Chapter 13
William stumbled out of the house, his mind spinning, his heart gripped by panic. He needed answers, needed to find her. He rushed to Victoria’s junior, grabbing her by the arm in desperation.
“Where is Victoria?” he demanded, his voice trembling with urgency.
The junior looked at him, her eyes full of disdain, as if his presence alone disgusted her.
“She left. Don’t you know?”
“Left? Where did she go?” His voice cracked.
The junior didn’t respond. Instead, her eyes hardened as she pulled her arm away, as
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though his touch burned her. William’s chest tightened, the weight of her silence more unbearable than anything she could say.
“Please,” he pleaded, his voice breaking. “Just tell me where she went.”
“Did she go for an exchange at another school?” He asked, though deep down, he knew it wasn’t that simple. Victoria wouldn’t have erased every trace of her existence for something so trivial.
The junior scoffed at him, her words laced with venom.
“Funny. When you were busy with that ‘green tea‘ girl, why didn’t you care about my senior?”
The words hit him like a slap. William froze, his stomach sinking.
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The junior continued, her voice shaking with anger and hurt.
“In the past year, if you had done anything right by her, she wouldn’t have made this decision. A year ago, she turned down a prestigious offer from her professor because you proposed to her. But after a year of your betrayals, she decided to cut us off for ten years.”
Her voice cracked as she finished, “She is my role model. She’s the best person I know. She’s so talented. Why should she marry a jerk like you?”
The words reverberated through him, each one a sharp blow to his soul. His breath caught. “Ten years?”
“Ten years?” His voice was barely a whisper,
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disbelief and guilt churning in his gut.
The junior wiped away her tears, her expression a mix of sorrow and disgust.
“Yes. She’s better off without you. If you want to regret it, go ahead. But she’s too good for you.”
“Disgusting!” she spat, her words cutting deeper than he ever imagined possible.
William didn’t even remember how he left. His mind was numb, the words “Ten years“echoing relentlessly in his head. “Ten years“-had it really come to this?
He was drowning in confusion and pain. How could she be so heartless? How could she leave without a word, without a goodbye? Just a few brief, final sentences that tore him apart.
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Suddenly, something clicked in his mind- the wedding house, the one they had been planning to share, not far from the school He rushed there in a panic, his feet moving faster than his thoughts. He arrived, only to find the agent and movers packing up the room. The sight of it made his blood run cold.
He stormed up to them, fury boiling over.
“How dare you touch this house?” he roared.
The
The agent remained calm, unfazed. “The contract has been signed. The property has been transferred. The owner no longer needs anything in the house.”
Another blow.
Victoria knew. She knew everything.
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She had made her decision. She had moved
- on.
This house, the one he had carefully chosen, had been given to Ava. It was closer to the company, more convenient for her.
How had he let this happen? How had he allowed someone else to take the place he had prepared for her? The weight of that realization crashed down on him, and for the first time, he felt utterly lost.
What must Victoria be feeling now, seeing this place, once filled with their shared memories, now crowded with someone else’s things?
The thought crushed him. He couldn’t bear to imagine it–the way she might feel walking into their home, now tainted by Ava’s
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presence. How could she ever look at this place the same again?
And yet, Victoria hadn’t said a word. Not a single question, not a confrontation, not even a single angry text. She had simply disappeared, erasing him from her life without a trace. No fight. No final plea. Just… nothing.
“She’s lost faith in me,” he realized. It wasn’t anger that had driven her away, but a deep, cold disillusionment.
“That’s why she was so calm,” he thought bitterly, finally seeing things for what they
were.
As his mind pieced together the chain of events, everything fell into place like an agonizing puzzle.
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“Amelia Victoria.”
It hit him like a thunderclap. “Victoria Amelia“, spelled backwards. She had been the one, the top candidate for that secretive project. The one he had belittled. The one he had dismissed as “useless” and “worthless.” And now, finally, he saw it–the depth of her brilliance, her strength, her capacity for greatness.
And all the while, he had kept her at arm’s length, never once recognizing her worth.
He had spent so many years with Ava, thinking of her as nothing more than a younger sister, owing her a debt for the kindness her family had shown him. But that was all it had been-“his” perception, “his” selfish view. He had never seen Victoria for who she truly was.
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Where had it all gone so wrong?
He felt the weight of his regrets pressing down on him. “Where had he failed her?”
Was it that moment a year ago when he’d hidden the truth about meeting Ava at the airport? When he’d taken her home, drunk and vulnerable, while Victoria found her high heels still in the backseat? Or was it when, six months ago, Ava had barged in on their intimate moment, soaked to the bone, and Victoria had questioned him–only to be snapped at for being “possessive“?
Perhaps it was the endless promises he’d broken–those countless days he’d abandoned her, thinking there would always be more time. How could he have been so careless, so thoughtless?
