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“Athena… Athena, I beg you, don’t go!”
Emmett’s voice broke, filled with anguish. His feelings overwhelmed him so suddenly that he unexpectedly threw up.
But Athena remained unresponsive, her determination unwavering as she ended the call. She had no desire to speak to him again. The last decade? It might as well have been thrown to the wolves. She was determined never to be caught in Emmett’s snare again.
Their initial encounter was when they were both merely five years old. It was a pleasant evening when a shy, delicate little girl entered his world, her guileless eyes meeting his as she addressed him as “young master.
Emmett had grown up devoid of parental love. His early years had been empty of affection. However, the new couple and their darling daughter introduced him to something unfamiliar, a sense of warmth and gentleness that felt like home.
Although they used titles like master and servant, in his heart, the Chancellor family had always been like his own. But it was their daughter, gentle, sweet Athena, who had stolen his heart. The way she timidly called him “brother, her eyes gleaming with faith, made Emmett feel incredibly fortunate. To him, she was the most cherished gift, a new possession he proudly displayed to anyone who would notice.
Nearly everyone had predicted that Emmett’s personality would cause him to tire of Athena, and even Athena herself believed this. But life often takes unexpected turns.
The turning point came on that tragic day when Emmett fell into the water. The Chancellor parents tried to rescue him, but the strong current overpowered them, and they drowned in its merciless waters!
It was the first time Emmett had witnessed Athena cry with such devastating, genuine sorrow. Her ashen face was stained with tears, her weeping so intense it seemed she might collapse from the burden of her grief.
Emmett, still shaking from his brush with death, hurried to express remorse. But in her distressed state, Athena lashed out at him, striking him with quivering fists and desperate cries, questioning why he hadn’t been the one to die.
The household staff rushed to restrain her, attempting to quell the chaos, but Emmett, too, was consumed by remorse and anguish. The pair of ten–year–olds wept uncontrollably by the riverside, their tears blending with the river’s ceaseless flow, until Athena’s cries became too much for her fragile form to endure. She lost consciousness, and they hurriedly took her to the hospital.
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Following her parents‘ demise, Athena was forever changed. Nightmares haunted her sleep, filled with visions of her parents‘ lifeless forms in the turbulent river. No matter how swiftly she swam or ran, she could never reach them. And each time she woke, her tears would fall anew, even more intensely, as if the nightmare never truly ended.
Emmett, too, was deeply affected by the trauma. After much inner turmoil, he finally mustered the courage to console her, gently grasping her hand and murmuring, “I’m sorry. From now on, I’ll be your only family…”
They repeated these words so frequently that they began to accept them as truth.
Initially, Emmett had no intentions of being with Athena, but the reality was undeniable: she had become an integral part of his life’s story, woven into every memory since childhood.
In middle school, when their budding romance was about to be exposed by a teacher, it was Athena who intervened to protect him.
When Azrael pressured him to pursue a major he detested, it was Athena who supported him, persuading the old man and helping him choose the philosophy he adored, saving him from an unbearable future.
Even when he fell for Aliana at university, Athena penned love letters for him, though she remained completely oblivious to any of it.
But Emmett was grateful for her ignorance because if she had known when the old man insisted that he marry Athena to inherit the entire family fortune, Emmett would have been completely conflicted.
Then, it dawned on him: Athena had always harbored feelings for him.
For years, Athena had silently complied with his every desire. Though she kept her emotions. concealed, like a sealed container, Emmett had managed to decipher her heart, and in doing so, it had simplified matters greatly.
Within a month, he had unlocked Athena’s heart. On the night he finally confessed, beneath the dazzling fireworks, Athena’s eyes shimmered even more brightly than the lights above them.
