Countless scornful looks fell upon me, and my body stiffened. The words I had strung together were lodged fast in my throat.
All I wanted was to retrieve my belongings. All I wanted was to say goodbye.
“What are you doing here?”
Before I had time to recover, Ivor emerged from the villa holding a stuffed toy.
It was our token of love from when we were 18. On the day of our engagement, it went missing. I thought it was gone forever.
“Ives.”
A glimmer of hope surged in my heart as I reached out my hand. But in the next moment, the stuffed toy flew from his hand, drawing a beautiful arc in the air before landing precisely in the trash bin.
“Can I help?”
Ivor’s face was stern. Hastily, I withdrew my outstretched hand, feeling hard to breathe.
When we were 18, he had said, “Even if I lost my life, I’d never lose this toy.”
Now, he was throwing it away with his own hands. Did that mean his life no longer included me?
“Eleanor, we’ve already discussed this. The person I got engaged to was the real Ms. Shaw. You merely took her place in life. Did you think I was marrying you? Do I need to spell it out? The person I’m marrying is her. Don’t you get it? How do you still have the nerve to come here and cause trouble?”
His deep voice seemed to confirm my worst fears. His words tore through me; it was as though the man who once promised to love me forever had never existed.
“I’ve only come to collect my belongings,” I murmured, forcing down the lump in my throat.
It was then that a chorus of sneers escaped the Shaw residence. “Have you finally made up your mind to come back? You threw a tantrum just because of a little something we said. Eleanor, what right do you have to be upset? Over the years, it was Rhianne who bore all the hardships for you.”
