Chapter 254

Let's rewind to mid-July that year.

Summer in Asteria City was stifling and noisy, the air thick with voices and echoing announcements. The airport terminal was packed with travelers.

Victoria wore a simple white linen shirt and jeans, packed her past—and everything she couldn't let go of—into two heavy suitcases, and zipped them close, as if locking the door on her old life.

Anne, Anthony, and Esme accompanied her through check-in.

Anthony maintained his usual patriarchal authority, saying only, "Take care of yourself. Remember to call home when you get there."

Esme adjusted her shawl, her tone impatient, "Alright, don't embarrass the Windsor family out there. Go on in."

Anne stepped forward and hugged Victoria tightly, her voice was low, as if pushing the words into her ear, "Baby, go live the life you want."

Anne's expression was complicated.

Victoria's nose stung. She just nodded, then turned and walked into the security checkpoint.

At the same time, across the city.

Edward sat in the CEO's office on the top floor of the Russell Group, in a leather chair. His desk was piled with merger documents that needed his signature, amounts large enough to make anyone hold their breath, but he barely glanced at them.

His attention was fixed on a dried white crabapple petal.

That petal was from graduation day. He'd plucked it from her hair, then like he'd done something shameful, quietly tucked it into his suit pocket, where it had stayed hidden for a month.

For that entire month, Edward had been struggling, hurting like something was repeatedly tearing at him.

Should he go see her off? What right did he have to go?

If he didn't go, his gut told him he'd regret it for the rest of his life.

Back at the airport.

Victoria sat quietly in the departure area, planes slowly taxiing outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. Her eyes held uncertainty about the future, and a sadness she couldn't suppress—a sadness directed at one particular person, whose name she refused to speak aloud.

She kept her right hand in her shirt pocket, her fingertips repeatedly tracing a dried crabapple petal.

It was the only memory of him she'd brought with her.

Her phone vibrated in her palm.

Anne had called Edward.

"Edward," Anne's tone was probing, like she was pushing him forward. The background noise behind her was hollow, making her voice sound even clearer. "Victoria's about to board. Are you really not going to see her off? Don't you have anything... you want to tell her in person?"

"Don't let yourself regret this."

At that exact moment, the announcements at both ends of the call nearly overlapped, the female announcer's voice sweet but detached: "Passengers on flight AF102 to Varellia, please note that your flight is about to depart..."

Edward's chest tightened.

Was he really going to miss this chance?

He wasn't willing to accept that. What was worse—he'd already thrown those documents on the desk, and he was already near the airport. Edward's actions had betrayed him long ago. He couldn't escape these feelings.

Edward sat in his car with his head down, unable to move.

"Victoria..."

The memory pushed further back.

That year, Edward sat in his Maybach outside the airport, clutching his phone, listening to Anne on the line and the repeated boarding announcements. He was so close to her, separated only by a glass curtain wall. If he just pushed open the car door and ran inside, he could stop her.

But Edward's pride, and his fear of unknown consequences, pinned him to his seat.

Anne's voice came again, "Edward, don't you have anything... you want to tell her yourself?"

Young Edward, to cover up that inappropriate guilt and impulse, forced out a cold smile, "No, I'm not going. Anne, wish her a safe journey for me. I still have the merger to deal with at the company. I'm hanging up."

The call ended.

Edward leaned back in the driver's seat, closed his eyes, and forced himself to push that out-of-control heart back into place.

How could he lose his mind over Victoria?

He started convincing himself in the most familiar way. He told himself repeatedly—who was Victoria to him? She'd been difficult since childhood, bad-tempered, spoiled and stubborn. What he felt for her was just some ill-timed curiosity, plus an urge to control the situation.

And Anne? Anne was gentle, proper, elegant—the perfect future lady of the Russell family.

He had no reason not to love Anne.

As long as Victoria left Asteria City, as long as that person who always disrupted his emotions went far enough away, everything would return to normal.

He would continue playing the role of a proper fiancé.

He and Anne would become that 'inevitable' couple in everyone's eyes.

The engine started. The black Maybach pulled away from the curb, decisively, as if making the final decision for him.

Back to reality.

"As long as she leaves Asteria City, everything will get back on track..."

"What a ridiculous way to comfort myself..."

In the cold, dim room, Edward curled up alone in the corner of the bed, despair nearly swallowing him whole. His hands clutched Victoria's yellowed diary like it was the last thing proving he was still alive. Regret and pain pressed down, a layer at a time as broken howls tore from his throat.

"Ah... I'm such a fool! Such an idiot!"

Edward back then thought that as long as he pushed Victoria away, life would proceed according to his 'perfect plan.'

Two years later, he successfully proposed to Anne. Two years after that, they set a wedding date, preparing for a ceremony grand enough to shake all of Asteria City.

At that time, Victoria was far away in Varellia, taken as the final and most important disciple by a top design master, about to complete her studies with an almost certain bright future ahead. Yet to witness Anne's happiness, she still set aside her work and studies to rush back to Asteria City.

No one expected that the wedding would completely destroy all three of them.

On the wedding day, a kidnapping suddenly occurred.

To protect Victoria, Anne didn't hesitate—she threw herself directly at the attacker's blade and died at her own wedding.

Anne's blood soaked through her wedding dress and pushed Victoria onto a path she could only repay with the rest of her life.

From that day on, the girl who once shined in the jewelry design world was locked down by crushing guilt, never able to break free again.