The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 126

The old man would always look at her with eyes full of hope, recounting stories of Gideon's childhood, desperately trying to close the distance between them.

Back then, because of Silas's laughter, the manor still retained some semblance of human warmth.

After Silas passed away, the estate effectively transformed into the exclusive kingdom of Gideon and Giselle.

Coupled with Giselle's blatant hostility and constant scheming, the moment Nora appeared, Giselle would inevitably manufacture a crisis. If she wasn't shattering antique vases and blaming Nora, she was crying about how cruelly Nora had spoken to her.

And the one getting reprimanded was always Nora.

To spare herself the humiliation, Nora treated the manor as an absolute forbidden zone, avoiding it at all costs.

Black and white photographs lined the walls of the corridor, documenting generations of the Hayes family history. Nora slowed her pace, her gaze drifting over the frames.

Halfway down the hall, she stopped in front of a massive family portrait.

In the photo, Silas Hayes sat dead center, a commanding smile on his face. A teenage Gideon stood to the old man's right, his posture ramrod straight, his eyes already radiating a cold, calculating maturity far beyond his years.

And standing right next to Gideon was a pre-teen Giselle. Wearing a beautiful lace dress, she was intimately clinging to Gideon's arm, smiling radiantly.

Nora stared at the three people in the photograph. They were the real family. Blood, gratitude, and undeniable favoritism bound them tightly together, forming a closed loop that an outsider could never hope to penetrate.

Nora pulled her gaze away and pushed open a glass door at the end of the corridor.

It led out to a sweeping terrace. The night breeze hit her face, carrying a biting chill.

On the right side of the terrace sat an exquisitely crafted, white-lacquered swing. The thick ropes were wrapped in expensive faux vines and blooming velvet roses.

Beside the swing sat a European-style carved wooden table, scattered with the latest foreign fashion magazines and a rhinestone-encrusted glass jar filled with imported candies.

The moonlight spilled mercilessly over the dead rose branches, stretching her shadow into a long, fractured silhouette on the ground.

This house was truly too empty.

Gideon's parents were gone, and Silas was gone. Leaving Gideon all alone, carrying the crushing weight of an empire, growing up in utter isolation within this colossal fortress.

This manor had trapped Gideon, and it had once trapped her too.

Nora turned around and walked back up the dark red carpeted stairs to the second floor.

The upstairs corridor was dead quiet, the walls lined with priceless Western oil paintings.

The room at the very end of the hall was Gideon's childhood bedroom.