Isabella had a lingering feeling that someone had been following her these past few days, though
she wasn’t sure if it was real.
When she told Nathaniel, he looked thoughtful. “I’ll handle it.”
He sent someone to trap Alexander in the underground garage that night.
“So it’s you? You deceived Isabella, told her she was your fiancée, and wasted all these years of her
life?”
Alexander sneered coldly. “Wasting? Isabella doesn’t see it as wasting. Nathaniel, you probably don’t know–Isabella loved me! Even when she finally left, it was out of jealousy from love. The one she loved most in her heart has always been me!”
“What does it matter that you are childhood sweethearts? All those years mean nothing compared to a few years I’ve spent with her!”
A bodyguard the Carter family struck Alexander’s leg with a baton, making him double over in
pain.
Nathaniel grabbed the baton and hit again.
Coldly, he looked at Alexander. “I’ll spare your life because you saved Isabella. But if you ever dare follow her again, next time it won’t just be a baton!”
After Nathaniel returned home that night, Isabella noticed and asked, “Your hand… it’s scraped. What happened?”
With that, she gently applied iodine to the wounds, her worry evident. “Be more careful next
time.”
Nathaniel looked at her with affection. “I will.”
The next day, Isabella went to the Carter Group to deliver lunch to her fiancé,
A few steps in, she received a flower from a stranger, who said, “Ms. Miller, happy anniversary.”
Confused, she accepted it.
A few steps later, another flower arrived, with the same message.
By the time she reached the company, she had received ten flowers.
The last one came from Alexander himself. Somehow, he had appeared from nowhere.
Chapter 9
60.00%
“Isabella, surprise!” he said.
“Today marks the fifth anniversary since we met. These eleven flowers represent my unwavering
devotion to you!”
Isabella frowned. “Why are you here?”
Alexander smiled ingratiatingly. “Isabella, you’ve been sulking for so long. It’s time to calm
down. I specially came to take you home.”
Home? Isabella laughed sarcastically. “Lying to me all these years wasn’t enough? The Hawke family isn’t my home. I’ll never go
back.”
Alexander’s expression faltered. “Isabella, I admit I deceived you about your identity, but my love
for you is real! My feelings for you are genuine!”
“Your so–called sincerity? Is that bringing Ivy home while we were married, sleeping with her, doing everything a married couple could do. Even when staying at a hotel, you made me sleep on a different floor while she stayed above or below me?”
“During the last three days before I left, you went on vacation to Vardal with Ivy. Every day she shared an update on Instagram and tagged just me, show off how affectionate you were, flaunting
the condoms you used!”
“Alexander, if this is your sincerity, it’s disgustingly cheap!”
After saying this, Isabella threw the flowers into the trash, her tone cold. “I already have a fiancé. Don’t come looking for me again.”
Alexander watched her leave, eyes burning with frustration and a dark, fierce anger.
Damn it. How dare Ivy!
How dare she provoke Isabella behind his back!
He immediately dialed a number back home. “Report everything Ivy has done these past few days. Also, suspend all business cooperation with the Thompson family immediately!”
After hanging up, he contacted several underworld associates, instructing them to kidnap Ivy.
He believed that if he punished Ivy severely and calmed Isabella down, she would forgive him.
She would come back to him.
She had to.
Chapter 9
60.00%
Nathaniel took Isabella to pick out her wedding dress that day.
Every dress she tried, Nathaniel’s eyes lit up more and more in awe. “Isabella, you’re absolutely stunning!”
His praise made Isabella shy. “If you say that about every dress, how am I supposed to choose
one?”
“Buy them all,” Nathaniel said. “Wear whichever one you want on the day of our wedding.”
Isabella touched the soft fabric of the dresses, tears welling in her eyes. Though she had been married before, she had never worn a wedding gown.
Alexander had told her at the time that the Hawke Group was in crisis and under scrutiny, so the
wedding had to be low–key.
Not just the dress, but even the banquet had only a few tables.
She later realized that Alexander’s real reason was to avoid Ivy’s jealousy.
All these years, she had made compromises for Ivy, repeatedly sacrificing herself, only to have
Ivy’s interference escalate.
Now, she no longer had to endure it.
She finally had someone who truly loved her, willing to spend lavishly on her wedding dress.
She finally understood what it felt like to be loved.
As she walked out with the wedding gown carefully packed, a stranger suddenly burst into the shop, wielding a water gun.
The pristine white dress was soaked with stains.
Isabella’s face drained of color, and before she could fully react, the wedding gown had been completely destroyed.
Chapter 9
