Chapter 8

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed when a piercing siren sliced through the air. Finally, Alice was rescued. After having her wounds briefly treated at the hospital, she refused the recommendation to be admitted and returned alone to the castle. This was the place Camden had personally designed and overseen, just to bring a smile to her face. Yet, in the mere two months since Elena had arrived, traces of her life were already everywhere. The walk-in closet and the music room that once belonged to Alice were now cluttered with miscellaneous items. Even the set of wooden carvings she had crafted for Camden lay tossed haphazardly on the floor. So much for him vowing with red-rimmed eyes that he would cherish them for a lifetime. Alice gazed out at the pitch-black night sky and let out a bleak, broken laugh. A full day and night had passed, yet Camden was still by Elena's side. With a nonchalant smile, she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and placed three items into the mailbox at the castle gate. The first was a lab report on the scented powder from the bouquet Elena had given her just yesterday. All Camden had to do was open it, and he would discover that the frenzy of the tiger and the black wolf that night hadn't been an accident at all. Instead, it had been orchestrated. The bouquet had been laced with an overwhelming amount of a potent compound designed to provoke madness. The second item was her recent medical report from the hospital, which indicated she had suffered a miscarriage. It happened when he chose to save Elena, when he stood by as the icy sea swallowed Alice, and when he allowed her to endure 99 lashes for Elena's sake. That was the second time he had indirectly taken their child's life because of her. The third item was the broken diamond ring. It was the ring Camden had personally traveled to Ombara to select and polish when he proposed to her five years ago. He had polished it over 13 million times, a process that took half a year. Such a pure, unwavering love had once captivated all of Gearwin. Camden was the one who had cherished Alice above all else. He was the one who, at their wedding, vowed to love her for eternity. Yet, it was also he who, for Elena's sake, let Alice's blindness go untreated. He who, for Elena's so-called atonement animal show, cast Alice into irrevocable danger. The man who watched helplessly as Alice endured ten rounds of dunking and 99 lashes was also him. It turned out that this fiery, passionate love had long been extinguished by Gearwin's endless rainy seasons, reduced to little more than ashes. For five years, no matter how angry they were at each other, Alice had never once taken off the ring. Now, at last, it was time to return it to Camden. The roar of the helicopter blades echoed from above. Alice squinted up at the sky. A familiar figure was propping his head on one hand as he gazed down at her. "Alice, aren't you coming?" She stood still for a moment, then suddenly smiled and asked, "Got a lighter, Nick?" Nick whistled and tossed down a box of matches. "I only have these." Alice nodded. "It's more than enough." She walked slowly toward the castle, all the while enduring the pain in her body. Their love had blossomed here, yet it had withered and turned to ashes in the relentless cycle of deception and betrayal. She struck a match and threw it inside. With a roaring surge, flames instantly engulfed the entire castle. What was once a warm and comforting home now resembled a hellish prison devouring everything in its path. "Goodbye," Alice whispered, then turned without hesitation and boarded the helicopter. The engine roared to life, and her clothes fluttered fiercely in the dark wind as the aircraft soared toward the distant shore across the ocean. At that very moment, having just learned of Alice's rescue, Camden was frantically driving back. On the ground and in the air, two paths stretched in opposite directions, never to meet again.