Chapter 676:

There was no excuse left to give.

“Ah!” Vivian’s scream sliced through the air, her face wild with panic. The caregiver kept her distance, unwilling to risk getting too close.

“Millie!” Vivian’s voice dripped with venom, her eyes blazing with hate.

While the scandal burned through every headline, Brandon drove alone down the quiet roads of Crobert.

On the surface, his face held the same calm it had for days, but the way his hands strangled the steering wheel told a different story.

In Brandon’s mind, the moment he and Vivian had cornered Millie into selling her song played again and again like a curse he couldn’t shake.

She had made it clear she didn’t want to part with it.

He had been the one to force the deal through.

Now, with the truth about Vivian’s actions laid bare and the knowledge of Millie’s illness weighing on him, every detail from that day came back sharper, crueler.

And the song…

The car lurched as Brandon slammed on the brakes.

All the reasons Vivian had given back then now felt like blades twisting inside him.

The melody’s love-struck longing and the ache of despair in its notes cut straight through his chest. A flush of red blurred his vision.

Brandon’s fingers, trembling, locked even tighter around the wheel. Every part of it, the humiliation, the pain, the damage, had been his doing. The blame sat squarely on him.

Brandon had always believed he was the one who truly loved Millie and the one determined to protect her from harm. Yet the bitter truth was that he had ended up being the person who hurt her the most.

Leaning forward until his forehead rested against the steering wheel, he felt as if the air had been ripped from his lungs, leaving him gasping in a suffocating void.

His heart ached with a deep, splitting pain. The only thing he could see was Millie’s face, damp with tears and twisted in sorrow.

𝓟𝓾𝓫𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓱𝓮𝓭 𝓗𝓮𝓻𝓮: 𝓰⍶𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀⧼ⅽ𝗈𝗺⧽

How could he fix this?

What was left for him to do?

Elsewhere, Millie sat with Charles, Myron, and a few others, sharing a late-night meal of sizzling grilled skewers that filled the air with a smoky aroma. The heat of summer was eased by a gentle evening breeze, and bottles of cold beer clinked as they laughed and drank together.

Charles had been anticipating this celebration for quite some time, and Seville had been just as eager. Alexia and Sheridan sat nearby, speaking quietly to each other, absorbed in their own conversation.

Lifting his beer bottle, Giffard gave Millie a nod before saying, “I’ll be in Flaville this Sunday. There’s a seminar that will go on for a few days, and after that, I’ll finally have some time to myself.”

Millie met his toast with a warm grin, the gentle tap of their glasses offering quiet appreciation.

“I appreciate it, Giffard,” Millie remarked, taking a generous drink.

Giffard drank as well, then placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder before his eyes shifted toward Myron, seated beside her.

Busy peeling shrimp for Ari, Myron seemed to pick up on the unspoken cue and glanced up to meet Giffard’s gaze.

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