unknown Mr. Caelian, the owner of the hotel where I had been working all these months.

“Oh God,” I cried out. No wonder Marla had been treating me better. That’s why I never got fired.

He wasn’t just Cassian. He wasn’t just Leo. He was my boss, the man behind the desk I passed every day. And I never saw it coming.

So everything was fake. Why? Why did he come into my life with a fake name? Why did he make me feel loved and cared for?

Why did he teach me what it felt like to fall in love?

I got in a taxi. “Take me to Maple Street.”

I had to see his mother. His sister. Maybe they could explain. Maybe this was all wrong.

“Thank you,” I paid the driver and got out, rushing to his mother’s house.

I stood outside their house, shaking. I was about to knock when I heard voices.

I froze.

“So it’s almost over?” A woman’s voice. His “mother.”

“Yes,” the unknown voice replied. “After everything, you need to leave this place.”

“What about the money? And what about my son who is still in the hospital?”

“Your son?” The man laughed. “What son?”

“My son. I still need to sort out the hospital bills.”

“What have you been doing with the money Mr. Caelian gave you?”

I gasped. Mr. Caelian. The words hit me like a truck. I grabbed the fence to keep from falling.

What the hell was going on? I didn’t want to believe what my mind was telling me. No, this couldn’t be happening, right?

“That money isn’t enough. I have bills to pay.”

“Shut up, woman. That money could last you a lifetime.”

“It’s not enough,” she argued. “I want more.”

“Don’t be greedy,” he snapped at her, his voice getting louder. “Mr. Caelian already paid you extra when you pretended to be sick and lied to her about your niece answering the phone calls. What did you do with that money?”

Every word was a knife in my chest. The sick days. The phone calls from his “niece.” All lies. All planned.

“I did my job perfectly,” the fake mother said. “Just tell him I need more money.”

“And if he says no?”

“Then I’ll call Azalea and tell her how much he paid me to pretend to be his family.”

It felt like the ground had split open, and I was falling into a pit of every lie he ever told me.

“Are you threatening us?”

“Take it as a threat if you want to.”

“Fine. I will give Mr. Caelian your message and your threat.”

It was all fake. She wasn’t his mother. She was an actress. A paid liar.

For a moment, I couldn’t move. I just stood there, frozen, like my soul had left my body.

My legs didn’t work. My breath didn’t come. Everything inside me had gone quiet.

Then I ran. I didn’t know where. I just ran.

I ended up in an alley behind a restaurant, throwing up everything I’d eaten that day.

When there was nothing left, I sat on the dirty ground.

I curled up on the cold cement, my arms wrapped around my knees. I didn’t cry. I didn’t breathe. I just sat there, empty, and hollow.

Then I screamed.

I screamed until my throat was raw. Until my voice was gone. Until the pain had somewhere to go.

But it didn’t help. The pain was still there. Bigger now. Eating me alive.

He had paid people to pretend to be his family. He had lied about his name. He was engaged to someone else. He was my boss. He had used me for months.

Everything was fake. Every single thing.

I hated him. I hated Leo. I hated Cassian. And Mr. Caelian, for building an entire world just to break me.

But I hated myself more.

I hated myself for believing him. For loving him. For giving him my heart to a ghost. Now I had nothing left but the ruins, and the fire inside me.