When the call connected, I expected concern, but instead, his voice came through, sharp and impatient. "Stop calling me all the time. You are an adult. Can't you solve your own problems?"
His words struck me like a punch to the gut, my breath catching as though I were drowning. I tried to speak, each word feeling like a struggle. "Sylus, I... I feel really uncomfortable. Can you…."
Before I could finish, a soft voice interrupted from the background.
"Lily, do not bother him anymore," the woman’s voice, unmistakably Charlotte's, chimed in. "He has been taking care of me all day, and he is already tired. As his current wife, you should understand him, okay?"
The call ended with a click, cutting off the last shred of hope I had clung to. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over me, freezing me in place.
Of course, how could I have forgotten? Sylus had never loved me from the beginning. I had been a substitute for Charlotte all along, a mere shadow in their story.
With trembling hands, I called Julius, the one person in the manor I could still rely on.
I never knew when it started, but I had always been independent, ever since my parents died.