When Lucas came to find Phoenix, he found him in a state of utter despondency.
There he was, a grown man curled up in a corner of the floor, not a clean spot on him, surrounded by empty bottles of alcohol.
"Mr. Lee, you…"
"Serena, won't you come back?" Tears streaked his face as he pleaded in a low voice.
Lucas leaned in to listen, his own eyes stinging with tears as he comprehended Phoenix's words.
"Mr. Lee, please don't be like this. If Miss Serena were still alive, she wouldn't want to see you this way." In Lucas's eyes, Phoenix was the man who, after the Nightingale incident and Serena's departure, had single-handedly shouldered the responsibility of the Lee Corporation, transforming it into J city's premier enterprise.
How could someone as proud as him fall so low?
"Miss Serena always liked you very much, Mr. Lee. Just now, the old butler from the Nightingale family was sorting out Miss Nightingale's belongings…"
"She's not dead!" Phoenix, sprawled on the floor, suddenly roared upon hearing this. He sat up, reeking of alcohol. "Don't call her Miss Nightingale or Miss Serena. She's my wife, my Mrs. Lee."
"Yes, we've found quite a bit of Mrs. Lee's things. Would you like to see them?" Lucas's voice trembled with emotion.
Though it might be painful to see these items, Lucas hadn't considered it thoroughly. But compared to Phoenix's current state, using Serena's belongings to stir him was an unforeseen attempt to break through his despair.
Phoenix clutched his stomach, leaning against the wall without a word for a long moment. Finally, he spoke, "Take me back to the villa, call for a doctor, and bring Serena's things over."
"Yes."
With no one left in the Nightingale family and the corporation revived by Phoenix, there was no gossip about retrieving items from the Nightingale ancestral home.
Back when both families were thriving, they had plans to merge the companies after the their's marriage. But fate intervened, with calamity striking the Lee family and the Nightingales falling into obscurity.
Serena didn't have the habit of daily journaling, but Phoenix had once gifted her a notebook where she occasionally jotted down thoughts when the mood struck. Many pages remained untouched.
"I've always believed that good moods are meant to be shared, to spread smiles to everybody. As for bad moods, with nowhere to express them, they are recorded here. As time went by, they will be buried with me, unknown to anyone."
These words were inscribed on the notebook's cover, written when they were still playful children together.
Phoenix often teased Serena for her constant grin like a fool, but she explained she wanted to bring positivity to others, keeping the negativity to herself.
"The accident happened so suddenly. To save Phoenix and Evan, I nearly died there. Fortunately, Julia rescued me and erased my scars; otherwise, Phoenix might have despised me. But he seems to dislike me more and more. I can't smile every day for them, they don't like me, and I want to visit Julia abroad. I hope when I return, Phoenix won't hate me anymore."
Her handwriting was naive back then, yet she was already perceptive of others' attitudes.
It wasn't that she ran away; it was Phoenix who drove her out!
Pages in the middle bore signs of tearing, indicating a struggle within her, but she chose to preserve them.
She wrote, "Living abroad is tough, even with Julia chatting with me daily. But I'm not willing to accept it. I waited for over a decade, thinking I could marry Phoenix, only to realize it was all a dream. When I miss him, I write his name in this book, only to realize it's all my own infatuation.
He and Amelia look perfect together. Deleting them from my friends list, not seeing their public displays of affection anymore, it's for the best."
