chapter 2

Second by second, the time crawled, each moment stretching into an eternity.

Just as the suffocating silence was about to drive me mad, he moved.

He reached out, his cool fingertips slowly tracing my cheek.

I stiffened, instinctively wanting to pull away, but he grasped my chin.

His fingers were coarse and calloused, lightly grazing my skin and sending shivers through me.

Forced to lift my head, I met his eyes.

In the dim light, I finally saw his face clearly.

Sharp features, a high nose bridge, and thin lips pressed tightly together.

But the face that once brimmed with ambition now bore a faint scar running from his brow bone to the corner of his eye, adding a harsh, sinister edge.

This face…

My heart clenched violently. A name long buried in the deepest recesses of my memory surfaced uncontrollably.

No. It can't be.

He's dead.

In that fire five years ago, he was struck by a collapsing beam while saving me… He died long ago…

I must be drunk, hallucinating.

I bit my lower lip hard, trying to use the pain to jolt myself back to reality.

In the darkness, he leaned down, closer and closer.

That familiar scent of fir, now clearer, invaded my senses, instantly shattering all my defenses.

"Serena."

He spoke, his voice hoarse, carrying a barely perceptible tremor.

"You've finally come back."

Boom—

My world spun.

That voice. That face. That scent…

I could no longer deceive myself.

The man before me was Caleb.

The boy who, during my darkest years, had illuminated my entire youth like the sun.

The Caleb who, five years ago, had saved me from the fire, only to be buried in the flames himself, leaving me burdened with guilt ever since.

He wasn't dead?

He was alive?

Overwhelming shock and delirious joy washed over me, obliterating my reason. Tears streamed uncontrollably from my eyes.

"Caleb?" I tentatively breathed the name.

His body stiffened noticeably. The grip on my chin tightened instantly.

"You remember me?"

His voice held a thread of hatred and mockery I couldn't comprehend.

I was stunned.

"I… Of course I remember."

"Remember?" He let out a cold laugh, the temperature of his fingers colder than before. "You remember me, yet you disappeared for five years? You remember me, yet you married another man? Serena, your 'remembering' seems rather cheap."

His words were like icy daggers, brutally piercing my heart.

I didn't understand.

Back then, it was clearly he who…

I opened my mouth, wanting to explain, but my throat felt stuffed with cotton, unable to utter a sound.

The scene from the fire five years ago flashed vividly before my eyes once more.

The raging flames, the billowing smoke, and his hoarse, desperate shout of "Go!" as he pushed me out of the inferno.

I had watched, helpless, as he was swallowed by the falling beam, my heart tearing apart.

Later, my family took me from the hospital. They told me Caleb was confirmed dead; his body was never recovered.

They took me away from that city, saying they wanted me to start a new life.

I fell gravely ill, taking a full six months to recover.

I thought he was dead.

The whole world told me he was dead.

But now, he was sitting right in front of me, alive, looking at me with eyes full of hatred.

"That's not it…" I shook my head, my vision blurred by tears. "They told me you were already…"

"Dead?" He finished the word I didn't dare touch.

The corner of his mouth lifted in a cruel arc. "I almost wish I had died. Then I wouldn't have had to watch you being affectionate with another man. Wouldn't have had to know you forgot all about me."

Every word felt like a slow, torturous death.

I could feel the overwhelming hatred in his words.

He hated me.

Hated me for "abandoning" him back then.

But I didn't! I never knew he was alive!

This was a colossal misunderstanding!

"Caleb, let me explain…"

"Explain?" He cut me off, the frost in his eyes deepening. "Fine. Explain. I'd love to hear how you managed to move away so contentedly while my fate was unknown and how, within just a few years, you married one of my employees."

His tone dripped with sarcasm, as if I were an unforgivable traitor.

His words left me speechless.

Yes, how could I explain?

Tell him my family deceived me? That I thought he was dead, so I drifted through life and eventually married Vincent, who showered me with attention?

In this situation, any explanation sounded feeble and pathetic.

He wouldn't believe me.

In his eyes, I was just a cowardly, fickle woman.

Despair washed over me like a tidal wave, drowning me completely.