Always Sylvie

2

I whipped my head around to look at her.

"Did you deliberately set this up, calling me here just to humiliate me?"

Fiona Sterling covered her mouth and laughed, but her eyes landed on Joel Alastair, a meaningful smile on her face.

A bitter feeling welled up inside me. I finally understood.

With Joel Alastair's current status, how could Fiona Sterling dare to do something like this unless he allowed it?

I looked at Joel Alastair with a bitter smile, my voice hoarse and dry.

"Joel Alastair, do you really hate me this much?"

Even though we had our disagreements, the way I treated him back then was genuinely good.

Did he really have to be so ruthless?

The expression on Joel Alastair's devilishly handsome face was dark as he stared at me for a long moment.

Then, the corner of his lip curled into a cold smirk, his eyes hiding a bone-deep hatred.

"Hate you? Sylvia Sterling, you'll never know how much I hate you!"

I stared into his eyes, and in a daze, I heard his words transform—

Sylvia Sterling, you'll never know how much I love you!

'Where there is love, there is hate.'

The next moment, I wanted to laugh at myself for my own wishful thinking.

'Joel Alastair only has hatred for me. Where would there be any love?'

I searched my memory. In all these years, I had never done anything to wrong him.

"Joel Alastair, you can't do this to me."

After all the changes I'd been through over the years, I thought I was strong enough.

But the moment I spoke, a sob catching in my voice, I realized I could still feel wronged.

"Joel Alastair, how could you do this to me?"

I stared straight at Joel Alastair, fighting back tears.

In that instant, I saw Joel Alastair's pupils contract. He reached a hand out to me, his expression softening for a fraction of a second.

But in the next, he clenched his fist tightly and pulled his hand back.

"Sylvia Sterling, do you still think you're the Sterling Family's eldest daughter, the Pearl of the Capital Circle?"

"Look at you now. What part of you is worth a second glance? Why shouldn't I treat you like this?"

As his words fell, the entire room erupted in loud, mocking laughter.

Everyone was pointing at me, their expressions filled with the utmost contempt and disdain.

Trampling on the once-proud Pearl of the Capital Circle seemed to bring them extraordinary satisfaction.

The tears I had been holding back finally fell.

Now, here I was, dressed in a work uniform, frail and thin.

'I really wasn't worth a second glance from him.'

"Don't cry, Sister. It's all my fault."

Fiona Sterling said to me, putting on a concerned act.

Then she turned and whined coquettishly to Joel Alastair.

"Joel, are you mad at me?"

Joel Alastair stroked her hair dotingly.

"Of course not. I know you're a good girl."

"Sylvia Sterling brought this on herself."

I stared at him blankly as a sharp pain suddenly seized my stomach, churning it violently.

Heedless of anything else, I clapped a hand over my mouth and bolted for the restroom.