Chapter 4The Depths of Time

Before my wedding, I met my best friend for dinner. While on my way to the restroom, I unexpectedly ran into Seraphina. She looked nothing like her previous self. She wore exquisite makeup and Dior’s classic little black dress, slender and alluring. A thin ladies’ cigarette dangled from her vibrant lips.

“Miss Sterling, you’ve heard, haven’t you?” Seraphina looked at me, a provocative smile on her face. “Ethan Vance is getting engaged to me.”

I looked at her, suddenly recalling her pure, shy demeanor when I first met her. For some reason, a wave of melancholy washed over me.

“Yes, I heard.”

Seraphina’s smile deepened. “Miss Sterling, are you very jealous?”

“I heard you lost three of his children. All these years, you’ve done everything low and shameless just to keep him, to marry him.” She leaned against the window sill, her eyes alight with disdain and contempt.

I looked at her coolly. “Miss Hayes, you just said yourself, you ‘heard.’ We’re both women; there’s no need to spread such vile rumors, is there?”

Seraphina instantly scoffed. “It’s spread throughout the Capital City; how is it a vile rumor?”

I didn't want to waste my breath on her and turned to leave. But Seraphina suddenly said, in a strangely snide tone, “Miss Sterling, girls are not all the same. You have no self-respect. Didn’t your mother teach you anything before she passed away?”

My steps halted abruptly. Hearing the word ‘mother,’ a surge of hot blood rushed to my head. I didn’t have time to think, couldn’t be rational. I spun around and slapped her.

“Miss Sterling…” Seraphina froze for a moment, then immediately covered her face and began to cry pitifully. “I know it hurts you that Ethan and I are getting engaged, but you can’t just hit people…”

“I understand you’re angry, but you can’t force feelings.”

“Ethan doesn’t like a woman as… loose as you. It’s not my fault…”

She sobbed, whimpering, sounding aggrieved and pathetic, but every word she uttered felt like a knife twisting in my heart.

“I know your mother died young, and you had no one to guide you, Miss Sterling. I won’t pursue this matter… this time…”

I gritted my teeth until my jaw ached, raising my hand to slap her again. But my arm was viciously seized by Ethan.

“Elara Sterling, apologize to Seraphina.”

“I won’t apologize.” I stood rigid, my back straight, my face pale, my lips colorless. But my eyes were bloodshot, shining with a dangerous intensity.