Chapter 252 Regret, Betrayal, and Lost Love

Chapter 252 Regret, Betrayal, and Lost Love

Victoria snapped back to reality, quickly lowering her eyes in panic.

The moment her gaze met Edward's deep eyes, her cheeks flushed an uncontrollable, flustered red. Her heartbeat pounded so hard in her chest that it hurt.

She instinctively took half a step back, forcing her eyes down to the pale flower petals scattered on the lawn, no longer daring to look at him directly.

She was scared.

She was scared that if she looked at him one more time, the secret she'd locked away in the deepest part of her heart—that forbidden longing—would be exposed by this perceptive man.

The air between them seemed to freeze.

"When are you leaving to study abroad?" Finally, Edward spoke, breaking the suffocating silence.

His voice was lower than usual, carrying a barely noticeable hoarseness. His right hand curled slightly at his side, his fingertips seemingly remembering the feel of her hair from moments ago, the lingering warmth stirring even more chaos in his heart.

Victoria forced herself to steady her breathing. She hid her clenched, pale hands inside the wide sleeves of her graduation gown and answered quietly, "Mid-July."

As her words fell, the tension returned.

Summer wind passed through the tree canopy, leaves rustling softly. Petals fell one by one, like thoughts neither of them dared speak, spreading at their feet.

Just as the restraint were about to cross the breaking point, a gentle voice came from nearby.

"Victoria!"

Jasper, wearing a well-tailored light gray suit, walked quickly toward them. He nodded to Edward first, then naturally turned to Victoria.

"Mr. Savage has reserved lunch at a restaurant near campus to celebrate your graduation. He specifically invited you to join. It's about time; we should go."

Jasper's appearance was like a lifeline, instantly releasing Victoria's taut nerves.

"Okay, I'll be right there." She didn't even dare turn her head, only nodding hurriedly in Edward's direction to maintain politeness to the last second. "Edward, excuse me."

She turned and followed Jasper.

She left decisively, her retreating figure appearing carefree and natural, as if nothing mattered.

But only she knew how deeply her fingertips, hidden in her sleeves, dug into her palms—that pain exposing her panic.

The moment she turned her back to Edward, the calm on Victoria's face completely crumbled, leaving only heaviness and bitterness. She watched a pale petal blow toward her feet, forcing herself to face reality.

She told herself, 'Victoria, wake up. This secret affection was wrong from the start; it should never have existed. By the time I return from studying abroad, it might be Anne and Edward's wedding day.'

Edward was her sister's fiancé and her future brother-in-law.

This was an undeniable fact— a line she could never.

She had to force herself to let go, even if it hurt so much that she could barely breathe.

Behind her, Edward still stood in place.

He stared at Victoria and Jasper walking side by side. The sight was so glaring it caused him a dull pain close to anger. An inexplicable, intense jealousy gripped his heart.

Why could Jasper stand beside her so naturally? Why could she smile so easily with Jasper, but only flee when facing him?

"Victoria..."

Edward's thin lips moved slightly. He instinctively wanted to step forward and call her back—to pull her away from Jasper's side, to tear through this damn propriety, and tell her—

Tell her what?

Tell her he couldn't bear to let her go?

Reason forced him to stop this absurd impulse.

Edward stood in place, hands clenched at his sides, veins bulging on the backs of his hands.

He thought to himself, 'I'm Anne's fiancé. I can't have any improper thoughts about her sister. Absolutely not!'

He forcibly suppressed that nearly uncontrollable possessiveness, but his gaze still lingered dejectedly on the tree with falling flowers, his heart left with only confusion, inner conflict, and suffocation.

At that moment, Anne, returning from the professor's office, happened to be standing on a nearby path.

She stopped, quietly watching it all.

She saw Edward's almost reckless focus as he gazed at Victoria's retreating figure and caught the subtle, dangerous atmosphere that had existed between them under the tree moments ago.

Anne followed Edward's line of sight to that tree.

She was smart; she understood in an instant.

Between Edward and Victoria wasn't just the "polite distance" they should maintain; it was a mutual attraction, a flutter of hearts they desperately suppressed yet still leaked out. They liked each other—they were both pretending they didn't.

A complex emotion surged in Anne's heart.

She didn't feel the anger of betrayal, but rather a deep sadness and an indescribable sense of relief. She thought of that name, forever untouchable in her heart—Evan.

Anne understood better than anyone what it felt like to love without hope, bound by duty and family. She and Evan had "impossible" long ago.

If that was the case, how could she watch her most beloved sister and the man about to become her husband trapped in this hopeless struggle, grinding themselves down again and again?

Anne watched her sister's figure walk farther away, her eyes gradually becoming resolute.

No, she couldn't let this continue.

She made a decision in her heart. She would find a chance to make these two self-deceiving fools see each other's true feelings, and let her sister have the happiness she deserved.

The real world.

"Ahhh!!!"

Edward suddenly let out an almost uncontrolled roar. His fist slammed hard on the solid wood coffee table beside him, numbing his knuckles.

"Anne wanted to help us... she wanted to help us..."

Edward cried and laughed, his handsome face twisted with extreme regret.

This was fate's cruelest irony.

Back then, he thought Victoria was the murderer who had killed Anne. Under the banner of "avenging his lover," he had treated torture as justice—forcing her to eat blueberry pie, throwing her into casinos, locking her in rooms with venomous snakes, pushing her to the edge of severe mental breakdown.

He thought he was punishing the guilty for Anne’s sake.

But the truth?

The truth was Anne had long seen through their love. Anne wanted to entrust her most beloved sister to him, which was why she made that dying wish.

And he personally drove the girl Anne desperately wanted to protect to despair—to jumping off that overpass.

If Anne knew, how heartbroken would she be? How disappointed in him?

"It was me... the one who truly destroyed everything was me. The murderer who killed everyone, who destroyed all happiness... was me."

There had been countless chances in front of Edward. He chose to ignore them, chose to miss them.

Now, he could only repeatedly recall Victoria's goodness in regret and despair, recalling his own belated true feelings.

But all of this no longer had any meaning.