After hearing Sebastian's confirmation, I sighed deeply in relief.
I knew he always kept his promises.
When he mentioned staging an accident to fake my death, my heart skipped a beat.
Perhaps sensing my hesitation, he gave me a day to think it over.
After hanging up, I opened Victoria's social media account.
She had been a junior in my old club, and a few months ago, she had reached out to me for help after losing her job.
Having lost both my parents, I could understand how lost she must have felt in the big city with no family support.
So, I had told Theodore Blackwood, asking him to help her out.
What I thought was a kind gesture turned into a sharp dagger lodged in my heart.
Yesterday, she posted on social media: "Work and men, all in hand now."
The accompanying photo showed her flushed face, with a large hand gripping her neck.
The hand wearing the watch was the same one I had given Julian last year.
A wave of nausea hit me, and I rushed to the bathroom to vomit.
They had known each other for only two months.
I remembered Julian once saying he was a slow-burn type of person, and it felt like my heart was being torn apart.
Julian's biological father had been a serial cheater, even abandoning his wife and children for his mistress.
His mother raised him with great difficulty, only to be diagnosed with a terminal illness. She held on until he finished his SATs before passing away.
This had always been an unspoken pain in his heart.
He despised all fickle men, hated the helplessness of his younger self.
Yet now, he seemed to be following the same tragic path his father had.
Compared to Julian Moore's affair, what I couldn't accept more was the fact that I had failed to see the reality of him all these years.
The sharp pain in my stomach grew increasingly intense.
Tears and sweat mixed together, and my vision began to blur.
I could only rely on muscle memory to dial the one emergency contact number in my phone.
Before I could speak, Julian's voice came through, urgent and anxious.
"Adelaide, I'm in a meeting, I'll call you back later... ah!"
As Julian's closest confidante, I could clearly hear the sound that only came when he was deeply affected.
The call abruptly ended, and I collapsed to the ground, completely losing consciousness.
