Chapter 448: Ghosts of the Past

Maine clutched a tissue in her trembling hand, her voice choked. “…Nora was such a fool. Gave her life for a man. So stupid…”

What followed was a muffled sob.

Yunice stood silently in the neighboring stall, listening.

She didn’t emerge until she heard the retreating footsteps of the two women.

At the sink, she washed her hands slowly, Maine’s words echoing in her mind.

So the woman she resembled–her predecessor–was named Nora. And most likely, her tragedy had everything to do with Wyatt.

And now that Nora couldn’t be saved, Wyatt, in his loneliness, had designed a replacement who looked like her: Yunice.

Yunice had seen this before. Many times, in fact, during her years at the hospital.

So many marriages, so many vows of eternal love… yet when death or illness came, how fast people changed.

She had watched men seek new partners while their wives were still clinging to life. Some remarried just weeks after the funeral.

People condemned it with their mouths, but accepted it with their silence. After all, the dead couldn’t protest.

No one could definitively say those men were wrong–they were, after all, just trying to keep on living. But it was undeniably cold.

To someone like Maine, Wyatt was that kind of man. She might resent him, but she couldn’t stop him. So all that anger was redirected at Yunice–as if by blaming her, she could paint Wyatt as a man lured away by an outsider.

Now it made sense why Song Xiaoxiao and Jiang Yuyang had treated her so harshly. They were probably close to Nora too–so in their eyes, Yunice was the woman who had taken Nora’s place.

Yunice shut off the faucet and looked into the mirror.

By the time she returned to the private room, most of the guests had already left.

Wyatt reached out, took her hand, and stood up.

On the ride home, he didn’t offer a single explanation.

And someone as smart as him–there was no way he didn’t know that Yunice had figured out the truth about his ex.

But clearly, he didn’t care to explain. Maybe he didn’t think it was worth addressing at all.

Yunice wasn’t the only one drinking tonight.

Elsewhere, Owen sat slouched at a bar, downing drink after drink. His cheeks were flushed red from the alcohol, and he was hugging a bottle to his chest, muttering in a haze.

“Lies…”

“It’s all lies!”

“There’s no way they’re not connected–this has to be fake…”

The bartender had been silently polishing glasses but had been glancing at him for a while. Finally, curiosity got the better of him.

“What’s fake?”

Owen lifted his head, eyes glassy. But slowly, they sharpened into something dangerous.

Then, all of a sudden, he lunged.

He grabbed the bartender by the neck, squeezing viciously. “Why did you lie?! What’s real, huh?! I don’t believe you! I don’t believe you didn’t touch Yunice! You’re just saying that to get back at me!”

Straddling the bar, he choked the man with both hands, his strength wild and erratic.

The bartender’s eyes rolled back as he clawed at Owen’s arms, desperate for air.

People in the bar started noticing. They stared.

Then someone pushed through the crowd, shouting, “Excuse me–let me through!”

Shoving her way forward, a woman finally reached the scene.

She took one look at the chaos and immediately jumped onto the bar, prying at Owen’s arms. “Let go! Let go of him!”

Owen, drunk and off-balance, had burned through his strength. With the combined effort of the bartender and the woman, he finally let go.

The woman helped drag him down from the bar while the bartender, red-faced and gasping, cursed through clenched teeth. “Is he insane?! What the hell is his problem?!”

Owen, still in a daze, looked at the woman supporting him and slurred, “Who the hell are you?! I’m calling the cops! You’re all under arrest!”

He jabbed at the red marks on his neck. “This is assault!”

The woman–Peggy–looped his arm around her neck. Up close, she could smell the sharp tang of liquor on his breath. Her throat moved subtly as she swallowed hard.

Then she glanced impatiently at the bartender. “You just want money, right? Fine. I’ll pay.”

She pulled out a thick stack of cash from her wallet and tossed it across the counter with a flick of her wrist. “Here. Take it.”

Bills fluttered through the air, falling like confetti, briefly silencing the bar’s noise.

Peggy dragged Owen through the stunned crowd and took him upstairs to get a room.

From the back of the room, Oscar watched it all unfold in silence. When the door upstairs finally clicked shut, he turned and left–his face grim.

Inside the room, Owen still had a shred of awareness left.

When Peggy pushed him onto the bed, he panted heavily and cracked his eyes open.

Through the haze of alcohol, he could barely make out her silhouette.

He raised a hand to stop her, voice hoarse. “Who… are you?”