Chapter 29
“Athena… Athena, don‘ t leave me, please!”
Emmett’s voice cracked, raw with
desperation. His emotions surged so violently that, without warning, he vomited.
But Athena remained silent, her resolve firm as she hung up the phone. She had no intention of uttering another word to him. The past ten years? She might as well have handed them over to the dogs. She never wanted to be tangled in Emmett’s web
again.
The first time they met was when they were both just five years old. It had been a warm evening when a delicate, timid little girl had stepped into his life, her innocent doe- like eyes meeting his as she called him “young master.”
Emmett had grown up without the love of parents. His young life had been barren of
100% 12:07
1/6
Chapter 29
affection. Yet, the new couple and their sweet daughter brought him something he had never known, a warmth, a tenderness that felt like home.
Though they referred to each other as master and servant, in his heart, the Chancellor family had always been like his own. But it was their daughter, sweet, soft Athena, who had captured his heart. The way she shyly called him “brother,” her eyes sparkling with trust, made Emmett feel like the luckiest boy alive. To him, she was the most precious gift, a new toy he showed off to anyone who would look.
Almost everyone had assumed that Emmett‘ s nature would make him grow bored of Athena, and even Athena had believed this. But life doesn’t always follow the path we expect.
It happened on that fateful day when Emmett fell into the water. The
Chancellor’s parents had tried to save him, but the river was swift, and they drowned
100% 12:07
2/6
Chapter 29
in its unforgiving currents.
It was the first time Emmett had seen
Athena cry with such a heartbreaking, raw sorrow. Her pale face was streaked with tears, her sobs so intense it felt like she might collapse from the weight of her grief.
Emmett, still trembling from his near- death experience, rushed to apologize. But in her anguished state, Athena turned on him, beating him with trembling fists and desperate cries, asking why it wasn‘ t him
who had died.
The household servants hurried to restrain
her, trying to quiet the chaos, but Emmett, too, was consumed by guilt and grief. The two ten–year–olds cried uncontrollably by the river, tears mingling with the river‘ s relentless flow, until Athena’s cries were.
too much for her fragile body to bear. She fainted, and they rushed her to the hospital.
After the death of her parents, Athena was never the same. Nightmares plagued her
100% 12:07
3/6
Chapter 29
sleep, filled with images of her parents. lifeless bodies in the raging river. No matter how fast she swam or ran, she could never reach them. And every time she
awoke, her tears would fall again, even
harder, as if the nightmare was never truly
over.
Emmett, too, was deeply affected by the pain. After a long internal struggle, he finally found the strength to comfort her, gently taking her hand and whispering, “I’m sorry. From now on, I’ll be your only family…”
They repeated these words so often that they began to believe in their own truth.
At first, Emmett never planned on being with Athena, but the truth was undeniable:
she had become a constant thread in the
tapestry of his life, woven into every memory since childhood.
In middle school, when their budding romance was on the verge of being discovered by a teacher, it was Athena who
100% 12:07
4/6
Chapter 29
stepped in to cover for him.
When Azrael pressured him to choose a major he despised, it was Athena who stood by him, persuading the old man and helping him choose the philosophy he loved, saving him from a life he couldn’t
bear.
Even when he fell for Aliana at university, Athena wrote love letters for him, though she remained completely unaware of any of it.
But Emmett was thankful she didn’t know
because if she had when the old man
insisted that he marry Athena to inherit the entire family fortune, Emmett would have been left utterly torn.
Then, it hit him: Athena had always liked
him.
For years, Athena had quietly obeyed his every whim. Though she kept her feelings locked away, like a sealed jar, Emmett had managed to read her heart, and in doing
100% 12:07
5/6
Chapter 29
so, it had made things so much easier.
Within a month, he had cracked open Athena’s heart. On the night he finally confessed, beneath the blazing fireworks, Athena’s eyes sparkled even brighter than the lights above them.
