It was a vicious cycle. Annabelle Linton would always be at the top, utterly unshakable.

He just couldn’t find another woman.

Actually, it wasn’t that there weren’t any; it was because his heart had long ago run out of room for anyone but her.

Even when he hated her, was annoyed by her, and wanted to divorce her, he never once considered what kind of woman he would find to replace her.

Annabelle Linton was suitable, a perfect match, and he knew it.

But she had disappointed him too much. The only reason he wanted to divorce her was out of disappointment; he couldn’t spend a lifetime with someone like that.

She measured the women around her by her own standards, feeling that none of them could compare to her.

In reality, it was only now that he finally understood. It wasn’t that he hadn’t met the right person; it was that as long as she remained in his heart, he could never bring himself to love anyone else.

She had loved him for twenty years, and in truth, he had carried her in his heart for twenty years as well. It just manifested in a rather extreme way.

Helpless, he began to deliberately get closer to Vivian Yates, trying to force Annabelle to ask Grandpa for a divorce herself.

Because only if she personally told Grandpa she wanted a divorce would he agree.

Then, before he could force her to ask for the divorce, she was framed one last time by Vivian Yates. Her suicide attempt failed, and she changed completely.

She became cold, ruthless, like an imposter. And she didn’t love him anymore—she even wanted to divorce him!

Panic had already begun to slowly build inside him then. He had wanted the divorce, but after they started interacting again, he realized he didn’t want it at all. And then things turned out like this, with him sinking deeper and deeper...

So deep there was nowhere left to fall. Every day, his longing for her only made him miss her more; every day, his yearning only made it harder to let her go.

But he understood. There were more than twenty years of estrangement between them. He had hurt Annabelle Linton too deeply—so deeply that even he had no confidence she could ever forgive and forget. How could they possibly reconcile and be together?

Their relationship... to call it disappointment or misunderstanding was just a pretext. If he had ever trusted her, even a little, how could things have ever gotten this far?

But if she wouldn’t forgive him, it meant they couldn’t be together. And she wanted to be with another man—how could he bear that?

He couldn’t destroy her happiness, but he also couldn’t let her go. So his death was the best solution, wasn’t it?

Leona Grant slowly closed his eyes, waiting for death to come.

’Annabelle Linton, since I can’t be loved by you, I can’t stop you from finding happiness. But as long as I’m alive, I can’t just stand by and watch.’

’I’m not strong enough to witness your happiness with someone else. I only want your happiness to come from me. But since it can’t, why shouldn’t I be a little braver?’

’Anyway, if I live, I’ll just be trapped in my fantasies of you forever, making the same mistakes over and over again until I die.’

’And since I have to die sooner or later, isn’t it better to make it easier for everyone?’

’Annabelle Linton, I’m the one who wronged you. I made you suffer for so many years.’

’I’ll repay my debt to you with my death. From now on, no one will ever bother you again. You have to live well, okay?’

’You fool... no matter who you’re with, you have to be happy.’

’Remember, whether it was the past twenty years or the years to come, there was a man named Leona Grant who loved you.’

’He hurt you only because he thought you would never leave.’

’He hurt you also because he was afraid that if he got addicted to you, you would leave.’

’In the end, it all came true.’

’My dear Annabelle, if we meet in the next life, you have to fall in love with me just like you did in this one.’

’You have to remember, my bark is worse than my bite. A hug from you would have made everything okay. You have to forgive me.’