When Love Fades to Ashes

"Hi Sophie. Alena originally promised she would perform with me at my next competition, but she accidentally injured her foot and asked you to perform for her instead."

Lily deliberately paused mid-sentence.

Sophie was shocked, only just realizing that the person Alena had mentioned was Lily.

However, Sophie couldn't muster a friendly act, nor did she want to waste any time on Lily. "I'm busy."

Seeing Sophie's cold response and noticing that she was about to close the door, Lily quickly stopped her and dropped her goody-two-shoes act.

"You can't back out! You've already promised her!" Lily snapped.

"We don't have the right synergy, so we wouldn't perform well together. More importantly, I'll be busy that day, and I'll have one of my apprentices replace me," Sophie retorted.

Lily sneered, her disdain evident as she asked, "Are you afraid?"

At that moment, William appeared after hearing the commotion.

Lily immediately switched back to her pitiful persona, pursing her lips and clutching the edge of her dress.

"William! Sophie and her dance troupe are trying to go against our agreement and won't dance with me during my performance.

"What am I supposed to do? My competition is just three days away, and I'll definitely lose if I don't have a partner to dance with.

"All of my efforts over the past five years will be wasted! I'd rather die than let that happen…"

Suddenly, Lily began to convulse, her hands clenching together and her pupils dilating.

Panicked, William quickly held Lily in his arms and fumbled for the medicine he always carried to help her. "Lily! Lily! Stay with me!"

Without getting to the bottom of the situation, William stood up and shouted, "Don't you know Lily suffers from severe anxiety? Why won't you perform with her? What's the point of doing all those stretches every day if you're not going to dance?

"You'd better hope Lily's okay, or I promise I'll make sure your dance troupe never performs again!

"I'll crush your dreams because of your selfishness!"

Sophie stood frozen, momentarily dazed as she looked at William's cruel expression.

William knew all too well that the children in her dance troupe came from ordinary families, and that they trained tirelessly—sometimes until their feet bled—just for a chance to perform.

In the past, William had always tended to Sophie's wounds whenever she was injured during training. He would even hold her in his arms and comfort her, saying he would help the children in her troupe.

Now, thanks to Lily's manipulation, he was willing to crush the very dream Sophie had cherished for over 20 years.

He was ready to destroy the lives of more than 30 children in the dance troupe just to make Lily happy!

Lily couldn't suppress a snicker when she saw how pale Sophie had become. She curled up in William's embrace, laughing and sticking her tongue out at Sophie.

As if that weren't enough, Lily even gave Sophie the finger.

After a while, Sophie's vision blurred as tears welled up in her eyes.

With a hoarse voice, she struggled to speak. "Fine, I'll be Lily's dance companion. Just leave my dance troupe alone..."