*Chapter 14: The Quiet Punishment*
That night, the penthouse carried the weight of unspoken battles. Zhao Liang claimed the master bedroom, leaving Li Xue to retreat into the smaller guest room. It wasn't an order, not spoken aloud — but it was a message she understood all too well.
She lay on the narrow bed, staring at the ceiling. Every creak of the floorboards outside made her body tense. His footsteps echoed in measured intervals, steady, deliberate. It was as though he wanted her to know he was there, yet unreachable.
Sleep refused to come. Instead, memories clawed at her — the Zhao Liang who once held her hand beneath the stars, who had whispered dreams of a shared tomorrow. The contrast between that man and the stranger walking the halls outside was unbearable.
When dawn finally broke, she rose to find the master bedroom door ajar. The bed inside was perfectly made, untouched. Her breath caught. He hadn't even slept there.
No note, no explanation — only the lingering scent of his cologne, sharp and intoxicating, taunting her with the reminder that she was bound not to a man, but to his ghost.
She pressed a hand against the doorframe, her chest hollow. How much longer can I survive like this?
The silence offered no answer, only the cruel echo of her own loneliness.