Chapter 15
“Julie, have you seen the news? Damien and Callie are doomed.” Henry’s voice softened the moment the call connected.
On the other end came Juliet’s calm voice. “I don’t care anymore, Henry. My classes are really intense, so I probably won’t be able to visit you anytime soon.”
Henry sighed and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at a tower just some distance away. “…Maybe that’s for the best. Staying far away from all this mess is a blessing in disguise. Oh, and how are you getting along with Nate?”
The siblings tactfully skipped the heavier topic, and Henry smoothly changed the subject.
“He treats me pretty well, and we visited an art exhibition last week.” Juliet’s voice lightened a little. It was clear her spirits had lifted somewhat.
“That’s good. He’s pretty decent in all aspects, but you don’t have to force yourself either.”
“Got it, Henry. Don’t worry about me-” Juliet’s voice was abruptly cut off, and Henry heard an unfamiliar voice in the background.
Soon, she came back on and said, “I have to go. My class is starting soon, so let’s talk next
time.”
After she ended the call, Henry stared at the photo of the two of them that he had set as his lockscreen for a long while. Juliet’s bright, carefree voice seemed to linger in his ears.
He lowered his head and brushed his fingers against the glass window. The chill reminded him
of the tears on Juliet’s face.
As if making up his mind, he dialed another number. “Hello, this is Henry Marlowe. I have some files and details about Kane Group’s financial records, and I think you’ll find them very interesting.”
In a bar, Damien downed one glass of liquor after another. The people who had once claimed to be his best buddies were nowhere to be seen, and even calls went unanswered.
Buddies, huh?
For some reason, he thought of Kieran and let out a bitter laugh, mocking himself for being an easily played fool.
“You can’t drink anymore, Mr. Kane,” the bartender cautiously reminded him.
Damien ignored him and, despite the attempts to stop him, cracked open another bottle of
Chapter 15
2/3
whiskey. As the whiskey flowed into his mouth in gulps, it scorched his throat, but it could not tame the burning hatred in his chest.
Just then, his phone buzzed. He squinted at the screen and noticed it was a message from the company’s lawyer.
“According to police reports, Ms. Frost has confessed to maliciously leaking corporate secrets. But she claims she was acting under Kieran’s orders and merely following instructions, so she denies being the mastermind. The authorities have started an investigation.”
Damien scoffed and tossed his phone aside.
The woman he had assumed was the love of his life had spun a careful lie to entrap him.
Leaving behind the table of empty bottles, he stumbled back to his apartment and stood in the vast living room in a daze. Then, as if remembering something, he rummaged for a dusty tin box with help from the moonlight.
Juliet had left it behind, filled with her past memories of him.
Damien hadn’t left that night. Instead, he had waited outside the Marlowe residence until dawn. After the housekeepers cleaned the living room, he quietly brought everything home.
Collapsing onto the couch, he opened the lid as his hands trembled from drinking too much alcohol.
A faded photograph slid out of the box. In it, 14-year-old Juliet was standing by the basketball court and holding a lunchbox with a shy, dazzling smile on her face.
Damien ran his fingers over the photograph and was reminded of how she had blushed when he had teased her back then. She had stood her ground, declaring that she’d grow up one day.
As moonlight spilled into the room, memories came flooding into his mind-like how she had stayed up several nights to knit a scarf for him, how she had brought him an umbrella whenever it rained, and how she had stayed by his bed whenever he was sick.
“Julie…”
Sobbing, he curled up on the floor and clutched the tin box to his chest. The tears he had forced down for too long finally broke free, completely overwhelming him.
Then, a sudden, urgent pounding at the door snapped him out of the sorrow.
Wiping his face, Damien staggered to his feet and opened the door to find his
past buddies standing there. They crowded around the door, wearing the same grave expressions.
The one in front said in a heavy voice, “We know everything, Damien. We learned about what Callie and Kieran did to set you up and the lies.”
Chapter 15
3/3
Another stepped forward and handed him a phone. “Look at this.”
The screen played clear surveillance footage of Callie and Kieran intimately making out in a hotel. The timestamp at the top left corner showed that it was right before she agreed to pretend to be Damien’s girlfriend.
The footage confirmed Callie and Kieran’s calculated scheming and gave Damien a deeper understanding of his own gullibility.
“We’ve wronged Julie. She was the only one who truly cared about you,” someone muttered.
Still, it was so absurd that they only came to realize that now.
Damien felt as if he had taken a punch to the gut and was in such suffocating pain that he could barely breathe. He grabbed his car keys and shoved past the crowd, ignoring their attempts to stop him.
“I have to find her… I have to apologize…”
Crushing guilt nearly drowned him, and he remembered Juliet had gone abroad. Still, he gripped the steering wheel, though he wasn’t sure where to go.
After arriving at the Marlowe residence, he noticed the gates were shut, and the house was
empty.
Henry stood at the door and gave him a cold look. “What are you doing here?”
Damien dropped to his knees as tears and rain ran down his face. “Please, Henry… Tell me where she is… I’m begging you…”
Henry shook his head, his eyes filled with disappointment. “It’s too late, Damien. You chose a liar and lost the only person who has ever loved you.”
