Chapter 2
Serena arrived home just as evening settled in.
She lingered at the front door for almost half an hour, unable to make herself go inside, even with Jacob just sitting there on the sofa in the living room.
She simply didn't know how to face him. Not after everything. Not after all the lies.
Just as she finally summoned the courage to step inside, she froze.
A familiar figure rushed toward the villa—Jacob's friend, Ben Preston. He looked urgent.
Serena held her breath and instinctively slipped out of view, hiding herself away.
Ben looked confused as he put his hand on Jacob's shoulder.
"Hey, Jacob. My girlfriend and I saw you today. At the hospital. With a woman. Who was that?" Ben blurted out.
"And I'm pretty sure it was Cecilia. I thought you two were over." Ben pressed.
Back then, the whole circle had talked about Jacob and Cecilia. Their story was hardly a secret.
To prove his loyalty, Jacob had even had Cecilia transferred out of the company.
Jacob went quiet for a moment, then walked over to the window, staring out at the city lights.
"She's pregnant," he said quietly.
Ben practically shouted in disbelief.
"Wait, pregnant? Yours?" Ben demanded.
Jacob didn't deny it. He just repeated that same cold excuse. "It was your birthday. I got wasted and thought she was Serena."
Hearing that, Serena felt like someone had reached into her chest and squeezed her heart.
She thought Jacob was just so shameless and dishonest.
Every time. Every single time, it was the same excuse—drunk and mistaking someone else for her. As if that made it okay.
Ben's tone grew more urgent as he grabbed Jacob's arm, looking like he was about to pull him aside.
"So what are you waiting for? Before Serena finds out, you need to make sure Cecilia ends it. We all know how much you love Serena." Ben pressed.
Jacob shook off Ben's hand and lit up a cigarette, and the smoke blurred his sharp profile, making him look distant and unreadable.
His voice drifted through the haze, ruthlessly calm.
"Cecilia's still young. An abortion would mess up her health. I'll let her have the baby," Jacob said.
"Serena hasn't been able to conceive all these years anyway. When the baby's born, we'll just take it and raise it as our own," he added.
Serena understood each word, but strung together, they sounded foreign—terrifying, even. It was like listening to a man she'd never met.
His words hit her so hard that it felt like her heart was being crushed, and she could barely breathe.
Even Ben couldn't believe what he was hearing. His voice shot up in shock.
"With Serena's pride, if she ever finds out you've got a kid with another woman behind her back, do you really think she'll stay?" Ben blurted out.
Jacob stubbed out his cigarette, then absently traced the wedding band on his left ring finger—the one Serena had slipped on him herself.
His tone was calm, but carried a selfish, unshakable certainty.
He sounded so sure, so shameless. "She'll never find out. No matter what, Serena is still the one I love most.
"As long as you keep quiet, she and I can go on just as we always have."
When Jacob snapped at Ben, Serena's throat closed up. She was too choked up to say a word.
Her heart ached so badly that it felt like breaking, and tears streamed down her face, falling like shattered beads.
Just that afternoon, Jacob had sent her a tender, longing text.
It read: [Just got out of a meeting. Couldn't focus at all. All I could think about was your smile. Serena, I miss you.]
Just thinking about it made Serena's stomach twist painfully. She couldn't take it anymore and burst out of the villa, desperate to escape.
When she finally reached somewhere no one could see her, her whole body trembled with the effort to hold herself together. She pulled out her phone.
Her fingers felt stiff, heavy with disappointment as she dialed the number. Each movement was weighed down by the crushing weight of Jacob's betrayal.
"Hello, I need you to erase all my records. Wipe my identity completely," Serena said, her voice flat and emotionless.
She was going to vanish from Jacob's world for good.