Jasper stepped forward, his voice hoarse, "Stella ... I finally found you."
Stella finally raised her eyes to look directly at him.
Her gaze was bright, yet emotionless.
Jasper also looked back at her.
The girl before him was still as beautiful as he rembered. If she were to speak to him with that familiar smile of hers, he would undoubtedly think what had transpired over the past month was just a long, futile dream.
"Attorney Hawthorne," she began, her voice as steady as a calm sea, "what do you need?"
The words ’Attorney Hawthorne’ pierced Jasper’s heart like three cold needles.
In the past, she always called him ’Jasper’ both in private and when she was angry, happy, or playfully teasing...
Only during work did she avoid using his first na, calling him ’Attorney Hawthorne’.
"I..." Countless words were stuck in his throat. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and in the end, he could only dryly squeeze out a few words: "Stella, I’ve been looking for you for a long ti..."
Instinctively, he reached out to grasp Stella’s wrist.
Stella instinctively avoided his touch, "What do you want with ? We’ve already broken up."
Jasper’s face twitched, "I didn’t agree."
Stella almost laughed coldly.
"Attorney Hawthorne, breaking up doesn’t require your consent..."
She turned slightly, her expression indifferent, "If Attorney Hawthorne has nothing else, I have work to do, please excuse ."
Her coldness was like a dull knife, slowly slicing away at Jasper’s nerves.
Seeing her turn to return to her office, he almost instinctively reached out to grab hold of her wrist, "Stella, can we talk?"
Stella quickly pulled away from his grasp, stepping back to maintain distance between them.
A crack finally appeared on her porcelain-white face, but it wasn’t emotion; it was thick with disgust and anger.
Jasper only felt a heap of tal needles being sprinkled onto his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.
Because of his innate emotional detachnt, he often couldn’t empathize with others. He never understood why people felt happy, angry, or sad, nor did he care.
But now, he felt at a loss.
All along, Stella had been like a bright little sun, chattering around him. He used to find it annoying, but now that the little sun had left him, he was plunged into an abyss of panic.
He didn’t even know how to return to the way things were before.
All he wanted was for Stella to smile at him...
"Stella, I was wrong. Will you forgive ?" Jasper’s brow furrowed. He rembered Jude’s previous advice to apologize to Stella.
Even though he didn’t understand why it was necessary, since Jude had emphasized it repeatedly, there had to be a reason.
"Jasper!" Stella called him by his full na.
Jasper’s eyes lit up, looking at her with hope.
But at that mont, the expression on the girl’s face was not the joy he longed for but a fire of suppressed anger, "Show so respect! This is my law firm! I am not your beck-and-call pet! You ignore when you want, and co to pester when reminded!"
"Your apology ans nothing to !" Her gaze was as sharp as a knife, each word laced with ice, "I don’t need your ’sorry.’ I just want you to stay far away from my life! Don’t you see? I’m doing just fine now! Without you, I’m doing better than ever!"
"No... Stella, I’m not..." Jasper was pierced by the unabashed disdain in her eyes, struggling to breathe, "That’s not what I ant, I just... I just want to make ands, I want to..."
"Make ands?"
Stella, as if hearing the most absurd joke, curled her lips into a mocking smile, "What do you plan to make ands with? Another empty promise of a grand wedding? Or yet another light-hearted ’next ti I won’t’?"
Jasper’s face was ashen, his lips trembling, yet unable to emit any sound.
Every word she spoke was an undeniable fact, mistakes he had forged with his own hands.
"Just leave, don’t co looking for again in the future!"
When finished, she didn’t cast him another glance, turned sharply, and with a ’bang’, heavily closed the office door, completely shutting Jasper out.
The loud sound of the door echoed in the empty hallway, resonating in Jasper’s eardrums, leaving him frozen in place, as if all the blood in his body had turned to ice.
And inside the office, just a door away.
Stella leaned against the cold door panel, her body uncontrollably trembling.
The composure and assertiveness she had put on crumbled in an instant, her heart pounded violently, bringing a belated dull pain and sorrow.
She thought she had long since let go, no longer cared.
Yet when he truly appeared before her, those deliberately suppressed grievances, anger, and disappointnt surged forth like a tide, nearly overwhelming her.
He was the man she had loved all through her youth...
Such a passionate love she had given him!
But in the end, he left her wounded with scars.
From outside the door, there was no sound of leaving footsteps for a long ti.
Only a dead silence.
It felt like an eternity had passed before heavy, slow footsteps were heard, step by step, gradually moving further away.
He was gone.
Stella slowly slid down to the floor, burying her face in her knees, her shoulders gently shaking.
This ti, it was truly over.
...
Innovatech Bio Tower.
The Director of the Legal Departnt’s office.
Elias Peyton had just hung up on a client call, rubbing his throbbing temples, and thinking of last night’s all-nighter hell, he was tempted to bang his head against the ground.
He didn’t know what had gotten into President Donovan, suddenly pulling such a stunt, it was killing him.
Just then, his personal cellphone rang.
Catching sight of the na flashing across the screen, Elias raised an eyebrow, a smirk of amusent curving his lips. He leisurely answered the call, dragging out his words, "Hello? Attorney Hawthorne? What’s the order this ti? Have you arrived in Riveria? Need to guide you?"
From the other end of the line, Jasper was silent for a few seconds. His breathing sounded heavy, as if he were walking, with faint traffic sounds in the background.
He didn’t rebut coldly as he usually would, but instead asked directly in a low voice, "Did you see her yesterday?"
Elias’s smile deepened, twirling his pen leisurely, "See who? Attorney Hawthorne, be clear, I t a lot of people yesterday."
"Elias Peyton!" Jasper’s voice, rare with anxiety and repressed fire, "Did you see Stella yesterday?"
"Oh... Stella, the junior sister?" Elias deliberately elongated his drawl, laughing with mischief, "Saw her, yes. So? Attorney Hawthorne... chasing your love all the way to Riveria? Quite quick on your feet!"
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