Chapter 5
The words fell, and the entire ballroom went dead silent.
Everyone’s eyes widened in disbelief, unable to trust their own ears.
The Elizabeth who had been willing to die for Sebastian just said she didn’t love him anymore?
All eyes focused on Elizabeth, faces filled with shock. Only Sebastian stood before her, his suit impeccable, his expression cold and indifferent, not a ripple of emotion in his eyes.
“How many times have you played this hard to get bullshit?” His voice was low, dripping with undisguised mockery. “I’ve told you-nothing you do will work.”
He leaned down slightly, his thin lips barely moving, each word deliberate, as if crushing her last shred of dignity-
“I don’t like you. I will never like you.”
As his words sank in, the guests finally snapped out of their shock, whispers rising like a tide.
“I knew it. How could Miss Skylar suddenly stop loving Sebastian?”
“Right? She used to try to kill herself 108 times just to get him to look at her.”
“God, it’s so pathetic and sad…”
Elizabeth clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms, but she felt no pain.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say it again-
She wasn’t playing hard to get. She really, truly didn’t love him anymore!
3
But before she could speak, Connor’s voice cut through harshly: “Sorry, everyone. We failed to raise her properly, which is why she did something so disgraceful as stealing!”
He waved his hand coldly to the security guards: “Take her to the hotel’s cold storage. Let her freeze for a night to clear her head!”
Elizabeth’s pupils contracted sharply as she looked up: “I told you I didn’t steal…”
But no one listened to her explanations.
Two security guards stepped forward, roughly grabbing her wrists. She struggled desperately, but then felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck!
The guard’s baton made her stagger backward, black spots dancing before her eyes.
In the last second before losing consciousness, she met Sebastian’s eyes.
He stood there, watching her coldly, not even bothering to furrow his brow.
Elizabeth woke up to bone-chilling cold.
Frost had formed on her eyelashes, her breath came out in white puffs, her limbs were stiff with cold, and her blood felt like it had frozen solid.
The cold storage was minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit, and she was wearing only a thin slip dress, her exposed skin already purple with frostbite.
“Can’t die…” she struggled to move her body, “I can’t die…”
The immigration paperwork would be ready soon.
She had to leave this place.
Soon, she could start a new life.
Using every ounce of strength, she crawled inch by inch to the cold storage door, her fingers purple with cold, but still desperately pounding on the
heavy metal door.
“Help… me…”
“Is anyone there… please help me…”
Her voice was hoarse beyond recognition, but there was no response from outside.
Until-
“Stop knocking.”
A sweet, laughing voice came from outside the door.
Elizabeth’s whole body froze.
It was Clarissa.
“Everyone’s celebrating my birthday party right now. Who has time for you?” She laughed lightly, her tone full of undisguised smugness. “Oh, here’s something funny-”
“Today’s your birthday too, isn’t it?”
“Too bad, nobody remembers.”
Elizabeth bit her lip hard, the taste of blood spreading in her mouth.
“I’m being celebrated like a queen in the luxurious ballroom, while you’re in there freezing half to death…” Clarissa laughed softly. “Elizabeth, so what if you’re the real heiress? So what if I’m just an orphan from foster care?”
“You’re still under my heel.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes, a metallic sweetness rising in her throat.
Just then, Clarissa’s phone suddenly rang.
She seemed to deliberately put it on speaker, letting Elizabeth hear every word clearly-
“Clarissa, where did you go?”
It was Sebastian.
His voice was low and gentle, filled with an affection Elizabeth had never heard before.
“I’m feeling a bit dizzy…” Clarissa’s voice immediately became soft and fragile. “I’m in the lounge…”
“Wait there. I’m coming right now.”
The call ended, and silence returned to the cold storage.
Hearing Sebastian’s tender voice toward Clarissa, Elizabeth slowly closed her eyes. For some reason, she suddenly remembered those long days and nights she’d written about in her diary.
On those yellowed pages, her handwriting blurred by tears, every stroke carved with her own desperation.
She wrote about Sebastian booking an entire revolving restaurant for Clarissa’s birthday, just so she could watch the snow fall;
She wrote about him staying by Clarissa’s bedside all night when she had a fever, even missing the company’s IPO bell ceremony;
She wrote about how when he looked at Clarissa, his eyes held warmth like melting spring snow, but when he turned to her, there was only bone-chilling frost.
So many days and nights, she’d been like a pathetic voyeur, hiding in shadows, watching them love each other.
At least now, she finally didn’t love him anymore.
