Chapter 21
The room’s warm atmosphere suddenly turned awkward, leaving the waiter in a discomforted stance with a bouquet of roses in hand, unsure whether to present or retreat.
Seeing Hannah remain silent for so long, the waiter quietly slipped away.
But this didn’t deter Zachary. Every day, he sent a bouquet of pink roses to her studio. And every day, the roses ended up tossed in the trash before they even crossed the threshold.
At yet another art exhibition, Zachary cornered her, desperate to know why she refused his flowers.
Hannah regarded him for a long moment, and then let out a sardonic laugh. After being married for five years, he still didn’t understand her at all.
“Because I don’t like you, Zachary. So I don’t like anything you send me. Why can’t we just part ways amicably?! thought our divorce would make you the happiest man alive.”
He took a deep breath, his eyes filled with shattered starlight, his voice trembling. He instinctively reached for her hand.
“It’s not that, Hannah. I didn’t feel happy about the divorce. I got used to having you in my life. Not until you left did I realize it was you I truly am into, not Anna. She was just a remnant of youthful defiance, and now she’s gone. Why can’t we go back to the way things were?”
The way things were. A flicker of nostalgia crossed Hannah’s eyes. The past was nothing but torment for her, and she had no desire to return to it.
She sidestepped his grasp, her voice cooling a degree.
“Zachary, just listen to what you’re saying. You only got used to me like one gets used to a housekeeper. Except other housekeepers didn’t risk their lives for you like I did. Do you genuinely believe you love me? Listen to yourself.”
Zachary’s face turned pale. Since joining the Cole family at eighteen, she’d never seen him so desolate. Zachary had always been proud and aloof. Now his face looked so grim because she didn’t play along with his words, but rather shattered his most honest thoughts.
She didn’t spare him another glance as she turned to leave. But just as she exited the studio, her phone rang with a call from Cecilia.
Thinking of Cecilia, Hannah felt only gratitude. After all, it was Cecilia who gave her a chance to repay a kindness. When Hannah had first started college, she had barely any money left after paying tuition. Hannah hadn’t wanted to owe the Cole family anything, so spending five years repaying them for their investment in her seemed like the best solution. It was only right for her to visit Cecilia.
Cameron watched her with concern.
“You and the Cole family are even now. There’s no need to go back. What if they make things difficult for you again?”
Since Cameron was adopted, his foster parents had exposed him to the ways of the wealthy and taught him many life lessons.
There were other ways to repay a debt besides healing Zachary’s broken heart, but Cecilia insisted on a girl giving up her future and education to waste five years in a marriage. It was disgusting.
Cameron had been right. After some small talk, Cecilia steered the conversation towards Zachary, subtly hinting at giving him another chance.
Cameron wasn’t wrong. Zachary’s heartache was something he and Anna had caused, yet they wanted her, an innocent bystander, to fix it. Her education was gone, her future vanished, her freedom stripped away.
10.19
Chapter 21
They called it repaying a debt, as if she should be grateful to the Cole family for wasting five years of her life. No such good deeds existed in this world.
She hadn’t wanted this from the start. If she could have completed her degree and gone abroad, she could have repaid the Cole family’s support with interest one or two years after.
But Cecilia was too protective of her son, unwilling to let Zachary endure any hardship. So she hastily pulled Hannah into their mess. Her son’s life couldn’t be ruined by something so trivial, but no one cared if Hannah’s
life was.
