After Ariel finished speaking, she made a beeline for the balcony, looking to jump.
If Dean hadn’t acted fast enough to grab her arm, she could have died tonight. Tears streaming down her face, Ariel turned to Damon. "Damon, everyone says Eliana loved you for a decade with deep feeling and kindness. But what about Catherine? You screwed her over! And , from the first mont! When I heard your na, I felt like we were destined to et. I worked my ass off to get into Perrsion College and stay in the city, all because I believed in the bond between us"
I did the math. Ariel must ve been around 15 or 16 when she had her heart transplant, right in the middle of her awkward years.
From her emotional outburst, I figured out another piece of the puzzle.
Turns out, the gift Catherine’s mom gave to Ariel was a photo album and diary, full of snippets from Catherine’s life. There were group photos of Catherine family sisters in the album, so Ariel must have recognized Karen from the get-go.
Too bad Karen wasn’t here today, otherwise, she could’ve seen her true color for herself
But I’m sure she’ll see my tweet. She’s always been keeping tabs on Ariel’s antics
Ariel, now a blubbering ss, seed to have no effect on Damon who was fed up with her constant deceit.
"Damon, do one last favor. Can you help minimize the damage from Eliana’s tweet? I still care about my image," Ariel pleaded, still concerned about her reputation
"Get lost!" Damon’s response was ice cold, his eyes sending a chilling warning to Ariel. "From now on, I don’t want to see you ever again. You and your family better pack up and leave the city for good"
Ariel’s lips trembled Fear and defiance filled her eyes. She took a few shaky steps, clearly unable to accept what was happening.
Damon’s final warning ant she’d have to deal with her studies and surgery on her own. Her family would have to uproot from their familiar surroundings and start anew elsewhere.
Cherry and Dean looked like they’d seen a ghost
Ariel then turned to Cooper, grabbed his hand, "Cooper, can you help ? My family isn’t well-off and I’ve had a hard ti getting to where I am today. You’ve always encouraged . Can you help .... please"
"Ariel" Cooper’s heart softened seeing Ariel so distraught, but he quickly snapped back to reality.
He pushed Ariel away, shaking his head. "You’ve crossed the line. You’ve deceived , deceived everyone
After being rejected by Cooper, despair washed over Ariel’s face.
The tension in the room was palpable.
Suddenly, Ariel grabbed an ashtray and hurled it at .
There were several people around , but everyone had taken a step back after the earlier confrontation I watched the ashtray fly towards , too stunned to react.
Damon was the first to react. He rushed over and took the hit for .
The ashtray banged against his arm with a dull thud and fell to the floor.
His injury looked pretty bad. It seed like the sharp edge of the ashtray had cut him. Blood quickly seeped through his sleeve.
"Damon" Mitch shrieked, yelling at Cherry and Dean, "What the hell are you waiting for? Get out! What’s your plan? Murder?"
Cherry and Dean were equally startled. Leaving the city was the least of their worries. They might’ve even disappeared from the face of the earth.
The two of them helped Ariel downstairs.
Mitch and Cooper were checking on Damon’s injuries. I watched them from a distance. When Damon looked up at , we both fell silent.
All the misunderstandings were finally cleared up. It felt like we had just erged from a dark tunnel into the light
But we also knew that so people and things, once missed, can never be had again,
Our experiences felt like a war shrouded in smoke. When the war ended and the smoke cleared, we found nothing but ruins around us.
I swallowed my pain, quickly went downstairs, got in my car and drove off. Not long after, I saw Cherry frantically flagging down cars on the road.
Under the streetlight, Ariel was lying on the ground, unconscious. Dean was performing CPR on her.
I didn’t stop. I drove past them, the image of my parents crying by my hospital bed when I was diagnosed with terminal cancer in my past life flashing in my mind.
It seed that God had dealt Ariel’s family the sa hand of despair and pain.
When I got ho, my parents were waiting for . They’d seen the news about
My dad looked stern, "Eliana, you’d better explain what the hell is going on!"
"Eliana, what’s all this about?" My mom was slightly calr. She held my hand as we sat on the couch.
I tried my best to keep my cool and told them everything about the news.
They seed a bit relieved after hearing everything
The photos of and Joshua were taken after my divorce. There was nothing inappropriate about them.
The photos of dancing in the club were from a bar event. Lots of girls got up on stage that day. There was no inappropriate behavior.
Even though my parents believed , the gossiping public might not./
After consulting with a lawyer, I sent a cease and desist letter to the publisher and the website.
About a day later, the content was taken down, but I’m sure people had saved the photos.
I didn’t care. The fact that they took the post down was proof of their quilt.
My reputation was sowhat restored, which was good enough as long as it didn’t affect my parents too much.
Compared to , Ariel’s situation was a ss.
The university withdrew all its donations and revoked her enrollnt.
Those who once defended her, those who trusted her, all ca forward to say they’d been deceived, that they misjudged her.
Then sothing unexpected happened. Joshua stepped in
He originally wanted to help , but I’d already set my plan into motion.
After I exposed Ariel’s true colors, he, as her ex-boyfriend, released so screenshots.
When he first saw Ariel and Damon’s chat logs, he snapped so pics with his phone, which proved that it was Ariel who made the first move on Damon.
This was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Ariel’s reputation online took a nosedive in no ti, with netizens slapping a "ho wrecker" label on her.
Damon, of course. got a lot of flake for being a playboy, but with his history of scandals, netizens were pretty much used to it, so the criticism toward him wasn’t as intense.
The bumr was, Ariel had been in ICU these past few days, completely oblivious to the public reaction.
I honestly couldn’t care less about her situation. After giving a quick hello to Luna and others, I jetted off for a round-the-world trip.
The journey was expected to last three to four months. I planned to check out places I’ve always wanted to see, and make it back before Luna pops out the baby
Sofia initially wanted to tag along, but her little bro was about to pop the question, so she couldn’t take off just yet.
My first stop was the end of the world. I wanted to embrace the freedom and anticipation, soak up all sorts of views the world has to offer, and bid farewell to the past.
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