Chapter 244: Return to Imperial City
As night deepened, Benjamin sat on the sofa.
In the darkness, he smoked one cigarette after another.
He didn't used to smoke much, but since Lily's death, his smoking had gotten worse and worse.
Benjamin looked at the familiar furnishings throughout the house - not a single thing had been moved or changed.
Even the food in the fridge was replaced with fresh items daily, but each time it was exactly the same as what was there the day Lily left.
He had kept everything here exactly as it was in the beginning.
Desperately trying to freeze time on that day.
As if Lily was still here, never having left.
...
Saskia's belly was already swollen high, and as the months passed, her temper grew worse and worse.
Since Lily's death, she rarely saw Benjamin at home.
On the rare occasions he came back, he only stayed in the study, never setting foot in the master bedroom.
To him, she wasn't like a wife - more like an enemy.
This was the marriage she had schemed so hard to get.
It had been another two weeks without seeing Benjamin.
"Benjamin, this is too much."
Saskia was so angry she smashed the bowl of porridge the servant had just brought onto the floor, her rage unabated.
Lily had been dead for over half a year now, but not only had Benjamin not forgotten her, he was getting worse.
If he was too busy with work to come home, she could tell herself to be patient.
But what she couldn't tolerate was her own husband spending every night at that dead bitch's place instead of coming home, not giving a damn about her feelings.
The next day, Benjamin was handling work at the company.
His phone, set aside, rang.
He answered—
After hanging up with a dark expression, he left the company and drove straight back to the place where they lived after marriage.
He didn't call it home, because in his eyes, this wasn't his home.
"What's going on today? You actually came home?"
Saskia was drinking soup when she saw Benjamin storm back in fury.
So he finally decided to come back, did he?
A slap froze the smugness at the corner of Saskia's mouth.
The servant was so frightened she immediately retreated to the kitchen, deliberately softening her breathing.
She knew the two of them were like fire and water, but this was the first time she'd seen Benjamin hit Saskia.
"Saskia, who gave you the nerve to set that fire?"
Saskia covered her swollen, reddened cheek with one hand, looking at Benjamin who seemed ready to kill her.
Her eyes turned red with anger as she grabbed the soup from the table and threw it at Benjamin.
"Benjamin, how dare you hit me?"
She was the only daughter in her family, pampered and spoiled growing up.
No one had ever dared to lay a finger on her.
After enduring cold treatment for so long, she was full of grievances.
She thought time would make Benjamin forget Lily. She thought she could wait for Benjamin to change his mind and fall in love with her.
But what did she get?
She got him never looking at her properly, his heart filled only with a bitch who was already dead.
Even in his dreams, he called out that bitch Lily's name!
All she could do was go burn down that bitch's place, so he couldn't think about Lily anymore.
"If you weren't carrying my child, it wouldn't have been just a slap."
She had burned his only keepsake - that place was the only thing that could prove Lily had existed.
Saskia looked at Benjamin, who seemed ready to kill her, and became hysterical.
"Benjamin, why are you torturing me like this?"
"Everything I've done is only because I love you."
"You're the one who should take the most responsibility for her death. I forced you, yes, but you could have given up everything for love!"
"You're the one who really killed her. You killed her, you!"
Each of Saskia's words turned into a knife, stabbing into Benjamin's heart.
They say time is the best medicine, healing everything.
But time had no effect on him.
He couldn't let go, couldn't forget.
Day after day, he suffered.
Turning around dejectedly, Benjamin walked out like a lost soul.
"Benjamin—"
Saskia had been too emotional just now, and felt a sharp pain in her abdomen.
She reached out to grab Benjamin, but grasped at air.
Seeing Benjamin walk out without looking back, she stretched out her hand in pain.
"Mrs. White..."
The servant hiding in the kitchen immediately ran out. Seeing the blood on Saskia's thighs, she was terrified and immediately called to Benjamin, "Mr. Benjamin White, Mrs. Saskia White is bleeding."
But Benjamin acted as if he hadn't heard, and left directly.
He was that cold-blooded.
Saskia's face turned deathly pale with pain. The heartache combined with the pain in her lower abdomen made her gasp for breath, and she passed out directly.
Blood slid down her thighs.
...
Time flew by, and three years had passed in a flash.
At Brookside Gardens, the air was filled with the tempting aroma of meat. In the kitchen, Lavinia, wearing an apron, was stewing meat.
