What a Farce

Chapter 7

Ansel stubbornly tried to keep me from leaving.

My senior classmates, who had been holding back their anger for so long, decided they’d had enough.

“You scumbag, get out of here!”

“Touch Stella again and I’ll damn well chop off your hand!”

One punch from my senior had Ansel stumbling backward.

Ansel‘ s gaze shifted to my senior and his eyes turned red with fury.

Like an enraged lion, he pointed at my senior and asked me,

“Is he the reason you ran away from the wedding? How far have things gone between you two?” “Are you really so determined to get revenge on me?”

I took a deep breath and replied calmly.

“Ansel, stop assuming everyone is as dirty and vile as you. The most important thing is that we‘ re already broken up!”

“I never agreed to that!”

“You dont need to agree. I’m just telling you the outcome.”

After taking a punch and being rejected, Ansel‘ s pride was hurt and he immediately lashed out at my senior.

“Stella is my wife! Stay away from her, you gigolo!”

He was like a ferocious beast guarding its territory.

I was shocked to see Ansel getting physical. My senior and classmates, as a couple, quickly teamed up

to subdue him.

Not wanting my friends to get into unnecessary trouble because of me, I intervened and pulled them back.

“Forget it, let’s go!”

Ansel spat out the blood from his mouth.

“Stella! How can you be so heartless? After twenty years of love, you just walk away like it means nothing! What do you take me for?”

His desperate shout made me wonder if he was possessed by a ghost.

He clearly didn’t think he was at fault.

He could run away with Elara, but I couldn’t escape.

Was it my absence that made his escape less thrilling, or was he simply unwilling to accept that I had played with his heart just once?

But he forgot that during the two years I was abroad, he had betrayed me for those same two years, playing with my heart over and over.

Time and again.

Every plane ticket was undeniable proof of his betrayal.

But I didn’t want to argue with him about who was right or wrong.

From the moment I decided to run away from the wedding, there was no room for reconciliation in this relationship.

“Ansel, people need to move forward. Just go!”

He clung to my pants, refusing to let go.

“Stella, no one is perfect. Can t you give me one more chance? I promise I’ll never deceive you again!”

Seeing me pause, he shakily got to his knees and pulled out a jewelry box from his pocket.

Inside was a diamond ring even larger and more dazzling than the one Elara was wearing. “Stella, will you marry me? Please?

His figure now resembled how he looked when proposing to Elara that day.

The memory of them locked in a passionate kiss and mocking me resurfaced vividly.

But at that moment, I felt little more than a dull ache.

The wounds had run too deep and the pain had come too suddenly; I had grown immune to it.

As I prepared to reject him, a shadowy figure burst from the darkness.

The figure snatched the ring from Ansel s hand and dashed away.

Ansel, stunned to see his engagement ring being stolen, grimaced in pain but immediately took off

after the thief.

My friends and I exchanged glances and headed home together.

The next day, I was contacted by the police.

I found out that Ansel had chased the thief through more than ten city blocks in a frantic attempt to recover the stolen ring.

After a grueling chase, the desperate thief pulled out a knife and stabbed Ansel, leaving him lying in a pool of blood.

Ansel, now pale and bloodless in his hospital bed, looked at me with eyes that still shone with an intense glow,

“Stella, you‘ re here!”

His voice was hoarse but filled with longing, as if he had finally seen the one he had been waiting for. I quickly shook off the chaotic thoughts racing through my mind.

“I’ve already notified Elara. She should be arriving at the hospital tonight to take care of you.”

“Stella, why did you call her? All I want is for you to stay with me! You don’t have to do

anything–just being here with me is enough to give me peace of mind!”

In that moment, Ansel‘ s selfishness and coldness were laid bare.

He sought reassurance, but just seeing him filled me with irritation and disgust.

My revulsion was evident on my face.”

“Stella, can you… still not forgive me?”

A glimmer of hope sparked in his eyes.

“No.

That spark of hope was instantly extinguished.

“I’ll sever ties with Elara right here, right now. I promise to love and protect you as I did before…” His voice trailed off, becoming barely audible.

The love and protection he spoke of had already cost me ten years of my youth. I couldn’t gamble another decade on whether he would love me as he once did. Especially now, he was no longer the hero who protected me in the darkness.

“Ansel, have some dignity. Don’t force me to regret ever loving you!”

“Stella, what do you want me to do to earn your forgiveness? Why are you being so heartless?” “Because I don’t love you anymore!”

Ansel, lying on the hospital bed, seemed to collapse in that moment.

He looked at me for a long time, his already pale face growing almost translucent.

He could see clearly that my eyes held no trace of affection for him anymore.

“Stella, we once loved each other so deeply. How did we end up like this?”

“It was all my fault for being so deluded and self–deceptive. I shouldn’t have sought excitement or trampled on your genuine feelings, causing you so much pain…”

“Stella, I regretted it… If the person kissing me under the aurora had been you, if the person watching penguins with me in Glaciara had been you, if the person accepting my proposal had been you, maybe… you wouldn’t have run away from the wedding?‘

I set down the fruit I had bought for him and turned to leave.

Life didn’t offer many “what ifs.

”

As the door closed behind me, I heard his guttural sobs, like a trapped beast.

I didn’t stop; I walked on toward the laboratory and the bright future that awaited me.

Later, Ansel and Elara’s relationship completely fell apart. He exposed the abuse and mistreatment

that Élara and her daughter had inflicted on me and my father, creating a scandal throughout the city. He hoped that hearing this would make me turn back and take another look at him.

But that was nothing more than his wishful thinking.