Chapter 944 - 492: Cruel Wedding Photo (Part 2)

"Don’t worry about me, Beckett. Please tell me the truth, thank you." Avery Jane’s lips curled into a bleak smile, her eyes filled with confusion and sadness, along with the resentment of being deceived.

The aroma of hot coffee filled the café, the soft yellow light above cast on her face as the gentle man spoke of her lost past. Bit by bit, her sorrow grew like a rapidly climbing vine, wrapping around her from the feet up, entwining and enveloping her completely, cutting her off from sunlight, warmth, freedom — from everything. She felt so cold, almost to the point of fainting. Avery picked up the steaming coffee from the table, gripping it tightly with both hands, sipping it slowly, but the fragrant coffee tasted as bitter as medicine, numbing her tongue.

She remembered the first time she met Joshua Hughes; it was when she woke up in the hospital. She asked him if he was her husband, and he froze for a moment before answering yes. She recalled that besides the photo on their marriage certificate, they had no other pictures together. She remembered many things, though small and fragmented, strung together they seemed to constitute a fact: Joshua Hughes was not really her husband; he had deceived her, and she, like a fool, had lived with him for so long. Ridiculous, their nightly intimacy, yet the man she shared such moments with was not her husband. She thought of everyone in the company talking about the woman living in the old Hughes Clan house, she thought of Donna, and the young girl at the club...

What kind of man was he really? Avery suddenly realized she had fallen for a man she completely didn’t know or understand.

"Why did I go to shoot the advertisement?" Avery spoke in a low voice, her throat pained as if slashed by a knife.

Outside the café was a bustling corridor, girls joyfully swinging bags of various sizes as they flitted between brands, their faces sunny and cheerful. Was she like this before too? What was she actually like before?

"You told me that you needed a sum of money because all the sponsors of Mr. Yates’ laboratory withdrew after his death. You wanted to help him fulfill that wish." Beckett looked at Avery’s calm demeanor with increased concern; he would have preferred if she cried hysterically or smashed the place instead of being this calm. Sometimes too much calmness isn’t good; her expression was as still as water, while everything around seemed to move, except her, as if time had stopped on her, her face bearing endless desolation.

Beckett couldn’t see her expression as she bowed her head, her long eyelashes covering her eyes, her body frozen like a tiny, frozen animal, motionless, exuding loneliness and helplessness. How pathetic it is for a person not to recognize themselves.

Thinking back now, Joshua Hughes’ deep affection, gentleness, and tenderness all seemed laughable to her. What was he doing all this for? She was not his wife, wasn’t, and the pain in Avery’s heart surged like waves.

"I want to see his laboratory, do you know where it is?" Avery lifted her head, her eyes dim, her lips nearly turning an ashen blue.

"Do you remember Nora Thompson? You’d have to ask her about the laboratory matters because she helped you arrange it after. She’s your good friend." Beckett thought of Nora as a wise woman, more suited than himself to recount Avery’s past. Besides, they were good friends, better at comforting her. Looking at Avery’s current state, he wished he could take on everything for her, but he couldn’t. In this situation, she could only rely on her own strength to get through it all.

Nora Thompson? They really knew each other. Avery thought of that delicate girl she met in Sydney. She truly was her friend; the people she doubted did not deceive her, while the person she strove to believe was a complete fraud from beginning to end. Joshua Hughes, you’re the most terrifying liar in this world, letting me live in lies. How could you do this to me?

He nearly isolated her life into a vacuum, putting her into a sterile cabin, filtering out anything or anyone that might jog her memory of the past with utmost thoroughness. Yet it seemed fate had its way, when, on a whim, she went to Sydney, where among so many people, she happened upon Nora Thompson. The timing was perfect, if she’d been earlier, they hadn’t arrived yet, if later, they’d gone upstairs. Within those ten minutes, she met Nora. It all seemed destined, no matter how he prevented it, he couldn’t avoid it.

The clock on the wall had unwittingly turned two revolutions, the time had come, but should she go back? Should she return to that deceiver?

In the bar, two strikingly handsome men sat by the counter, ignoring the smoldering gazes of admiration from all the women present.

Joshua Hughes seemed distracted, his heart irregularly leaping a few times that evening, feeling something was amiss, though he couldn’t pinpoint it. He picked up the phone, dialed, confirming if she was done shopping. Forget it, better to pick her up himself, that would put his mind at ease.

The phone beeped, beeped, beeped........