After the Affair: Falling into a Billionaire's Arms Chapter 82

Louisa walked out of the kitchen with a glass of water, looking distracted. The glass slipped from her hand, shattering on the floor.

Water and glass shards splashed everywhere, but she didn't react. She just stared blankly at the broken pieces.

After a long moment, she finally crouched down and began slowly picking up the fragments. A shard cut her finger, but instead of dropping it, she clutched it tightly in her fist. Bright red blood seeped through her fingers, staining her delicate hand.

Yet her face wore a strange smile—not one of pain, but of relief, as if the physical pain was somehow soothing.

Was this what Sadie meant? That Louisa had developed depression? Was she using physical pain to mask her emotional suffering?

George pressed on through the footage, his chest tightening.

In other clips, he saw Louisa sitting on the sofa late at night, silent and vacant. Eating dinner quietly, only to throw everything up afterward. Wandering around the living room in the middle of the night. Pouring handfuls of pills from a bottle and swallowing them all.

Most of the time, her face remained expressionless.

Until one day, she looked at a message on her phone, stared at it for a long while, and then suddenly broke down. She hurled her phone against the wall and collapsed onto the sofa, sobbing uncontrollably.

In that moment, George felt like his insides were being torn apart. His wife had fallen into depression under the same roof, and he hadn't even noticed? How completely had he ignored her?

After a while in the footage, Sadie and Flora appeared. They were shocked to see Louisa in such a state, holding her, comforting her, and cursing him. 

In later videos, they appeared frequently. Louisa never cried again. She returned to her usual composed self, as if nothing had happened.

Then came the day she tricked him into signing the divorce papers. It was her birthday.

She bought a cake, sat cross-legged on the living room floor, and ate it bite by bite without throwing up. She seemed calm, serene. Then her phone rang. She picked it up.

This time, from the camera angle, he could see her screen. It was Vivian's social media post—a photo of him and Vivian kissing under the northern lights, their hands forming a heart.

Louisa looked at it, calmly put down her phone, and smiled faintly. After midnight, she cleaned up and he came home. 

She presented him with the contract to sign, smiling the whole time, just like countless times before when she'd given him contracts for work.

Vivian had texted him, and distracted, he signed without thinking. Afterward, he was so busy texting Vivian that he barely spoke to Louisa.

She stopped him to ask, "George, do you remember what day it is?"

He couldn't even recall it was her birthday, telling her they could talk about it tomorrow. But tomorrow wouldn't be her birthday anymore. She didn't say anything else, just smiled at him.

That smile pierced George to his core. How had she managed to smile like that?

If he hadn't seen her self-harm, if he hadn't witnessed her breakdown, he might have thought she didn't love him at all. 

But after experiencing all her pain, he'd seen her smile. What kind of heartbreak must someone endure to smile as if nothing was wrong?

With trembling hands, he clicked "play next video."

The Louisa in later videos never lost control again. She packed up all her jewelry and bags, calling movers to take them away. She took their wedding photos to the garden and burned them. He had been present both times.

But what had he been doing? George's eyes flickered to his own image in the footage.

There he was, engrossed in flirting with Vivian on his phone, wearing a carefree smile. Occasionally he'd glance up at Louisa with an impatient, confused expression, as if her actions were merely annoying.

How could he have been so cruel to her? In that moment, he suddenly felt that the person in the video was a stranger—a stranger who frightened him.

He couldn't bear to think about it, yet he couldn't stop himself from watching the footage again and again.

After the third viewing, Louisa's calm voice echoed in his ears: "George, do you remember what day it is?"

The question repeated until he finally understood—this had been his last chance.

If he had hugged her then. If he had remembered her birthday. If he had told her she was the only one he loved and begged for forgiveness—would she have stayed?

But he had missed that chance.

In the end, only two images remained in his mind: Louisa standing at the door, watching all her boxes being taken away, her expression sorrowful. And Louisa in the garden, looking up at the sky as their wedding photos turned to ashes, her gaze resolute.

He hadn't understood then, but now he did. She had been saying goodbye.

Goodbye to her past self. Goodbye to their love. Goodbye to the man he used to be—each time more final than the last.

He collapsed onto the sofa, closing his eyes in agony. Had he lost her forever? No. He refused to accept that.

He sat up and dialed a number, his voice unnaturally calm, "Jared, buy back all of Louisa's jewelry and bags she sold. Get the rings too. And have the wedding photos recreated—same pictures, same size, same frames—and hang them back in their original places."

Jared was silent. He wanted to say that even if all those things were bought back, they wouldn't carry the same meaning. 

The wedding photos, once burned to ashes, would only be replicas. All the sentiment those items once held had been worn away, replaced by Louisa's pain.

But even through the phone, he could sense his boss's deep remorse. He couldn't bring himself to say it. Finally, he answered, "Yes, I understand."

---

George stubbornly believed that if everything was returned to its place, they could go back to how things were. What he didn't realize was that after everything Louisa had been through, she had already moved on.

Now, work was all she focused on. Everyone had left the office, but she hadn't even noticed. When she finally looked up from her project files, she realized it was already 9:30 PM.

She quickly gathered her things and prepared to leave. As she walked out, she suddenly bumped into someone.

Looking up, she saw Julian with Teddy standing behind him.

Before she could ask what they were doing in the investment department, all the lights in the office suddenly went out.

The unexpected darkness made her cry out in fear. Instinctively, she jumped toward Julian, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.