Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Rupture
Melody Donovan stood up, her excitement making the chair behind her creak loudly. Everyone turned to look at her. She fought to control her racing heart and turbulent emotions, preparing to bolt.
But then, she saw a woman who had appeared behind him at some point. Her long hair flowed freely. Though she wasn’t wearing the heavy makeup from that day, Melody Donovan recognized her—Sary!
Bitterness surged in her heart, which nearly stopped beating. All her earlier excitement and agitation transformed into sorrow. Her trembling hands gripped the back of her chair as tears fell without warning. ’I don’t want to cry, but...’ In the end, she had been wrong after all. Wrong not to have listened back then. She should have never gotten involved with him.
Dominic Thorne whipped his head around to look at the seats by the window. He had just felt an intense, burning gaze fixed on him, but when he turned, he saw no one. ’Maybe I’m just being paranoid,’ he thought.
"Dominic, let’s eat here. It looks nice," Sary said, shaking a dazed Dominic Thorne.
"Mm, alright!"
As the two of them entered the restaurant, Dominic Thorne could feel a suffocating atmosphere, one that pierced him as deeply as her words had that day.
In the restaurant’s restroom, Melody Donovan stifled her sobs, crying silently. So many years of affection had still come to nothing in the end. She had actually thought she might be special to Dominic Thorne, but reality proved she was no different from all the other women flocking around him—just a passing fancy.
’Maybe if I look at it from another angle, the outcome will feel completely different. If we had really gotten together, he would have just torn me to pieces and tossed me aside in the end. Isn’t it better to get out now, before I fall in too deep?’
Her tears had nearly run dry, and her sore eyes felt uncomfortable. Only then did Melody Donovan push open the stall door. Facing the mirror, she applied a thick layer of powder and heavy makeup to hide the tear stains and her almond-shaped eyes. She coated her chapped lips with bright red lipstick, putting on her full armor. Even if she was heartbroken, she didn’t want the world’s pity. A woman only puts on such a disguise when there’s no man to cherish her, not wanting anyone to see her weakness.
After ordering, Dominic Thorne and Sary also chose a table by the window. On the table next to them, there was still some food, but the seat was empty.
"Excuse me, is someone sitting here?" Dominic Thorne asked a passing waiter.
"A young lady was. I think she went to the restroom," the waiter replied with a smile and a bow.
"Oh, I see." Dominic Thorne picked up the coffee cup from the table and took a sip, his gaze distant. Sary had actually noticed his distraction from outside. She figured there must be something—or someone—he cared about in this restaurant, which was why she had suggested they eat here.
"Dominic, is something strange here?" Sary snatched the coffee cup from his hand and placed it in front of him. "This coffee is scalding. How can you even drink it?"
Hearing her words, Dominic Thorne tried to touch the side of the cup and flinched, pulling his hand back in pain. It was indeed scalding hot, yet just a moment ago, he hadn’t noticed at all. He had even taken a sip without feeling a thing.
"I have a feeling that someone connected to me is in here, watching me. This feeling of being stared at is a little creepy." Dominic Thorne’s dead-serious expression was a stark contrast to his usual demeanor, but somehow, even when he was being serious, he still came off as slightly ridiculous.
"Young Master Thorne, is your narcissism terminal? Do you really think the whole world is gazing at you with admiration?" Sary chuckled softly.
Melody Donovan came out of the restroom. She pulled her hair forward as much as possible, keeping her head down as she walked over to retrieve the khaki scarf from her seat. She quickly wrapped the scarf around her neck, hiding most of her face before she felt safe enough to leave the restaurant.
As she passed the table in front of hers, a strong arm suddenly shot out and grabbed her, stopping her in her tracks. Melody Donovan instinctively spun around, ready to curse out whoever had grabbed her, but the moment she turned, she abandoned the thought.
’Why is he here? I kept my head down the whole time, so I didn’t even notice him. And with... that woman.’
Sary’s expression was one of surprise. Though she had heard that Dominic Thorne was a notorious womanizer, she didn’t think he’d resort to such forceful tactics the moment he saw someone he liked. Besides, she had never seen this woman before.
Seeing it was him, Melody Donovan quickly shook off his hand. She pulled her scarf up higher, leaving only her eyes visible, and without a second thought, turned to run. She didn’t want any more of his deception or hurt.
"Stop." Dominic Thorne chased after her. He had hesitated when she first appeared. That kind of heavy, garish makeup wasn’t her style. Usually, she wore light makeup or none at all. But this version of her... he had never seen it before. She was a stranger.
Outside the restaurant, Dominic Thorne grabbed hold of Melody Donovan.
"Is there something you want?" Melody Donovan asked coldly, one hand holding her scarf in place, her back turned to him.
Dominic Thorne froze. Her back radiated a chill, and her entire posture screamed a clear warning to stay away.
