Chapter5
Charlotte was shoved hard to the side, stumbling to the ground.
Pain shot through her ankle, sharp and searing.
Her palm scraped against the gravel, a fiery sting spreading up her arm.
Before she could get up, Julian had already dove into the water like a madman.
By the time he carried Bianca Sterling back onto the bank, they were both soaked in foul–smelling
shrub muck, an absolute mess.
Julian didn’t care about his own condition.
He frantically wiped the mud from Bianca’s face, his voice full of panic.
“Bianca! Are you okay? Did you swallow any water? Do your eyes sting? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Bianca took a long time to resshrub.
Finally, she shook her head, lip trembling as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m fine… It’s just that… the ring you made for me… it fell in the water, I was trying to get it back when I slipped in.”
She held out her empty hand, no ring in sight.
“Julian, your family doesn’t want me here,” she sobbed. “Can we just go back to our little apartment? At least no one bullies me there…”
That pitiful look on her face clutched at Julian’s heart.
His expression hardened instantly. “Who threw your ring in? Who bullied you?”
Bianca bit her lip and stayed silent, but her eyes darted toward Charlotte, timid and full of hurt. The implication couldn’t have been more obvious.
Clutching her swollen ankle, Charlotte stared in disbelief.
“It wasn’t me…”
Julian’s cold glare cut her off, sharp as ice. It sent chills down her spine.
“I wouldn’t throw the ring away…” she tried to explain, her voice hoarse. “I wouldn’t…”
“You know what you did,” Julian snapped, then swept Bianca into his arms.
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He turned to the bodyguards and gave a slight nod.
“Whoever tossed the ring in, make her fish it out herself.”
The bodyguards understood immediately.
They grabbed Charlotte by the arms and dragged her toward the shrub.
The water in winter was bone–chilling.
The moment she hit the surface, her body trembled violently.
She struggled toward the shore, but a heavy hand shoved her back down.
“Miss Wynn, you’re not coming up until that ring is found,” one of the guards said coldly. “Save yourself some pain and hurry up.”
Charlotte bit her lip until she tasted blood.
Resigned, she drifted and sank through the dirty water, her fingers fumbling through the freezing
mud again and again.
Filthy water seeped into her sleeves, numbing her hands until she could barely feel them.
Julian stood at the edge, watching in silence as she bent and choked and searched.
His Adam’s apple bobbed once.
For a moment, just a moment, he looked like he might jump in after her.
But then Bianca’s tear–streaked face flashed through his mind, and he clenched his fists instead.
From dawn until dusk, Charlotte searched. It wasn’t until Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster were almost home that she finally found the ring.
She knew the design by heart. It was the same ring Julian had once used to propose to her.
Her lips were purple.
Her skin had lost all color. Blue welts of frostbite crept up her arms. She could barely stand.
Still, she gripped the ring tightly and limped toward Julian’s bedroom, knocking softly on the door.
The laughter inside stopped instantly.
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Julian opened the door and took the ring.
The moment his fingers brushed hers, he flinched like he’d been burned.
His brows creased, eyes dark and unreadable.
“We’ll let this slide,” he said flatly. “But stay away from Bianca from now on.”
“For old time’s sake… I’ll still treat you like a little sister.”
Charlotte’s voice trembled from the cold. “Wasn’t that what you always saw me as… your little sister?”
Julian narrowed his eyes. “What do
you think?”
He suddenly grabbed her chin, his gaze like a blade slicing across her face.
“The staff won’t shut up about the past,” he said. “You’ve been dressing up like the type of girl I used to like, lingering around me on purpose. Don’t act like you don’t have an agenda.”
Charlotte blinked slowly, stunned.
So… he’d heard everything the maids said that night.
But instead of brushing it off, he’d blamed her.
Even though she had gone out of her way to avoid him lately, even dressed plainly just to stay invisible.
Before she could defend herself, Julian let go and wiped his hand on his clothes like she’d contaminated him.
“Stop with the games.”
“My heart belongs to Bianca. Whatever you’re scheming, it’s pointless.”
With that, he flipped his palm, letting the ring slip from his fingers and fall soundlessly out the window into the night.
“Bianca didn’t like that design. I’ll make her something new.”
Charlotte stared as the ring she’d nearly frozen to death to retrieve vanished into the darkness. Her lips curved faintly.
Chapter5
Of course.
To him, the past was just dead weight.
There was no room for a ring bearing old memories.
She returned to her room and scrubbed herself clean, making sure no trace of her ordeal showed,
so Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster wouldn’t suspect a thing.
She sat at dinner as usual, calm and composed.
She knew better than anyone that Julian’s mind was clouded by lost memories.
And Bianca, Bianca was a master of playing the victim.
Even if Charlotte told the truth, he’d only think she was jealous and bitter.
It wasn’t worth it.
She’d accepted it.
But when she lay in bed, sleep refused to come.
She kept replaying the look in Julian’s eyes, that coldness, that rejection. It was like being stabbed straight through the chest.
She stared at the ceiling, her heart aching with something hollow and sharp.
She told herself it was just habit, she was used to being cherished by him. That was all.
But by the time night bled into dawn, she still couldn’t lie still.
She climbed out of bed in the dark and crept out into the Courtyard Garden, guided by memory, searching through the grass.
She didn’t know why she was doing it.
Maybe she just couldn’t accept that something that once held so much love had been tossed away so easily.
Her fingertips finally brushed something cold and metal.
Just as she closed her fingers around the ring and straightened up,
The entire Lancaster estate behind her erupted into flames.
