Faded love 33

Chapter 33 

The word was so hoarse it was almost lost-yet it seemed to tear free from the deepest part of his sleep, from the marrow of his regret. 

Wendy lowered her eyes and brushed her fingertips over the scar at his temple. 

He’d gotten it years ago, trying to save Fang Qingqing. 

The skin was rough, still cool with an unhealed chill. 

For a moment she had the illusion that he was no longer the lofty Rory, but only a man with fate’s hand at his throat, gnawed raw by remorse. 

But she did not soften. 

She rose and drew out a transfer agreement from the bedside table-already signed. His signature and seal were sharp and precise. 

All foreign subsidiaries of the Duan Group were to be transferred to “Thalia.” 

Thalia-her new name. 

He would never know that Wendy, “buried at sea” in the staged accident, had never truly left. 

She had changed name and face and walked back from the far side of the water. 

She had seen him a thousand times in dreams; and every morning after, she told herself she would make him taste the flavor of loss. 

“Wendy…” he murmured again, breath light as a sigh. 

Wendy’s fingers stilled. A hard smile curled her mouth. 

“The Wendy in your dreams died long ago.” 

She picked up the phone and sent a message: 

[Begin.] 

Two hours later, the headlines detonated: 

“Chairman of Duan Group Suspected of Enormous Financial Fraud; Partner Freezes Accounts.” 

At that moment Wendy stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, a pale gray coat on her shoulders, her gaze cool. 

She watched the wind skate over the city, tossing paper and leaves. 

In the sound of it, she heard her own heartbeat- 

the sound of being alive. 

Late night. 

Faded love, I don’t want it anymore 

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11:45 Sat, Oct 18 M 

Rory was shaken from sleep by his assistant; sweat slicked his brow. 

“Rory! Something’s happened! 

The offshore accounts are drained; we can’t suppress the news-” 

He lurched upright, voice raw. “Find out who!” 

“It’s… the new director at Shen Corp.” 

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The assistant swallowed. “She just issued a statement-she’s officially taken over your overseas division.” 

“Thalia?” 

The name emptied his mind. 

Why did it sound… 

familiar? 

“Rory, have you met me before?” the assistant blurted. “I… I look a bit like Mrs. Gu.” 

“Nonsense!” he snapped- 

but a spike of pain in his chest nearly stopped his breath. 

He stumbled into the bathroom and washed his face again and again in cold water. 

The man in the mirror looked ravaged- 

three years of sleepless nights pooled beneath his eyes. 

After the accident, he had kept vigil by that sea for three full years. 

Three years of refusing remarriage, refusing parties, refusing any woman near. 

He had bought the island where she’d “gone down,” and planted it with white osmanthus-so that every season of wind, the air would be her favorite scent. 

And now, the woman with her same brows and eyes was unmaking him piece by piece. 

A week later, the board meeting. 

Thalia entered in a black dress, heels clicking. 

Each step was calm, quiet- 

and made everyone hold their breath. 

Rory saw her for the first time with his own eyes. 

Her hair was darker than the Wendy he remembered, her gaze colder. 

But that face, those lines, that breath, the curve of that faint smile- 

he had called them in his dreams a thousand times. 

“Wendy?” 

Chapter 33 

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… 

: 

The room erupted. 

Thalia’s mouth tilted, a slight, cool smile. 

“Rory, you’ve mistaken me for someone else.” 

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