Chapter 12
“Why?!” Aliana screamed, her voice shaking with disbelief. “Didn’t you say you didn’t love her?!”
Aliana’s grip tightened on Emmett‘ s hand, her eyes desperate. “What about me? What about the child? What happens if you bring her back?”
Emmett stared at her, a storm of conflicting emotions swirling in his chest. “There’s no conflict between you two.”
He couldn’t quite put his feelings for Athena into words, but it felt as though his heart had been hollowed out as a piece of his soul had vanished with her departure.
For years, Athena had loved him, truly, deeply. And yet, despite everything, he couldn’t bring himself to believe that she would leave him for good.
No, Athena would come back. She had to. If she didn’t return on her own, Emmett
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vowed he would find her.
Emmett had never been one to track which friends Athena spent time with, so when he tried to reach out to her friends for news,
he was met with failure at every turn.
The few friends he could manage to contact spoke in tones of surprise and disbelief, almost as if they couldn’t fathom his concern. “So you care about her too?” one asked, almost mocking.
“I thought Athena was the one with a one- sided crush,” another added.
Emmett slammed the phone down, a discomfort swirling inside him.
Though he’d always worn the mask of a good boyfriend, the truth was his neglect. had been just as real. Back then, Athena loved him with a devotion he didn’t deserve, never once holding his distance. against him.
He spent a week searching, but no trace of Athena could be found. The emptiness
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grew with every passing day.
He drank to numb the ache, ignoring Aliana’s calls, his thoughts swirling in a fog. Slowly, the realization hit him: Athena must have known about his affair long before it came to light, which was why she had left with such finality.
But despite everything, Emmett still couldn’t bring himself to let go of her.
Why couldn’t Athena just listen to him. and let him explain?
Emmett sank deeper into despair, each passing day feeling heavier than the last. But then, out of nowhere, the latest piece. of news arrived before vanishing; Athena had been at the Civil Affairs Bureau.
Panic surged through him as he rushed to the Bureau, only to find no trace of her.
The surveillance footage revealed nothing but a still figure of Athena, standing there, unmoving, before walking away. A dark thought crept into his mind, and he spared.
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no effort in using every connection at his disposal to dig deeper into Athena‘ s whereabouts.
The shocking result was a blow he hadn’t seen coming: Athena‘ s household
registration had been canceled.
There was no longer any trace of her in this world. No Athena.
How could she disappear like that? How could she be so cold, leaving him in this cruel void?
Emmett‘ s eyes stung, tears threatening to spill, blurring his vision as the weight of her absence crushed him.
At that moment, a forgotten memory suddenly resurfaced in Emmett’s mind, the words Athena had once spoken to him.
“You are my only family. If you don‘ t want me, I wouldn‘ t know where to go.”
At the time, Emmett had approached her with a clear intention.
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Her eyes, so much like Aliana‘ s, the girl he had long harbored feelings for, had drawn him in. She was yet another orphan, abandoned by the world, and… she loved him.
It was all so simple. She was someone so easy to control, so easy to have at his side, that Emmett had felt invincible.
Because no matter what he did, Athena would always be there.
But as time passed, he had failed to notice the truth that slowly, imperceptibly, he had become just as unable to live without her.
Despite swearing to his brothers that he would never harbor any other intentions. toward Athena, deep down, Emmett knew the truth: he could never truly keep her at arm’s length.
At the very least, he owed her a better fate.
“Athena…”
He muttered her name as he stumbled out
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of the Civil Affairs Bureau, his mind in a daze. He wasn’t sure how he made it back home, but each step felt heavier than the last. His heart was heavy, constantly haunted by thoughts of Athena.
In the end, he could only drown his sorrows in alcohol, trying to numb the ache in his chest.
