Chapter 3

Hadden ended his meeting early when he received the call and rushed home.

He dashed to the pool and cradled Julia, who was still choking on pool water, in his arms.

"Julia, Julia! Stay with me! Come on! Julia, please. I need you…"

I remembered thinking how ridiculous it was as I watched the scene from above.

I was thinking to myself if it was really necessary. Julia could swim, so why was Hadden acting like she was going to die?

It was only when Hadden dragged me to the pool by my hair that I realized how much he truly cared for Julia.

"How could you be so cruel?! How could you push Julia into the water?! You almost killed her! I almost lost her because of you!

"I won't let you get away with doing whatever crap you want to do, Felicia. I'll make you suffer twice the pain and fear you put Julia through. And I won't let you out until you learn what you did wrong!"

Even now, Hadden still believed that I was the one at fault, that I should have admitted to everything he accused me of.

What a shame, then. It was too late for that now.

"Mr. Rowse, w-we can't find any signs of life in Ms. Lowe… She's… dead…"

Hadden's hand froze mid-air as he tried to coax Julia into drinking a yogurt drink.

I searched his face for any signs of regret, maybe even fear, but I found nothing. Instead, Hadden smirked as he continued to feed Julia.

"As if she would die so easily. If that were the case, I would've gotten rid of her long ago. Tell her to stop pretending, or I'll have the funeral parlor cremate her."

His assistant seemed to want to say more, but Hadden interrupted with an annoyed look, "She has half an hour to clean herself up and apologize to Julia, or she's going back into the pool."

His assistant looked frantic, but he did not know how to breach the subject.

Looking at his hesitance, Hadden grabbed the vase from the table and threw it at his assistant.

"What are you waiting for?! Go and tell her what I said!"

His assistant had no choice but to leave.

Hadden turned back to Julia and kissed away the yogurt stain at the corner of her mouth. She smiled shyly, which earned her a pleased smile and a warm hug from Hadden.

"You'd better not go easy on her later, Julia. I swear I'll have her kneel when she apologizes to you later. She'll just do it again if she doesn't learn her lesson now."

Julia looked conflicted, almost as if she felt bad. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Hadden?"

"Why not?"

I did not know how to react to that, so I started laughing maniacally.

This was the man I loved?

I wanted to leave, but it seemed like I was bound to him.

I had no choice but to watch and laugh at how stupid I had been.