"Melody Donovan, explain yourself. I know it was you watching me just now. Why tell me to stay away from you if you’re just going to stare at me?" Dominic Thorne was growing impatient, and his voice was inevitably a little too loud. Melody Donovan flinched but still didn’t turn to face him.
"I wasn’t. That’s just your wishful thinking. I wasn’t looking at you. It’s getting late, I should go home. My boyfriend is waiting for me!" Melody Donovan’s heart was bleeding. ’That’s not true, I don’t have a boyfriend! Why did I say that?’ she berated herself, but the words had already left her mouth.
"Stop lying. Since when do you have a boyfriend?" Dominic Thorne wasn’t angered by her words; instead, he refuted her with complete certainty.
Melody Donovan spun around and violently threw off his hand. She took two steps back, putting a considerable distance between them.
"Can you please stop pretending you know me so well and feigning concern for my life? You don’t know me at all! You saw him at your restaurant last time. He came looking for me afterward, and we rekindled our old flame. Is that not allowed? Do I need to report every detail of my life to you?" The strained, hoarse words felt like her heart was tearing apart, but this was the path she had chosen. She had to walk it, even if it meant crying the whole way.
Dominic Thorne stared at his hand, left hanging in the air. An eternity seemed to pass before he slowly pulled it back and shoved it into his pocket.
Without warning, the dim yellow lamp overhead went out. Backlit, Dominic Thorne couldn’t see the tears that were now streaming uncontrollably down Melody Donovan’s cheeks.
"Is that so? Then what were we? You tell me," Dominic Thorne said, his gaze unfocused as he looked in her direction.
"It was nothing but a dream. For both of us. Why take it seriously?" Melody Donovan fought back a sob, her heart twisting as if being cut by a knife.
"Heh." Dominic Thorne actually let out a laugh. He was only mocking himself, mocking his own naivety. Sary walked over. Even if she didn’t know the exact nature of their relationship, after seeing that scene, she could guess that it was something out of the ordinary.
"By the way, this is my girlfriend, Sary. You’ve met."
Sary jumped. Dominic Thorne had suddenly wrapped an arm around her shoulder with surprising force and introduced her as his girlfriend.
Melody Donovan extended her right hand. "Hello. We didn’t get a chance to greet each other properly last time."
Sary then remembered. She seemed to recall seeing her at the jewelry exhibition, but at the time, she wasn’t wearing such heavy makeup. She hadn’t recognized her at first.
"Hello, I’m Sary." Sary offered her trademark smile, but there was a hint of hostility in her eyes as she extended her hand.
Melody Donovan could clearly feel the resentful jealousy radiating from the other woman, and the way her hand tightened its grip. Melody Donovan looked up at Sary. ’Women truly are creatures skilled at hiding their true feelings.’
Looking into those bright, charming eyes, no one could ever guess what she was thinking.
Melody Donovan averted her gaze, not looking at Dominic Thorne again. Instead, she smiled at Sary. "I have to go. I won’t disturb you two any longer." With that, Melody Donovan turned and walked toward the other side of the street without a backward glance.
Her desolate figure was heartbreaking to watch. Dominic Thorne instinctively moved to chase after her, but a grip on his arm held him back.
"Don’t go. I could see the disappointment in her eyes. I don’t know what happened between you two, but maybe she’s not right for you. Don’t bother her anymore. Trust me, I’m a woman too." ’Yes, she was a woman,’ Sary thought. ’That’s how she knew. She knew how much reluctance, how much deep love was behind the expression on that woman’s face.’
Dominic Thorne looked at her in surprise. Without a word, he silently removed his arm from her shoulder and walked back into the restaurant alone.
’Do you only realize how important someone is after you’ve lost them? At least, he’d never felt this sense of loss before, never this helplessness. He truly didn’t know what to do. If she really has a boyfriend now, then what does that make him?’
Melody Donovan walked along the road for a long time, the high heels on her feet rubbing them until they were almost numb. The streetlights cast an impersonal, twilight-yellow glow, as if mocking her predicament.
Her eyes were vacant, devoid of life. ’It’s time for this to end. It’s time to let go. Why keep deceiving myself?’
Perhaps she needed someone’s comfort, or perhaps she yearned for the warmth she couldn’t get from Dominic Thorne. On some strange impulse, Melody Donovan found herself walking all the way to her old family home. She had moved out after turning eighteen and rarely came back to stay.
The old house was a vintage-style Euras-ian villa. The reason was that her mother had grown up in Euras, and her father had built it so his wife would feel at home. Melody Donovan smiled faintly. ’Father loves Mother so much. Why can’t I find a man like that?’
Melody Donovan opened the door and stepped into the foyer. A pair of leather shoes that didn’t belong to her father was there. They looked like a limited-edition model and were polished to a brilliant shine, indicating that their owner was a person of meticulous taste.
Hearing a noise in the foyer, a maid hurried out. "Miss, you’re back! The madam and sir have been talking about you every day!"
