Chapter 55
On the rooftop, only Juliana remained, engulfed by vast emptiness and cold. She leaned against the railing, losing track of time until the rooftop door opened again.
Thinking Lucas had returned, Juliana looked up. A trace of hope she didn't even recognize flickered in her eyes.
But a hotel staff member entered instead, carrying an enormous bouquet of lush red roses.
"Ms. Wells?" The staff member spotted her and paused. "Hello, a gentleman prepared these for you. He said to bring them up after you agreed."
Ninety-nine red roses, blooming wild and vibrant against the night.
Juliana's mind went blank with a buzzing roar. She stared at the bouquet and woodenly accepted it. Clutching the flowers, she stumbled to her feet and took a single step forward.
Another staff member appeared in the doorway, holding an open navy blue velvet box.
"Ms. Wells, there's also this..." The words died on their lips as a dark figure strode past. "The gentleman said this was a surprise for you..."
Lucas.
He'd come back. His expression was even grimmer than before, his eyes cold as ice. He didn't even glance at Juliana. He walked straight to the staff member holding the ring and snatched the velvet box away.
Then, under everyone's shocked gaze, without hesitation, he threw the diamond ring into a nearby trash can.
Having done this, he didn't pause for even a moment. He turned and strode away again. This time, he never looked back.
The two hotel staff members stood frozen, exchanging bewildered glances, uncertain whether to stay or leave.
Just then, the iron door to the rooftop creaked open again. A janitor entered, pushing a cart loaded with garbage bags.
"Hey, why are people still here?" The janitor noticed her and headed straight for the corner trash can. "Miss, I'm taking this, okay?"
The trash can...
Her head snapped up. She watched helplessly as the janitor's hand reached the edge of the bin.
"Wait!"
She practically threw herself forward, scrambling across the rooftop. The janitor jumped back, startled. "What's wrong with you, girl?"
Juliana couldn't answer. She ignored the staff members' astonished stares. She bent down and plunged her hand directly into the dark trash can. Cold, sticky liquid—she didn't know what—coated her hand. Fighting the nausea churning in her stomach, she rummaged frantically inside.
Finally, her fingertips touched something small, hard, and square. The velvet box.
Like grasping a lifeline, she seized it and clutched it tight in her palm.
"...Okay, you can take it now." She kept her head down, not daring to look at anyone.
The janitor gave her a baffled look and pushed the cart away. The two staff members finally recovered and hurried off. The vast rooftop was empty again. Only her.
She opened her palm and looked at the stained box. Utterly disheveled.
She didn't know how she left the hotel. Clutching the roses that nearly drowned her and gripping the box she'd retrieved from the trash, she refused the driver Lucas's assistant had arranged and called her own car.
Back at the hilltop villa, the housekeeper and servants had already retired. She kicked off her heels and walked barefoot, carrying her burdens like a ghost drifting back to her room.
At the sink, she turned on the faucet and washed the velvet box over and over. Once the box was clean, she opened it. The diamond ring lay quietly inside, the center stone refracting fractured light under the lamp, still brilliant.
Her fingertip accidentally brushed the inside of the band. Juliana's heartbeat stopped for a moment.
She held the ring up to the light, squinting to look closely. Engraved clearly on the inner band were two letters.
J.W.
Juliana's mind buzzed. She'd assumed the proposal was calculation, a test, a businessman's optimal choice after weighing pros and cons. But no one would engrave such an intimate mark on a ring meant for scheming.
So that question he'd asked on the dance floor tonight... was it real?
This realization made her chest burn, only to be immediately replaced by an even deeper chill. She thought of that investigation report. A person who'd investigated every corner of her life in secret, then turned around and proposed with such devoted tenderness. Which side of this man was real? Or was all of this just a more sophisticated disguise?
Juliana held the small ring, feeling herself torn apart by these two extreme emotions.
……
That night, she slept terribly.
The next morning, Juliana came downstairs sporting heavy dark circles under her eyes. She'd made her decision. She'd placed the velvet box in her lab coat pocket. No matter what, she had to return it to him today and make everything clear. She couldn't let him lead her around by the nose anymore.
In the dining room, the two little guys sat in a row eating breakfast. Lucas occupied the head of the table, leisurely perusing a financial newspaper. As if the cold, decisive man on the rooftop last night had been nothing but her hallucination.
Juliana took a deep breath, about to walk over.
Matthew suddenly jumped down from his chair. His little legs carried him pattering over to Lucas. Then, under everyone's unprepared gaze, he lifted his small face and called out in a perfectly natural, clear voice:
"Daddy, good morning!"
The air froze instantly.
Even the usually boisterous Damian stopped mid-bite of his sandwich, mouth hanging open in surprise. Juliana's hand, poised in her pocket to pull out the box, stopped cold.
What could she say? She couldn't say anything. At a moment like this, faced with a child's hopeful eyes, how could she pull out that ring and tell him she wouldn't marry his father? What difference was there between that and crushing her son's dreams with her own hands?
Every gaze focused on Lucas.