Chapter 6

Elara Vance POV

A few days later, Chloe "accidentally" knocked over my cello in the living room.

With a dull thud, that precious antique, a memento of my mother, broke its neck and was completely ruined.

Julian rushed out from his study at the sound, seeing Chloe startled in her wheelchair, while I stood quietly amidst a pile of fragments.

"What happened?" Julian strode over, shielding Chloe behind him.

Chloe's eyes were red, her voice trembling. "I'm sorry... I just wanted to look at the cello, I couldn't control my wheelchair, and I accidentally bumped it... Miss Vance, please don't blame me..."

Julian looked at me coldly. He probably expected to see me become hysterical and enraged. After all, he knew how important that cello was to me; it was my last boundary.

But I didn't.

I didn't scream, didn't question, didn't even shed a single tear.

I just calmly knelt down, picking up the broken wooden pieces one by one. Then I walked to the fireplace and threw them all into the burning flames.

The flames instantly consumed the pieces, crackling loudly.

"It's just a broken cello," Julian said stiffly. "It's good to burn that scrap wood. Tomorrow, I'll have someone buy you a hundred better ones."

I watched the dancing flames, my voice as light as a breeze. "No need. I won't be playing cello anymore."

My tone was too calm, as if I were a body that had already lost its soul.

Julian suddenly rushed over, grabbing my wrist, his eyes so fierce they looked like they wanted to devour me. "Who are you putting on this lifeless act for?! Do you think pretending to be pathetic will make me let you go? I'm telling you, you haven't paid off your debt to Chloe yet. You'll never leave me in this lifetime!"

I slowly pulled my hand free from his grasp.

I looked at Julian, my eyes devoid of hate or love, only endless emptiness.

"Okay," I said softly.

Julian seemed enraged by my answer.

To provoke a reaction from me, Julian began to escalate his torment.

He cut off the funding to the orchestra of my most respected teacher, driving it to the brink of bankruptcy. He used this as leverage, forcing me to serve Chloe like a maid every day.

I did everything he asked.

I silently endured it all, even when Chloe deliberately splashed hot soup onto the back of my hand. I would just quietly clean it up, then turn and walk away.

The more compliant I became, the more agitated Julian grew.

He was like a madman flailing his fists in an abyss, desperately trying to grasp something, only to find he held nothing but ashes.

What he didn't know was that my heart had completely died, right there in the burning ashes of that cello.

New York's late autumn brought a rare downpour.

Fierce winds whipped the rain against the villa's glass windows.

Late at night, my phone suddenly vibrated wildly. It was the hospital calling—my teacher, the old man who was the only one willing to believe in me and treated me like his own child after the scandal, had suffered a sudden heart attack and was in critical condition.

My face instantly turned ashen.

I didn't even have time to put on a coat, stumbling towards the front door.

But the door was locked.

The password had been changed; even my fingerprint access was disabled.

I frantically pounded on the door, then turned and rushed upstairs to the master bedroom.

"Julian! Open the door! Please, open the door!"

The master bedroom door opened. Julian stood in the doorway in his pajamas, his brow furrowed. "What's wrong with you, raving like this so late? Chloe is afraid of thunder; she just managed to fall asleep."

"My teacher is in critical condition… the hospital wants me to see him one last time…" My voice trembled with extreme fear. "Julian, I beg you, open the door, let me go see him!"

Julian looked at my paper-white face, a flicker of remorse in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by cold hardness.

"Isn't this just the punishment you deserve?" he said coldly. "When Chloe had her accident, her teacher also fell ill from the shock. You're just tasting the pain she went through back then."

"I didn't do it!" I suddenly let out a piercing scream, my knees buckling. I fell heavily onto the cold marble floor.

The once proud-to-the-bone me, the me who stood tall even when everyone blamed me, was now kneeling at his feet like a dog.

"Julian, I'll give you my life, I'll give you everything… please, let me see him one last time…" I pleaded desperately, trying to win his concession.

Julian frantically pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed the unlock button.

I scrambled out of the villa, rushing into the pouring rain.

But it was too late.

When I arrived at the hospital, soaked and bloodied, the emergency room light was already off.

The doctor regretfully shook his head at me.

I stood in the morgue, looking at the face covered by a white sheet on the gurney, surrounded by a deathly silence.

I didn't cry.

Not a single tear fell.

Extreme sorrow and despair reached their breaking point at this moment, then completely dissolved into nothingness.

I reached out and gently touched my teacher's face through the white sheet.

At that moment, the last string connecting me to this world finally snapped.

My love for Julian, my insistence on the truth, my hopes for the future—all died cleanly on that rainy night.