My Love Burns for Anyone Worth It novel Chapter 21

**Vows Became Blame by Mark Twain**

**Chapter 21**

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Belle’s voice sliced through the chilly air, calm yet piercing. “If you hadn’t intervened and stopped me from reporting it back then, if you hadn’t taken my design just to win over your precious beloved, would I even be standing here, waiting for you to take responsibility?”

Each syllable she uttered struck like a hammer, leaving both Sebastian and Ronald flushed and utterly speechless, their mouths agape as if they had forgotten how to form words.

“Utopia and Juville are quite far apart,” she declared, locking her gaze onto theirs one last time, a mixture of disappointment and resolve in her eyes. “Gentlemen, I sincerely hope this is the last moment we share.”

With that, she pivoted on her heel, ready to walk away, but after just a few steps, Ronald’s voice echoed behind her, tinged with desperation.

“I’m sorry, Bella. I spoke without thinking earlier. But we both know we were in the wrong. Are you really going to be this cold? Won’t you at least give us a chance to make amends?”

His voice wavered, betraying the vulnerability he felt, a tremor that hinted at the weight of his regret.

The silence that followed was thick and suffocating, stretching out like the cold winter air around them until Sebastian finally broke it. “And you promised you would tell us your final choice.”

Bella turned slowly, her heart heavy as she faced them again. The two figures stood stubbornly in the swirling snow, looking lost and forlorn against the stark white backdrop, a scene that suddenly flooded her mind with memories of their first encounter.

It had been a day much like this—cold, crisp, and filled with the promise of snow. She could almost see her three-year-old self, led by the housekeeper, trailing behind her preoccupied parents. In a moment of distraction, while the housekeeper scolded a maid, Bella had peered through the slats of a fence, her curiosity piqued by the sight of Sebastian and Ronald playing joyfully in the neighboring yard, their laughter ringing out like music.

The boys had noticed her watching, their faces lighting up with friendly smiles as they waved her over. “Do you want to come play with us?” they had called out, their voices filled with warmth and invitation.

From that moment on, they had grown up together—same kindergarten, same schools, year after year, their lives intertwined like the branches of a tree.

But everything began to shift when Tessa entered the picture during their freshman year of high school.

Looking back now, Bella couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when her friends had begun to harbor feelings for Tessa, nor could she understand how that innocent fondness had morphed into something so intense, so reckless, that they would abandon a fifteen-year friendship in a desperate bid for her affection.

It hadn’t snowed in Utopia for what felt like ages, yet here they stood once more, facing each other amidst the falling flakes. This time, there was no fence to separate them, yet the barriers of their past loomed larger than ever, an insurmountable divide.

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