Sebastian didn't say a word, his gaze fixed on her with silent intensity.
Panicked, Janetta began weaving wild accusations out of thin air.
"It's obvious her marriage to Julian is fake! How could the Campbell family ever accept someone like her?" Her voice quivered with a practiced, tearful pitch.
She stepped closer, reaching out to grasp his hand again.
"Don't let her fool you, Sebastian. You know exactly what she's doing with that name and that face!" The more she spoke, the more convinced she became of her own lies.
"Even Julian only wants her because she looks like your late wife! She planned this whole thing just to get close to you."
"And honestly, the resemblance is uncanny. You see it too, don't you? That's the only reason you care so much about her!"
She stared at him, playing the role of the tragic, misunderstood victim to perfection.
A flicker of something dark and cold passed through his lowered eyes.
But he concealed it flawlessly.
He couldn't deny that she had struck a nerve.
It was true; he was drawn to Helena entirely because of the shared name and identical face.
Combined with Julian's sudden interference, it had ignited a dangerous obsession within him.
For years, he had lived like a monk, utterly detached from desire.
He had women around him, but if one looked closely enough, they all possessed a fleeting shadow of his late wife.
If asked why, he couldn't formulate an answer, as if he was desperately trying to patch the hollow void of his own regret.
But he was never going to confess any of that to Janetta. She didn't deserve to know.
Seeing his prolonged silence, Janetta's anxiety spiked into sheer panic.
Without thinking, she tilted her head up and dug her manicured nails tighter into his palm.
"Are you still thinking about her?" The 'her' she referred to was the ghost that haunted their marriage.



VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: He Never Loved Me Until the Day I Finally Left Him