What a Farce

Chapter 6

Ansel was so flustered that his words were incoherent.

“Stella, it’s not like that. Please, come back. If you come back, I’ll explain everything.”

What did he want to explain?

Did he expect me to explain to the guests that I shouldn’t have fled the wedding?

That I shouldn’t have let Elara, who looked more stunning than the bride in her bridesmaid dress, become a laughingstock?

When he wanted to start a business from scratch, I filed patents for my research under his name. When he lacked funds, I gave him my father’s inheritance to help him out.

When he finally became successful, I wanted to get married, but he told me to wait.

I continued my rigorous studies and successfully earned a PhD from Lunaria, all to support my beloved country Solaria when the time came.

He said he was too busy to visit me in Lunaria, so I traveled across great distances to see him. But what did he do?

Just 100 kilometers away, he was with Elara, indulging in affection.

He took her to all the places he had promised to show me.

He made her steadfast promises.

Yet, he had once prayed before Buddha that we would be together for all eternity.

Now, at this point, his first reaction was to beg me to come back.

How insignificant must I seem to him if he believes I’m just a dog that he can call or dismiss at will? “Stella, I know these things have hurt you, but I was just joking with Elara. I would never let her actually steal the wedding!”

“You must be in so much pain right now. Just tell me where you are and I’ll come pick you up and bring you home, okay?”

I couldn’t help but laugh derisively.

“Ansel, stop kidding yourself.”

He just couldn’t accept that I had chosen to leave this relationship first.

“Stella, I’m not lying to you. Where are you? If you don‘ t tell me, I’ll dig through the earth to find you and bring you back for the wedding! In this lifetime, I won’t marry anyone but you!“,

“I’ll personally set up the proposal scene and propose to you. I’ll have a custom pigeon‘, s egg made

for you, accompany you for destination wedding photos, give you the dream wedding you‘ ve always wanted and take you to see the Northern Lights…

When he mentioned marriage, his voice even cracked with emotion.

After ten years of being in love, it was only after I had completely lost hope that he wanted to fulfill his promise of marriage.

But I no longer needed it.

I couldn t spend my life with a man who didn‘ t love me.

I couldn’t accept that he had fallen for Elara, the person I loathed most and had deceived me countless times.

He always knew exactly what I wanted.

But he never fulfilled any of it.

After too many empty promises, no one believes them anymore.

“Ansel, thank you for the time you spent with me, but we re done. Clinging on now is just pathetic. It was wrong of me to hold onto you and now that I’m letting go, I wish you happiness.‘

“Stella, I’ll find you, apologize and beg for your forgiveness! Please wait for me!”

His persistence only left me indifferent.

“Elara suits you well. Cherish her!”

“We don’t need to see each other again, or stay in touch.”

I ended the call and blocked him.

After being kept in the dark for two years, I was done being the fool who followed in his footsteps.

The new day began with my advisor, senior classmates and me diving into our research.

We were so engrossed in the lab that we forgot to eat and sleep, feeling incredibly fulfilled.

In the past, I would occasionally slack off due to missing Ansel, leading to my advisor‘ s reprimands. Now, fully immersed in my experiments, my classmates began to worry about me.

“Stella, don’t overwork yourself like this. You‘ re stealing our spotlight and the professor might think we’re not making progress!”

Seeing the concerned faces of my senior classmates warmed my heart.

The people who truly care for me wouldn’t want to see me exhaust myself.

Unfortunately, over the past two years, Ansel knew how hard I worked just to see him, yet he remained indifferent and treated me like a puppet.

After another fulfilling day, I walked home with my senior classmates under the streetlights.

To my surprise, I ran into Ansel downstairs.

When I first saw him, I thought I must have mistaken him for someone else.

In just half a month, he had lost so much weight he was barely recognizable.

I nudged my senior and tried to slip past him and head upstairs.

But he immediately spotted me from behind.

“Stella!”

kept walking, but he rushed up to me.

As soon as he saw my face, his gaunt features lit up with a look of regained hope.

He held out a bouquet of vibrant red roses, his eyes filled with deep emotion.

“Stella, I was wrong. Please, come back home with me.”

I brushed aside the bouquet of roses he was holding and reminded him with a blank expression.

“If you keep pursuing me like this, Elara will be heartbroken! Besides, we’ve already broken If you keep clinging on, you’ll just embarrass yourself!”

Ansel wasn‘ t angered by my coldness; instead, he patiently tried to soothe me up.

“Stella, listen to me. I was momentarily misguided and agreed to play along with Elara’s ridiculous game.”

When I first came to Lunaria, it was to find you. But right after I landed, I had an accident and it was

Elara who stayed by my side for half a month.”

“I didn’t want to make you worry or upset you by knowing I was getting close to her, so I kept it from you.”

“Later, I got drunk and mistook her for you. I was too ashamed to face you, so I went back home.” “But I never imagined that it was Elara’s first time and she ended up pregnant because of that night…” “I feel sorry for her and want to make it right, especially since she had an abortion for me. I need to take responsibility…”

No matter how smoothly he spun his clumsy lies, I wasn’t buying it anymore.

If he was truly drunk, he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did.

If he wasn‘ t drunk, then there’s no way he could have mistaken someone for me.

As long as I didn’t present evidence, he would always think he could deceive me.

He was just using my love for him to play with my genuine feelings.

“Stella, didn’t you say that no matter what mistakes I made, as long as I admitted them and changed, you would wait for me? I realize now that I was wrong. I promise I’ll never have any more

involvement with Elara. Can you give me a chance to start over?”

I had indeed said that.

But this was far from admitting a mistake and making amends.

He wasn’t acknowledging his fault because he genuinely regretted it; he was only doing so because he realized he might lose me forever.

The man I once admired and loved like a hero turned out to be so despicable beneath his façade. In the end, it was me who had been blind, failing to see his true nature even after ten years.