Chapter 7

The puddles on the sidewalk reflected her frail body, drenched by the pounding rain until she looked as pale as a corpse.

Her chest felt constricted, a metallic taste rising and filling her entire mouth. With a splash, blood spilled into the pooled water, quickly spreading before disappearing without a trace.

Her body gradually lost its warmth, her breathing becoming shallower.

She kept whispering Duncan's name: "Duncan... Duncan..."

Before the last syllable could fall, Audrey collapsed in the rain. In her hazy vision, she thought she saw a familiar silhouette appear before her, but when she tried to focus, everything blurred.

Was that Duncan?

Two days later, Audrey woke up in a hospital room with only Josh by her side.

On the nightstand lay two plane tickets to Zurich.

Josh couldn't bear to watch Audrey torture herself like this.

That man wasn't worth it.

Josh held Audrey's hand, his voice as gentle as a concerned father. "Audrey, please. Come with me to Switzerland for treatment."

She pulled her hand away, staring blankly at the ceiling. "Josh, let go of your obsession. You deserve someone who can love you back."

"Obsession? Hah, you have yours, and I have mine. You're willing to give up your life just to stay by Duncan's side. How am I any different?" The woman he loved didn't love him back but loved someone else. He was destined for unrequited love in this lifetime.

But that couldn't stop his feelings, could it?

Audrey tightly closed her eyes. Josh was right; her obsession was Duncan. She cared about his attitude toward her, every look he gave her, every word he said.

She didn't want to leave this world with his hatred, no matter the cost.

Josh looked at Audrey's face, now so gaunt it was barely larger than his palm, and felt his heart breaking. He had tried to persuade her countless times, and now he was at a loss for words.

"Josh, give up. I don't have much time left. In this life, I can't walk out of his world because he is my world now. I don’t want him to hate me. He is my heart, my air, my everything. Without him, I can't live for a moment, not even a second."

She didn't want to cry in front of Josh or have him pity her, but she couldn't help it.

Her heart ached so badly, as if it were being corroded by acid, inch by inch.

Josh watched her cry and started crying too. "Alright, just this once. I'll help you bring him here to listen to your explanation. I hope that after hearing it, he won't hate you anymore."

Audrey looked at Josh with red-rimmed eyes, weakly saying, "Josh, you don't have to do this. Go back, leave. This isn't your place."

Josh stood up and walked out, his back to Audrey.

"Wherever you are is where I belong. My heart and my body follow you. Audrey, I love you. Even if you love Duncan, you can't cruelly stop me from loving you. Loving you is my choice; I won't force you to reciprocate."

In the CEO's office of Quartet Enterprises on Wall Street, Josh looked at Duncan, who was engrossed in his work, with eyes as fierce as a wolf's. "Go see her."

Duncan, buried in a pile of financial reports and with no intention of acknowledging Josh, suddenly threw his pen onto the mahogany desk upon hearing Josh's words.

"Who are you to demand anything from me? On what grounds?" Duncan's eyes were cold, the veins at his temples pulsing visibly.

"Audrey betrayed me, and now she's begging for my forgiveness. Does she think the whole world revolves around her?"

Josh's lips curled into a cold smile, his hands tightly clenched into fists. "Mr. Millington thinks she betrayed you because of the tabloids' baseless rumors about her eloping with me when she left? You condemned her without even giving her a chance to explain. You're too cruel."