Her eyes were gentle. Looking at the tempting color and smelling the aroma, the corners of her lips slowly curved into a tender arc.
Looking at the meat, her eyes were full of love.
This meat carried her intense love for James.
This love - she finally didn't have to hide it anymore under the pretense of helping him act.
Now she could look at him openly with loving eyes, stand by his side as was proper.
When she turned down the heat to simmer, she began preparing other dishes.
With everything ready, she wiped her hands clean and walked out of the kitchen, preparing to call James and ask where he was.
Since confirming their relationship with James, she knew all of his schedules.
Tonight, he had no business dinners, so he should be able to come home from work on time.
That's why she left work early to come make him dinner, so he could feel what it was like to come home to a hot meal.
He would feel how thoughtful she was.
She wanted to stay tonight. She wanted to tell James that her body had long since recovered, and they could—
Thinking about what would happen tonight, Lavinia's face bloomed like a peach blossom, shy and coy, with the demeanor of a young girl.
"Sorry, the number you have dialed is switched off."
Her smile instantly froze, her expression darkening.
She first called the front desk and learned that James had already left.
The front desk wouldn't know James's whereabouts, so she immediately called Robert. "Where's James?"
"Sorry, I'm not sure. Mr. Smith's personal phone is with him now. If you're looking for him, you could call him?"
Robert's attitude was polite but distant.
This time, he was certain he hadn't misread James's intentions.
His attitude toward Lavinia - definitely not wrong.
Although James hadn't mentioned it, Robert, who also remembered, knew where James would go tonight, but he wouldn't say.
Lavinia was extremely annoyed.
If she could get through, would she need to ask him?
But Robert had already said as much - he clearly wasn't going to tell her.
Lavinia hung up with a cold expression.
She wasn't stupid enough to fall out with Robert - that wouldn't do her any good.
She started calling James again, over and over.
Each time, it said the phone was off.
James wasn't usually like this.
He knew she would worry if she couldn't find him. He wouldn't just turn off his phone randomly.
Could he have another woman?
The more she thought about it, the uglier Lavinia's expression became, her body trembling imperceptibly.
...
At Silver Oak Manor, a black Bentley stopped downstairs at Building 8.
James pushed open the car door and got out, carrying a super large shopping bag in his hand. He went upstairs, opened the door, and walked in.
Entering the kitchen, he grabbed an apron and started cooking.
Lavinia sat downstairs, looking up at the man's silhouette reflected in the eighth-floor kitchen window.
Sitting in the car, her nails dug deep into her fingertips.
Her expression was twisted, her emotions rising and falling more and more violently.
She immediately fumbled in her passenger seat bag for a vitamin C bottle, poured out some pills, and shoved them messily into her mouth.
Two hours later, James turned off the lights and came down from upstairs carrying food.
He drove away from Silver Oak Manor.
After his car left, Lavinia drove after him.
It was already past nine. James drove all the way to the cemetery.
He had already made arrangements with the cemetery.
After parking, carrying the dishes and birthday cake in one hand and holding a bouquet of bellflowers in the other, he walked slowly inside, finally stopping in front of a tombstone.
He slowly crouched down, kneeling on one knee, carefully arranging the flowers and cake.
Tomorrow was Mia's birthday.
He had personally made her a cake, along with her favorite dishes.
He opened the food container and took out four dishes and a soup.
The dishes and soup were all Mia's favorites.
"Mia, taste it and see how it is? I haven't cooked in four years, my skills seem a bit rusty."
He had only worked so hard to learn cooking for Mia in the first place.
After Mia was gone, he never entered the kitchen again.
Four years had passed in a flash.
Whenever he thought about everything that happened that day four years ago,
his heart felt like it was being cut by knives, filled with regret.
Four years, over a thousand days and nights - not a single day had he forgotten her.
Not a single day without regret and self-blame.
After his leg healed, the regret and self-blame only grew day by day.
"Mia, have you still not forgiven me? Is that why you refuse to come into my dreams?"
Four years, not even once.
How much he wished she would enter his dreams, even if just to curse him or hit him - he would gladly accept it.
But she wouldn't enter his dreams.
Of course!
She hated him!
When Mia was forcibly dragged into the operating room by him, she said: I will never forgive you, even in death.
Those words were like a curse he couldn't escape.
