Bryce slammed his cutlery down on the table. “What is going on, Trevor?”
“I’ll give her a call later, Grandpa,” Trevor replied, looking beyond grim.
“Hmph. Serena is the granddaughter-in-law I’ve acknowledged. If you dare wrong her, I’ll deal with you myself!”
…
Trevor barely tasted a thing throughout the rest of the meal. Even when Amber spoke to him, he answered absentmindedly. An uneasy restlessness gnawed at him; Serena’s recent behavior had left him feeling unsettled.
He had always believed himself to be the one firmly in control in this relationship, but now, he suddenly realized that the girlfriend he used to have completely in hand was slipping out of his grasp.
“Trevor, will you take me home later?” Amber asked softly.
Trevor snapped back to attention and was just about to agree when Sebastian lazily offered, “I’ll drive you later, Amber. Where are you living now?”
Amber pressed her lips together. He’s never shown me any goodwill before.
“Thank you, Uncle Sebastian, but that won’t be necessary. I’ll have the chauffeur take me.”
Sebastian’s lips curved almost imperceptibly. “That works too.”
Trevor had no interest in who was sending her home right then. All he wanted was to get back to the villa as quickly as possible and confront Serena face-to-face.
…
Trevor returned to the villa with anger simmering under his skin. “Where’s Serena?”
Lucy startled, then shook her head. “Didn’t Mrs. Levine go on a business trip, Mr. Levine?”
Trevor frowned. “She told you she was on a business trip?”
“No… Mrs. Levine dragged a suitcase…”
Dragging a suitcase means a business trip, doesn’t it? No-wait. She said she was moving out.
Trevor’s expression changed instantly. He rushed upstairs and shoved open the door to the guest room she usually used. It was empty, as if no one had ever lived there.
He turned and went straight to her walk-in closet. His temple throbbed sharply-the wardrobe was empty.
Panic hit him out of nowhere, a strong sense that everything had spiraled entirely out of control.
He went to his bedroom, trying to calm himself, only to realize that half of his clothes were missing as well. He instinctively pulled open the drawer where he kept his ties-every single one Serena had given him was gone.
His heartbeat accelerated. At last, he pushed open the master bedroom-the room they’d prepared for their wedding. The oversized wedding photo Serena had once insisted they take was gone too.
Standing out on the balcony, Trevor called her. Every ring felt interminably long. At the very last ring, she finally answered.
“Serena, why are all your clothes gone? And the ones you gave me-did you take those too? And why didn’t you come register our marriage with me if you weren’t even on a business trip?”
On the other end of the line, Serena sounded as though she’d just heard the funniest joke of the day. “And you, Trevor? Did you go to the city hall?”
Trevor’s breathing stalled. “Don’t change the subject, Serena. Even if you want to throw a tantrum, there should be a limit. I already said I’d register with you-why are you still making such a big deal out of this?”
“But I already told you, Trevor,” Serena replied calmly. “We broke up.”
Trevor didn’t want to dwell on that, so he pressed on. “Where’s our wedding photo?”
Break up? Please. Who breaks up and secretly takes the wedding photos with them?
“What? I didn’t take them,” she replied, standing in a real estate showroom.
Trevor paused. “Where are they then?”
She let out a light laugh. “They’re in your drawer.”
A terrible premonition struck him. Trevor rushed back into the master bedroom and yanked open the bedside drawer. Inside, the photos lay shattered into countless pieces. His eyes turned red as he stared at the scene, unable to believe it.
“Serena-you!” Trevor’s body trembled with rage.
“Livid? But why are you so upset? You should’ve expected a breakup from the moment you stood me up for registering our marriage.” Serena caught her reflection in the glass of the sales office open lobby and pulled a lukewarm smile. “Trevor, there’s no going back for us anymore.”
Inside the Midnight Society’s VIP room, Trevor stared at his glass, eyes glazed, jaw tipped back at a flawless angle before he drained the drink in one swallow. And in front of him, several empty bottles lay toppled on the table.
His friends exchanged uneasy looks.
“Mr. Trevor, slow down,” one of them ventured. “Did you and Amber have a fight?”
Trevor reacted instantly at the familiar name, lifting his head a little. “Amber? What happened to her?”
Another voice dared, quieter this time, “Or… was it because of Serena?”
