After Stella Sterling left, Clearstone Law Firm seemed to be enveloped in a strange low pressure.
Jasper Hawthorne tried to numb himself with work, but his efficiency was unprecedentedly low.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to drag his attention back to the computer screen, yet involuntarily got up and walked into the open work area outside.
Stella’s desk was already empty.
As clean as if no one had ever sat there for five years.
A cleaning lady was pushing a cleaning cart over, starting to empty the trash bins beside each workstation.
When she got to Stella’s spot, she habitually poured the contents of the small bin into the big trash bag.
Jasper Hawthorne’s gaze swept over unintentionally, and his whole body suddenly froze —
Amidst that pile of waste paper and snack wrappers, a few items stood out.
A faded movie ticket stub...
A custom bookmark engraved with the name ’Stesper’...
A fruit candy melted and deformed, stuck to its wrapper...
And...
Many similar little trinkets.
Bits and pieces, yet they were all Stella’s ’treasures’.
And these things...
Jasper had faint impressions of some and no impression of others at all.
But now, without exception, Stella had thrown them away like trash!
Wasn’t she supposed to keep them preciously?
Just like before...
Hadn’t she hidden that candy for years?!
Jasper’s chest felt heavy, more turbulent than ever before, as if something had completely slipped from his control.
"Stop!" he suddenly yelled, startling the cleaning lady.
A few steps later, Jasper rushed over, uncaring about the dirt and his image, and started digging through that bag of trash with his bare hands!
"A-Attorney Hawthorne?" The cleaning lady was stunned.
Jude Kensington heard the commotion and rushed over, also taken aback by the scene, "Old Hawthorne, what are you doing?!"
Jasper acted as if he didn’t hear, stubbornly searching, picking out each stained little item and clenching them in his palm.
The sticky feel of the candy, the cold edge of the bookmark, the rough texture of the ticket stub...
Each item seemed to mock his previous certainties.
She wasn’t just throwing a tantrum.
She really... didn’t want them anymore.
Along with these ’trashes’ that carried snippets of the past five years, all discarded.
"Phone..." Jasper suddenly looked up, his face paler and more frantic than ever, he turned to Jude, "Where’s my phone?"
Jude quickly handed over his phone.
Jasper dialed Stella’s number.
"Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try again later..."
The cold automated response echoed repeatedly.
He hung up and dialed again.
Still unreachable.
He could no longer care about anything else, grabbing his car keys and rushing out.
"Old Hawthorne! Where are you going?! There’s still a client this afternoon..." Jude shouted from behind, but Jasper’s figure had already disappeared at the elevator.
...
Screeching through the streets, he couldn’t even remember how many red lights he ran.
His mind had only one thought — find her!
He had to find her immediately!
The car screeched to a halt below Stella’s apartment building, and he practically crashed out of the door, rushing into the elevator, frantically pounding on Stella’s apartment door.
"Stella! Open the door! Stella!" His voice carried a desperation even he didn’t notice.
After pounding for ages, there was no response from inside.
Just as Jasper’s heart began to sink a notch, the door lock clicked open from the inside.
Jasper’s heart almost leaped to his throat, only to freeze instantly upon seeing the person before him—
The door was opened by a stranger, a man with an apron and a spatula.
The man looked about thirty, with a kind face, staring at him in confusion.
"Who are you looking for?" The man asked.
Jasper’s mind went blank, all his blood seemed to rush to his head!
In Stella’s house...
Why was there a man?! With an apron on?! Looking like he lived here?!
A ridiculous yet infuriating thought burst forth — she found someone else so soon?!
So her leaving so decisively was because she already had someone lined up?!
Overwhelming fury and a sense of betrayal instantly devoured all of Jasper’s rationality!
His prideful composure and self-control crumbled completely in that moment!
"Where’s Stella?!" Jasper grabbed the man’s collar, words forced out through gritted teeth.
The man was startled, trying to pull away, "Hey, who are you? What are you doing?! Let go!"
"I asked you, where’s Stella?!" Jasper completely lost it, throwing a punch!
He had trained in taekwondo and mixed martial arts. The force of his blow was not something an ordinary man could withstand.
Unprepared, the man staggered back, hitting the doorframe, blood appearing at the corner of his mouth, and the spatula clattered to the ground.
"Are you crazy?! What gives you the right to hit someone?!" The man also snapped, wiping the blood from his mouth, raising a fist to retaliate.
At that moment, a woman in a matching apron rushed out from the kitchen, screaming in fright at the scene, then hurried over to protect her husband, shooting an angry glare at Jasper, "Who are you?! What gives you the right to hit my husband?! I... I already called the police!"
Jasper’s raised fist halted abruptly in mid-air.
Husband?
He stared with bloodshot eyes at the strangers in matching aprons before him, then looked around — the living room furniture had changed, the sofa covers were a different color, unfamiliar children’s shoes sat by the entryway...
This place... bore no trace of Stella’s life anymore.
A terrifying thought slowly surfaced.
"Where... where is the previous tenant?" Jasper’s voice was dry and hoarse, with a barely detectable tremor.
The woman, both scared and angry, rapidly replied, "The previous owner? She sold the place to us! We just did the handover yesterday! Who are you? If you don’t leave, I’m really calling the police!"
Sold...
She sold the house...
She not only threw away everything related to him, quit her job, but also sold the house holding five years of memories!
She wanted to erase every trace!
To vanish completely from his world!
Jasper felt as if all strength drained from him, stumbling back, hitting the cold wall.
A piercing unfamiliar pain radiated from his heart, almost making it impossible to breathe.
For the first time, his usually expressionless face showed uncontrollable collapse and... panic.
The police soon arrived.
Jude also followed closely, mediating, taking notes, apologizing, handling all the formalities tirelessly.
But the always triumphant Attorney Hawthorne of Kenton, who’d never tasted defeat, looked like a soulless puppet, silent.
It wasn’t until both parties were ready to leave the scene that the couple reluctantly stepped forward.
Jude thought they were being difficult and quickly approached, "You..."
But before he could speak, the woman handed over a bag, annoyed, "This... I found this while cleaning the room, it should belong to your friend. I can’t contact her now, so can you pass it on to her?"
The inconspicuous plastic bag was shoved into Jasper’s hands, light and without weight.
Almost instinctively, he looked down at the bag’s contents, and his eyes instantly turned dark and a little terrifying...