Mia never forgave him.
And he could never forgive himself.
The night wind blew gently. James knelt there on one knee, one hand gently stroking Mia's face on the tombstone - unchanged from four years ago.
Looking at it, his eyes slowly turned red.
Slowly lowering his head, his forehead pressed against the cold tombstone, he remained still for a long time.
Until close to midnight.
Only then did James slowly stand up, raising his hand to wipe away the tears covering his face.
He picked up the cake from the side and opened it, inserted candles, and right at midnight, lit them. "Mia, happy birthday."
"I really miss you so much. I want to see you again so badly."
"Will you let me dream of you just once? Please!"
A night breeze blew past, extinguishing the candles.
"Mia, does this mean you've agreed?"
James stood up excitedly. He wanted to go home right away.
He so wanted to see her in his dreams.
Lavinia watched James's back disappear from view before walking out from the other side.
The night wind blew her long dress, making her drift like a ghost to where James had just been standing.
She lowered her head, her gaze falling on the smiling face on the tombstone that she deeply despised.
It really was her.
This was her first time coming to Mia's grave.
Earlier, when she saw James coming out of Silver Oak Manor carrying dishes downstairs, she had wondered where he was going so late.
She couldn't help but hope a little - hoping that her sincere heart could warm James's heart.
That the dinner was prepared for her, wanting to surprise her.
After all, he had already agreed to marry her.
But when she saw the direction he was going - neither to his place nor to hers - she knew in her heart that she was being presumptuous.
She followed him all the way here.
Watching James show such emotion to someone who had been dead for four years, jealousy drove her crazy inside.
Lavinia's emotions were on the verge of collapse.
She tried hard to suppress them.
Until her gaze swept across a line of text.
"Beloved wife Mia."
Beloved wife!
Those words made Lavinia's eyes turn red.
Looking again at Mia's smile on the tombstone, that smile seemed to be mocking her.
Mocking her presumption.
Mocking how after four years she still hadn't won James's heart.
She dared to mock her.
What right did she have to mock her?
"Mia, you're already dead. You're a dead person. What right do you have to mock me?"
Lavinia's finger kept jabbing at Mia's face on the tombstone.
As if slapping her face over and over.
Her eyes were vicious!
"Even if James doesn't love me yet, so what? He'll marry me soon. I'll soon be his rightful wife."
"What are you? You two never even remarried. I'm his wife, I am!"
Lavinia crazily grabbed the cake James had placed in front of the tombstone and smashed it hard against Mia's tombstone.
"The person James will love from now on will only be me. You hear me clearly - don't even think about competing with me, don't even think about it!"
She frantically threw the cake and then kicked over all the dishes.
Finally, she grabbed the bouquet of bellflowers!
Bellflowers represent eternal love!
"I'll show you eternal, I'll show you eternal - let's see how eternal you can be!"
Lavinia gripped the bouquet of bellflowers tightly, smashing it against the tombstone with increasing force each time.
The delicate flowers were violently destroyed by her.
Petals scattered all over the ground.
Until the bouquet was smashed down to just stems, then she threw it hard on the ground.
Still not satisfied, she lifted her foot and viciously ground all those petals into the dirt, then spat at Mia's tombstone.
After spitting on the tombstone, she turned and left with a vicious expression.
A dead person didn't deserve to make her angry.
Already dead - what could she compete with?
...
Aetheria
Two years ago, after Mia's health recovered, by chance she met Blair Ember, a legendary figure in Aetheria.
Many people in the business world had heard her name. She was a woman who had broken into the Aetheria market from China and quickly established a foothold there.
In Aetheria's business circles, everyone knew Blair.
Blair, who was distant with people, showed her kindness.
She had been following Blair for two years now. In those two years, she had risen to the position of Marketing Director, becoming a key senior executive in the company.
Mia stood outside the door and knocked politely.
"Come in."
Hearing the voice, she pushed the door open. "Ms. Ember."
"Sit."
Blair gestured for her to sit but didn't speak immediately.
Only after finishing reading the document in front of her did she look up at Mia, whose expression was calm, and got straight to the point: "There's a problem at the Imperial City branch. I don't have time to go, so you'll go handle it for me."
"Imperial City?"
Mia was clearly stunned.
"Is there a problem?"
Blair's gaze was sharp, looking at Mia with great authority.
"No."
Mia shook her head decisively.