No Sex for Six Years Because of Her? I'm Done novel Chapter 485

Chapter 485 Cigarette Butts and Confessions

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Finished

When Derek laid eyes on the cold casket at the center of the memorial hall and the portrait of Fiona resting before it, the grief he’d been faking seemed to bleed into something almost real.

After all, that was the woman who had brought him into this world and raised him.

“Mom!” He let out a gut–wrenching wail, stumbling forward and throwing himself over the casket, sobbing uncontrollably. “I failed you! Mom, please, open your eyes and look at me!”

His cries echoed through the hall, and several relatives tried to pull him away but couldn’t budge him.

Ethan, however, watched the entire display with nothing but cold detachment.

Just then, Grace walked over and came to a stop beside Ethan.

She stared at Derek, draped over the casket in his one–man show, her face carved from ice, and spoke without a shred of warmth.

“Save it.

“Derek, who exactly are you crying for? When you came storming in here for that woman and your bastard son and gave Mom a heart attack that put her in the hospital, did you ever once think it would end like this?

“Now she’s gone, and you come here bawling your eyes out. What, you want everyone to see what a devoted son you are? Well, I’ve got news for you–it’s too late. Fiona is watching from above, and the last thing she wants to see is that two–faced act of yours.”

Grace said out loud what every single person in that room had been thinking but was too polite to voice.

Derek was struck speechless. In the end, all he could do was cry louder to cover the guilt and the shame.

Amelia watched the spectacle unfold in silence, feeling nothing but bone–deep exhaustion.

In families like these, love crumbled to dust the moment it brushed up against money and power, leaving nothing but wreckage behind.

She glanced at Ethan’s rigid profile, then let her gaze drift to Nolan–who had been invisible from the moment he walked in, shrinking into a corner like a ghost no one acknowledged.

And she suddenly felt grateful that none of this was her problem anymore.

Amelia had assumed that Derek, with his talent for making trouble out of thin air, would seize the opportunity now that he’d gotten through the door. She expected him to cause a full–blown scene and squeeze out every advantage he could before calling it quits.

But to everyone’s surprise, he didn’t.

After his earth–shaking display of grief, it was as if every drop of energy had drained out of him. Or

10:15 pm P XD.

Chapter 485 Cigarette Butts and Confessions

Finished

perhaps Grace’s ruthless dressing–down had finally shaken loose whatever scraps of shame he had left.

He lay slumped against the cold casket, his shoulders heaving silently for a long time. Whether those tears held any genuine sorrow or were purely born of guilt, no one could say.

Finally, with Nolan’s help, he rose to his feet, trembling and unsteady. He stepped back, smoothed down his already disheveled suit, and then, facing Fiona’s portrait with absolute solemnity, bowed deeply three

times.

When he was done, he didn’t say another word. Supported by Nolan, he turned in silence and walked

away.

The quiet was almost eerie–a stark contrast to the loud, aggressive man who had forced his way in just minutes ago.

But just as he was about to reach the door and disappear from sight, Derek suddenly stopped. He turned his head slowly, and his gaze traveled over the crowd with unsettling precision until it landed squarely on Amelia.

There was something in that look–something Amelia couldn’t read.

Her brow furrowed, and an inexplicable unease crept up from somewhere deep inside her.

But the look lasted only a few seconds before Nolan guided Derek out of the hall.

Amelia shook it off almost immediately.

Derek was technically her former father–in–law, but in all the years she’d been married to Ethan, the number of times they’d actually come face to face could be counted on one hand. She couldn’t think of a single reason he’d have for giving her a look like that.

She was probably just overthinking it.

After the spectacle died down, the atmosphere inside the memorial hall grew even heavier.

The Rowe elders, sensing there was nothing left to linger for, made their excuses and left one by one.

That evening, after dinner, Amelia wandered outside alone.

She needed a moment to herself to process the chaos of the day.

The night breeze was cool and carried the damp, earthy scent of the garden, washing away some of the stale heaviness of candle smoke from the memorial.

She circled the main house, planning to cut through the garden along one of the smaller paths.

But the moment she stepped onto the cobblestone walkway, a solitary figure appeared in her line of sight without warning.

Under the wisteria arbor not far ahead, Ethan stood alone, a cigarette pinched between his fingers, pale smoke drifting from his lips and dissolving into the night breeze.

10:15 pm P 200

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