“The servants have packed everything; take your things and leave here.” His expression was indifferent. “Sylvia is moving in today, you must go.”

“You want me to leave?” Claire’s pupils trembled; she looked at him in disbelief. “For Sylvia, you first announced a divorce, and now you want to drive me out?”

“What makes you think I will keep giving in, time and time again?”

Claire countered in a deep, cold voice, and Julian’s eyes turned suddenly fierce.

“Claire, I mentioned the divorce long ago. Whether you are willing or not is not up to you. Since you refuse to sign the agreement, I will have my lawyer file a lawsuit. Now, I am with Sylvia, and you must leave. This is my home, and I want you to get out.”

Those words were like blades, cruelly cutting through Claire’s heart.

Instantly, her eyes reddened.

Once upon a time, her father had driven her out of the house just like this, as if discarding trash.

Ever since her mother left, she hadn’t had a home anymore.

And Julian—he clearly knew how deep her longing and obsession for a home were.

When he bought this villa and proposed to her back then, he had held her hands tightly and promised her with great affection, “Claire, from now on, this is our home. I will give you a home that is forever warm, one that will never abandon you.”

But now, he was taking it all back.

He was even more cruel than her father had been to her back then.

In a daze, the servants had already pushed her luggage and boxes out the door.

“Stop it!” She lunged forward to stop them, turning to look at Julian. “Julian, this is also my home! Don’t forget that my name is on the property deed. By what right do you make me leave?”

Julian’s eyes were sinister, and just as he was about to say something, a gentle, soft female voice suddenly came from beside him.

“Julian, just let Miss Claire stay here. She can’t find a place to live for the time being, and I can’t bear to watch her end up on the streets. Just let her stay here first; I don’t mind.”

Seeing Sylvia walk over, Julian’s eyes softened instantly. He wrapped his arm around her waist, his voice filled with pity, “This is too unfair to you.”

Immediately after, he looked up and eyed Claire coldly.

“For Sylvia’s sake, I will give you another half-month. If you still refuse to leave when the time is up, don’t blame me for not remembering our old times.”

Having said that, he left with Sylvia.

Sylvia moved into the villa, and that evening, she cooked a meal herself.

Claire didn’t want to face them and turned to leave.

However, her wrist was grabbed forcefully by Julian, who pressed her down next to the dining table. “Sit down. Watching us be affectionate—isn’t that what you’ve loved doing most over the past six months?”

Julian’s voice was filled with mockery.

Claire silently clenched her fingers, saying nothing.

During the meal, Sylvia smiled radiantly, picking up a braised prawn and placing it in her bowl. “Sister Claire, try my cooking.”

Claire looked at the prawn without moving her chopsticks.

“What’s wrong, Sister Claire? Do you not like the meal I cooked?” Sylvia blinked, a look of grievance appearing on her face.

Julian’s sharp gaze swept over immediately, pressuring Claire.

“Eat it.”

Claire looked up at him, her chest feeling as if something were blocked inside. “I’m allergic to prawns. Have you forgotten?”

Julian’s eyes flickered for a moment. He avoided her gaze, his voice hard and cold, “I stopped remembering that a long time ago.”

The short sentence stung her once again.

In the past, he had remembered all her preferences, dislikes, and taboos more clearly than she did herself.

For many years together, the dining table had never featured anything she didn’t like to eat.

Yet now, he said he had stopped remembering long ago.

A self-destructive impulse surged within her, and she picked up the prawn.

Just as she was about to put it into her mouth, a “clatter” sounded—the red wine glass by Julian’s hand had tipped over.

He looked annoyed.

“Enough! Watching you acting like this makes me lose my appetite.” He furrowed his brows, his expression unpleasant. “Let’s go out to eat.”

He stood up abruptly, took Sylvia’s hand, and left.

The meal ended unhappily.

After Sylvia moved into the villa, Julian seemed determined to disgust her, being intimately inseparable from Sylvia right in front of her.

Hugging, kissing, feeding each other, whispering—he spared no effort.

Even at night, ambiguous sounds could be heard from the master bedroom, which had excellent soundproofing.

Claire forced herself not to look and not to listen.

But no matter what they did, Julian forcefully demanded that Claire be present.

One day, Sylvia suggested going to Lingyan Temple outside the city to pray for blessings, and Julian once again insisted on dragging her along.

“Today is the anniversary of my mother’s death; I need to go to the cemetery.”

Claire tried to resist, but Julian coldly interrupted her. “You can go to the cemetery any time, but today you must accompany Sylvia to pray for blessings. Now that you are living under my roof, your only use is to make Sylvia happy. If it weren’t for her, do you think I would have kept you until now?”

His words were like ice picks, piercing her until she felt utterly broken.

In the end, she was forced to follow them.

At Lingyan Temple, the three of them stood under an ancient tree covered in prayer pouches.

Suddenly, a pouch fell at Sylvia’s feet. She picked it up and happened to see the name “Claire” written on it.

“Julian, so this was written by Sister Claire for a future with you…”

Sylvia opened the letter paper inside, and Julian snatched it away, tossing it directly into the incense burner’s fire.

“There hasn’t been a future between her and me for a long time.”

Those words were like poison-tipped needles piercing Claire’s heart, forcing her eyes to heat up until she almost cried.

That was something they had written together when they were young, promising to come back and open it when they grew old to see if their wishes from back then had come true.

Now, there would never be another chance.

She and Julian truly had no future left.

Claire clenched her hands tightly and suddenly tore down another pouch from beside it that had Julian’s name written on it, throwing it into the fire as well.

“You’re right.” Her voice was calm, her gaze dead. “We were too naive back then to believe in things like this. Now I realize these things are completely meaningless.”

Julian caught a glimpse of her actions, his expression freezing abruptly.

But in the end, he didn’t say anything more.

On the way back, Julian threw the car keys to Claire, while he and Sylvia sat in the back seat.

It was late, and the winding mountain road was not easy to drive on.

At a sharp turn, an SUV suddenly dashed out from the opposite lane at high speed.

Claire didn’t have time to react; unable to dodge in time, she crashed directly into the cliff wall.

Accompanying the sound of a massive impact, the world spun wildly before her eyes.

In the second before she lost consciousness completely, she seemed to hear a heart-wrenching scream.

“Claire!”

Chapter 3

The intense pain caused Claire to plunge into complete darkness.

In a daze, she felt as if she had returned to her previous life; it was on this very same day, while returning from the cemetery, that an out-of-control car had smashed directly into her.

Back then, Julian had been across the street, swiftly rushing toward her to shield her beneath his body, absorbing the majority of the impact himself.

That time, he had been in a coma for nearly half a month before regaining consciousness.

But having lived through it once again, the accident was still unavoidable.

Claire struggled to open her eyes, her head throbbing as if it were splitting.

What came into view was the ceiling of a hospital ward, and there was no one by her side.

Worried about Julian’s condition, she braced herself to sit up and get out of bed.

Just as she reached the nurse's station, she heard several nurses whispering.

“That Claire in the VIP room, the one who caused the car accident, what is her relationship with the two people in Room 06? When they were brought in that day, it was that Mr. Julian who was so anxious his eyes turned red, roaring like a madman, ordering the dean to organize the best team of experts to perform surgery on her.”

“You’re telling me! He stayed outside the operating room for the entire night that day. Even though his own wounds were bleeding, he refused to have them treated, insisting on waiting until the surgery was over before he would leave.”