## Chapter 16
Belle Knight’s debts caught up with her, and she vanished while trying to escape her relentless pursuers.
When Weston heard this, he felt nothing–if anything, he was relieved.
He often dreamed of Celeste, so much so that the man who barely needed sleep now craved it.
Awake, he drank himself senseless, as it was the only way to SCE her.
Celeste had married someone else.
Her new husband wasn’t wealthy or particularly striking just an ordinary man.
It was that simplicity that drove Weston to the edge.
He had lost a woman who once loved him with all her heart.
Ethan a
and Lillian were flower bearers at the wedding, and it was clear that the new man adored them.
Weston went to the ceremony, originally planning to interrupt it, but stopped when he saw her in her wedding dress.
She looked breathtakingly beautiful.
He regretted never seeing her in the dress she’d worn for him on their wedding day.
Her new husband gazed at her with love, and Celeste’s smile mirrored his.
To prevent Weston from disrupting the event, Celeste even approached him with a polite toast and words of gratitude.
Was he content?
Not in the slightest
He wanted to rush up and stab the man in the chest, to reclaim Celeste as his own.
That dark fantasy nearly shredded his last grip on sanity
But he didn’t move, knowing that would break her heart.
He wanted her to be happy
Even if it meant his own brment.
<
He wanted her to be happy.
Even if it meant his own forment.
Weston never remarried. He was alone for the rest of his life, no woman ever crossing his path again,
He continued to secretly watch over Celeste throughout the years.
Selfishly, he wished for her unhappiness, so he might have a chance to take her back.
This obsession lasted decades.
One day, old and gray, Weston saw Celeste and her husband walking hand–in–hand with their grandchild through a street strewn with fallen leaves.
Her husband gently brushed a leaf from her shoulder, and Celeste laughed,
She looked just as she had that summer day, when Weston first saw her standing by her Portrait of a Countryside Girl.
She had smiled at him, timid and warm.
His heart had jumped then, though he hadn’t known that was love.
He had simply told her, “You’re as beautiful as these works of art.”
As they passed by Celeste didn’t recognize him
She walked on, laughing and talking with her husband
Weston, covered in the dust of time, felt his world spin until he crumpled to the ground
