When I woke from the excruciating pain, I found myself lying in the bedroom.
Both hands were wrapped in thick bandages, waves of burning agony washing over me.
“Ma’am, you’re awake?” Mrs. Grey, our housekeeper, sat beside the bed with red rimmed eyes. “Your hands… I should call the master to come back…. “Don’t I shook my head weakly. “He’s the one who had this done to me.”
Mrs. Grey gasped. “How is that possible?! The master used to secretly follow you to and from school every day, terrified something might happen to you…”
Tears slid silently down my cheeks.
See? Everyone said he loved me.
But why had he suddenly stopped?
I was so confused, really, I couldn’t figure it out at all.
During my recovery, I watched their romance play out daily on Vivian’s Instagram.
Knox took her to Paris for fashion week, rented out entire amusement parks for her, and even set off a private fireworks display for her birthday.
A week later, Knox finally returned with Vivian in tow.
His first words to me were: “Celia, Vivian’s birthday is coming up. You’ll plan the party as compensation for burning her.”
I was too exhausted to argue anymore.
I also didn’t want any more complications before leaving, so I just nodded. “Fine.”
Planning the birthday party consumed an entire week. I barely slept.
I dragged my still–healing hands through selecting every flower arrangement and confirming every dish on the menu.
The servants looked at me with pity, but none dared help.
On the night of the party, the entire Whitfield estate blazed with lights.
Guests whispered among themselves:
“A wife throwing a birthday party for her husband’s mistress–unprecedented…”
“Mr. Whitfield’s really fallen hard this time. Look at those gifts–each one worth a fortune…”
I stood in the corner, deaf to their gossip.
My gaze fell on Knox at center stage.
He wore an impeccable suit, constantly checking his watch, obviously waiting for Vivian to appear.
Time dragged on, but Vivian never showed.
Knox’s expression grew darker by the minute until he finally sent his assistant to find her,
“Mr. Whitfield!” The assistant ran back frantically, clutching a letter. “Miss Vivian is gone. She only left this…”
Knox snatched the letter and scanned it quickly, his face going ashen.
Then he threw the letter at my face.
“Celia!” His voice sounded like it was being ground through gravel. “You better explain this to me!”
20:53
Two Rebirths Same Tragedy – Are We Cursed or Just Stupid
16.7%
Chapter 5
The paper fluttered to the ground beside ne.
I picked it up with trembling hands to read Vivian’s elegant handwriting:
[Knox, by the time you read this. I’ll be gone. I love you deeply and dream of growing old with you. But Celia threatened my parents‘ lives to force me away. From now on, we can never meet again.]
“It wasn’t me.”
I handed the letter back to him numbly. “I never did anything like that.”
“You always say you didn’t do it!” Knox grabbed my throat. “But somehow these things keep happening!”
I could barely breathe, but I met his eyes defiantly. “I… really… don’t know…”
But Knox wouldn’t believe me.
Convinced I had driven Vivian away, he even had my parents kidnapped and suspended from the top floor of the Whitfield Corporation building to force the truth from me.
The two elderly people dangled a hundred meters in the air, held by nothing but a thin rope!
“Talk! Where is Vivian?” Knox’s voice was like ice as his fingers gripped my chin, forcing me to look toward the roof’s edge. “Only if you tell me where she is will your parents live.”
“Dad! Mom!”
I never imagined his love for Vivian could drive him to such madness–that he would threaten to drop my parents to their deaths!
My voice shattered with desperation.
“I really don’t know… I don’t even know when she left… Knox, please let my parents go! They’re innocent!”
But Knox just laughed coldly and gestured to his men.
A bodyguard immediately pulled out a knife and began slowly cutting through the lifeline.
“NO!!!”
The sound of the rope being sawed filled my ears like a rusty blade scraping against my nerves.
“I really don’t know…” I fell to my knees with a crash, my forehead nearly bleeding from my desperate kowtowing. “Knox, I swear I don’t know! If I drove her away, may I die a horrible death! Isn’t that enough?”
The bodyguard held his knife, still cutting the rope strand by strand.
Knox leaned down and grabbed the back of my neck. “Last chance. Where is she?”
I looked up at him with complete despair, suddenly feeling disconnected from reality.
Was this cold, ruthless man really the same person who had sacrificed his fingers and died for me in another life?
Just as the rope was about to snap completely, a bodyguard burst in:
“Mr. Whitfield! We found Miss Vivian! She’s at the airport!”
Knox immediately released me and rushed out without a backward glance.
The guards scrambled to pull my parents to safety just as the rope came down to its final thread.
I crawled desperately to my parents, not daring to cry aloud until I felt their cold hands in mine.
“Dad! Mom!”
The deep rope burns on Mom’s wrists, the scrapes on Dad’s back from the rough wall–every injury was like a knife through my heart.
20:53
Two Rebirths Same Tragedy – Are We Cursed or Just Stupid
18.1%
Chapter 5
In the ainbulance, Mom’s shaking hand wiped away iny tears. “Celia, he used to… he used to get upset when you got so much as a paper cut
At that moment, my eyes burned ved and I finally broke down completely.
