Chapter 10
11
Trevor worked fast.
In just a month, Caroline started getting into big trouble.
First, she was found copying a song. Then, stories about how she bullied. her peers in high school and college came out.
What happened next was probably a surprise even to Trevor.
During those seven years abroad, Caroline wasn’t studying music at all. She was the mistress of a rich man.
When his wife found out, Caroline got beaten up and had internal bleeding. She had to give back all the money she got from him and then slinked back to America.
Later, she got sent to jail for tax evasion she couldn’t pay back.
Coincidentally, she ended up in the same cell as someone she used to bully.
That person, driven to psychological extremes by the bullying, was in prison for being a serial killer.
Trevor didn’t hold back at all, just like he did to me back in the day.
***
Three months later, I got back to America.
Trevor came in full dress, with bodyguards and top media around.
He loudly said he’d woo me.
In the car. Trevor cleared his throat to break the silence. “You guys broke. up? I told you before, those young ones are just messing around. They don’t take relationships seriously.”
When I didn’t say anything, he continued, “Vanessa, if you’re up for it,
we…”
“Sorry.” I began seriously,
“I can’t get over him.”
I turned around, dazedly ran my hand along his face, and gave a sad smile. “Your eyes look like his, but you’ve got single eyelids.”
I dropped my hand and covered my face.
“I can’t forget his charming eyes.”
Trevor was silent for a long time.
The next day, as I was about to slit my wrist in a fit of passion, Trevor burst in. actually crying.
He begged me, worried and upset, “Don’t do this. If you kill yourself for him, where does that leave me? What am I supposed to do?”
Then he disappeared for a whole month. When I saw him again, he had got double eyelids done.
He held my wrist and gently touched the cut, looking like a student waiting for a teacher to grade his paper, with pain in his eyes. “Do I look more like him now?
“You can pretend I’m him, but don’t try to kill yourself again, okay?”
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Seeing him in pain, I felt a weird sense of satisfaction.
So that was how it worked.
It felt so good to treat someone like a stand–in, mess with their feelings, watch them fall head over heels for me completely, and not even dare to ask for a promise from me.
My lips twitched as I tried hard to hold back a wild grin.
***
“Hmph, old man. No way he can look like me, no matter how much surgery he gets.”
After Trevor left, Zachery walked out of the bedroom. His usually intense eyes got soft when he looked at me. “We’re about to get married. Aren’t you done messing with him yet?”
I patted his head and said apologetically, “Wait a bit longer. I’ll come to you tonight.”
“Trevor, you haven’t felt enough pain,” I thought to myself.
From then on, I saw Trevor as a stand–in.
At his birthday party, I “accidentally” called him by the wrong name and embarrassed him in front of everyone.
But he forced a smile and said, “It’s okay. I know you need time to get over it.”
Once, I called him in the middle of the night, freaking out from a nightmare and calling out Zachery’s name.
He was so drunk but still ran a dozen red lights to bring me a strawberry
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Chapter 10
cake, the kind Zachery had given me.
When he got into that car crash, he was bleeding everywhere but still held onto the cake.
So, when he got the groom’s suit, he was so happy that he bolted upright in his hospital bed. wincing in pain but still flashing a big grin.
***
It was a lavish wedding.
I walked down the aisle in my custom dress, heading straight for the guy who couldn’t take his eyes off me.
Outside, Trevor, looking terribly thin, rushed over in a suit that didn’t fit. him.
The bodyguards stopped him.
People around him sneered, “Who’s this joker? Mr. Fowler is getting married. Some nobody from the entertainment world thinks he can crash the party?”
That was when Trevor realized that even this suit wasn’t meant for him.
In the past, Vanessa was totally into him.
But now he didn’t even deserve a name.
