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Novel Catalog
Chapter 26 Reminisce The Past
Stella had no intention of remembering the past the way Zachary did, but she quickly caught on to his suspicions and pretended to reminisce. She told him exactly what she knew he wanted to hear. “Of course I remember. You were covered in blood, and it terrified me. I had to force the car door open to get you out, and my arms got all cut up in the process. The scars were horrible after they healed. Thankfully, I had surgery, and they faded.” Her tone was convincing, but Zachary couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. He remembered Cecilia’s words from that day—“You must be strong”—not Stella’s version of events. He had no idea why it all felt so wrong now, but doubt clouded his mind.
When the meal ended and they prepared to leave, Zachary looked at Stella with a weighty gaze. His voice was cold as he said, “Stella, after all this time, you should know my temperament well. The one thing I hate most is being lied to.” With that, he turned and left, leaving Stella standing there with a growing sense of fear.
But she quickly shook it off. Cecilia was dead, and no one could refute her version of the story now. Even if Zachary dug into the past, she could always deny it.
Meanwhile, Zachary’s doubts wouldn’t let him rest. As soon as he returned to the Sinclair residence, he began digging into what had really happened years ago. He hadn’t questioned Stella’s claims before because she was the only one who had stepped forward. But now, with everything happening, he couldn’t just ignore the possibility that he had been misled. He could only hope that his instincts weren’t wrong.
Outside Daltonia Villa, Nathaniel sat alone in his car, chain-smoking, feeling a deep sense of unease. He had gone to Cecilia’s residence earlier, but it was completely deserted. His people were looking for her, but there was still no trace. A feeling of dread settled over him as he crushed his cigarette and stepped out of the car. When he saw a familiar silhouette in the distance, his heart leapt. But as he rushed forward, it vanished. He froze, realizing it had been a hallucination.
Sitting down on the couch in exhaustion, Nathaniel buried his face in his hands. He hadn’t slept a wink last night, and fatigue was settling in. How could he accept that Cecilia was gone? He refused to believe it. Just the night before, she had seemed fine.
A sudden knock on the door snapped him out of his thoughts. He stood up quickly, opening it to find Zachary holding a stack of medical records. Zachary looked weary, but his eyes were focused, and he handed over the papers.
Nathaniel took the records, stunned by their thickness. Over a hundred pages? He quickly began flipping through them, noting that most of Cecilia’s treatments had started three years ago. As he turned the pages, Zachary’s voice broke the silence. “Nathaniel, Cecilia is really gone. I saw in the records she suffered from severe depression. She was pregnant. A few days ago, she overdosed on sleeping pills and nearly died. This time, she slit her wrist, and they couldn’t save her.”
At the mention of pregnancy, Nathaniel froze, unable to process it. He couldn’t respond to Zachary’s words, his mind racing as he continued to turn the pages of Cecilia’s medical records. With each page, it felt like a weight settled in his chest, making it harder to breathe.
Finally, he stopped at the pregnancy report. His thumb hovered over the word pregnant, and a tight knot formed in his throat. His voice was barely audible when he spoke. “Who knows whose baby it was?”
Zachary, sitting across from him, couldn’t help but feel a deep sympathy for Cecilia.
