Part 2No Breeze Crosses for the Loveless One

His voice was still light, still laced with that mocking amusement.

But I heard the warning underneath.

“The kid is at an age where looks are everything,” Finn said. “If you mess up that pretty face of hers, you’ll be the one who has to deal with the consequences. Why make things harder on yourself?”

His tone was casual, but his grip on my wrist tightened, forcing me to let the girl go.

“Let’s just say the kid was being impulsive tonight and overstepped,” he continued, his gaze shifting to me, his eyes hardening. “But if there’s a next time, darling… my patience has its limits.”

I watched as he gathered the sobbing girl into his arms, murmuring comforting words.

“It’s okay.”

“Shh, you’re okay.”

She clung to him, her tears soaking his shirt. He lifted her into his arms as if she weighed nothing and turned to leave. But I called out to him.

“Finn.”

He didn’t stop. I ran after him, blocking his path.

“If you really like her,” I said, my eyes on the girl’s tear-streaked face, “then you should make it official.”

I leaned in and whispered in her ear, my voice a soft poison. “It’s not me who won’t step aside.”

“It’s your dear Finn who refuses to let me go and make room for you. If you’re really so special,” I said, my voice dropping, “then you get him to agree. Just like he did for me, all those years ago. You make him bring you into the Thorne family.”

The girl’s body went rigid. Her expression changed. She looked up at Finn, her eyes wide and uncertain.

Finn sighed, a long, weary sound, and gently set her down. He walked over to me.

“Chloe.”

His voice was cold. “Don’t regret this.”

He took the divorce papers from my hand and signed his name on the dotted line. Then he turned back to the girl, his voice soft again.

“Happy now?”

Tears of joy streamed down her face. She threw her arms around him, but her eyes were on me, a silent, triumphant challenge.

She had won.

I didn’t look at either of them. The enormous weight that had been crushing my chest for so long had finally lifted.

I couldn’t name the feeling.

I just sat in the empty villa, watching as the movers carefully packed up every trace of me. My phone buzzed.

It was a video from Finn’s new fiancée.

In the video, Finn was on one knee, kissing her hand, his expression as reverent as if he were holding the most precious treasure in the world.

“Lily,” he was saying. “My love for you isn’t just words.”

“You wanted a grand gesture, a promise. I’m willing to give you all of it. So,” he said, pulling out a diamond the size of a pigeon’s egg and slipping it onto her finger, “are you happy now?”

Lily was crying and laughing at the same time. She sent me a text.

[Chloe, everyone talks about how much Finn loved you. How he defied his entire family just to marry you. How he knelt in the family shrine for seven days without food or water, even endured the family punishment, just to get them to agree.]

[And your mother, the one who’s barely hanging on? The only reason she’s still alive is because Finn hired the best team of specialists in the country for her.]

[But here’s something you don’t know.]

She sent another video.

[It’s not what you think.]

The video was dark, filmed in the private club Finn always went to. I recognized the faces of the men with him.

I heard someone ask, “Finn, what’s the deal with you and Chloe? This has gotten messy.”

Finn sat in the middle of the group, toying with his wedding ring. The man continued.

“Chloe’s been running around town with at least five different pretty boys. Aren’t you worried she’ll catch something? That she’s… dirty?”

“She’s out of control. And you’re just going to let it happen?”