Trevor’s eyes snapped open wide, the haze of alcohol sharpening into something volatile. “Don’t say her name,” he bit out. His breathing grew uneven. “Serena… you heartless little-I told you we were registering. How could you…”
The sentence collapsed before it finished. Trevor slumped back against the couch, unconscious to the world, unconscious to the weight of what he’d just revealed.
His friends were stunned. Since when did Serena matter this much to him?
“She used to answer Alden’s calls immediately,” someone murmured. “Should we try her number again? Maybe she can come pick him up?”
Alden Somerset pulled out his phone-Serena’s number was already saved there from habit-and dialed. The ringtone went on and on, unanswered, stretching thin like a fraying rope.
“Well?”
Trevor had gotten drunk plenty of times before, but it had almost always been because of Amber. Every time, Alden would call Serena to come collect him. Back then, she’d always picked up immediately-so quickly it had seemed like his number was set to priority alert. But this time? Nothing. The silence on the other end felt different. It felt wrong.
“She didn’t answer,” Alden admitted. “What now?”
“Guess we’ll have to trouble Amber,” someone sighed.
…
Amber arrived at Midnight Society not long after. By then, Trevor was gone-lost to alcohol entirely. She frowned, displeased. “Why did he drink this much today?”
“Oh, we didn’t force him. He just fought with Serena.”
The room went stiff again, and someone elbowed the speaker before saying, “Ignore him. Trevor was probably just happy about your return that he drank a bit more than usual.”
Amber wasn’t too happy, but she couldn’t act out in front of Trevor’s friends. So, she still forced a thin smile. “Thanks, everyone. I’ll take Trevor home now.”
Trevor towered over her by more than half a head. Amber had to brace herself to hold him upright.
“Trevor,” she coaxed, “my place or yours?”
Trevor didn’t answer. He couldn’t-he was far beyond speech. So Amber let her lips curve gently, making the choice for him in the quiet of her own thoughts. “If you’re not saying anything, I’ll assume it’s the first.”
She struggled to bundle him into a cab and gave the driver her apartment address.
Trevor couldn’t sit upright. His head dropped into the soft hollow of her neck. Warm breath, hot with alcohol, brushed her skin as he mumbled against it, half-delirious, half-raw truth.
“Rena,” he murmured, “how could you shred our wedding photo out of anger? You’ve been a bad girl, Rena… I’m gonna punish you…”
Amber’s eyes dimmed. So that’s it. He drank himself into oblivion over Serena.
…
Serena had accomplished two major things that day: making Trevor fully understand her determination to break up, and paying in full for the small apartment she was currently living in.
It was every cent she had saved over the three years since graduating. When she held the property deed in her hands, She felt as though she had been given a new life.
Seeing that it was still early, she went straight to Steele Tech to confront her father.
The front desk at Steele Tech didn’t recognize Serena at all. Aside from Donald’s assistant and one or two secretaries, almost no one had ever seen the Steele family’s eldest daughter.
“Hello, I’d like to see Mr. Steele.”
The receptionist cast a cool glance at the woman with refined features. “Do you have an appointment? Without one, you can’t see Mr. Steele.”
“Please tell Mr. Kingston that my name is Serena Steele,” Serena replied evenly. “He’ll know to let me up.”
The receptionist let out a soft scoff and muttered to the person beside her, “Another one trying to name-drop.”
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Kingston is on leave today. Why don’t you come back another day, miss?”
Serena rarely came to Steele Tech, but the receptionist’s obvious snobbery still struck a nerve.
“Wait here. I’ll make a call.”
Her expression turned cold as she dialed Yvonne. “Yvonne, I’m in the lobby at Steele Tech right now. Could you let the front desk know? I need to go upstairs to see my dad.”
Yvonne paused in surprise. “Huh? Rena, didn’t you give them your name at the front desk? Hold on. You hand them your phone-I’ll talk to them. Sorry ’bout this. They’re probably new, so they don’t know who you are.”
As expected, Yvonne’s words carried far more weight than Serena’s. The receptionist reluctantly opened the gate. “Hmph! Don’t be so smug about it.”
While waiting for the elevator, Serena ran into Chris Lopez. “Serena, you’re here at Steele Tech today too?”
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