The Husband I Loved for Eight Years Never Loved Me-Chapter 5: Resemblance

Chapter 5: Resemblance

Sandra Chapman’s expression soured. She slammed her hand on the table and shot to her feet. "Rachel Royce!"

Rachel Royce couldn’t be bothered to deal with her and turned to leave.

Back at her desk, Rachel Royce pulled out a small mirror and examined the faint, bloody scratch on her cheek. The mark wasn’t deep. She dabbed it with a wet wipe; it didn’t need any other attention. ’On a face like this, one more scar hardly matters anyway,’ she thought.

Her thoughts drifted to the girl from earlier. There was something familiar about her.

As quitting time approached, Rachel Royce got a call from her father. Peter Preston was back, and he wanted her to come home for dinner.

Rachel Royce was delighted. "Peter’s back? I thought he wasn’t coming back until the 15th?"

Mr. Royce replied, "He finished up his work, so he came back early."

"Okay, I’ll head over as soon as I get off work."

Rachel Royce drove back to the Royce family home.

The Royce family lived in a mid-range residential complex in the Westgate District. Their home was a spacious, pre-owned apartment they had purchased this year.

Mr. Royce ran a mid-sized real estate company. While they couldn’t be considered a titan family, they were comfortably well-off, and Rachel Royce had grown up in affluence.

But the real estate market had since soured. Over half a year ago, a failed investment had plunged the company into a severe financial crisis, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy. Even when Mr. Royce found out she was pregnant with Tristan Sterling’s child, he never forced her to go to the Sterling family and demand justice.

Watching her father grow older and more haggard by the day as he began selling off family assets to repay their debts, Rachel Royce finally made her decision and went to the Sterling family. She’d had selfish reasons back then—it wasn’t just for her father, but for herself as well.

She got what she wanted. Thanks to a hefty bride price from the Sterling family, the Royce family was able to clear its debts.

But she paid a steep price for it.

So, the suffering she now endured was a bed of her own making. She had no one to blame but herself.

Back at the Royce home.

Florence Preston emerged from the kitchen. "Rachel, you’re back."

The year she turned nine, her parents divorced. Her mother took her older brother with her, leaving Rachel behind.

Later, her father met Florence Preston. The two of them never officially married, but they lived together as partners.

At first, Rachel Royce hadn’t accepted her, even hated her. But over time, she came to feel Florence’s kindness. Peter Preston treated her exceptionally well, too. Having lost one brother, she now had a new one.

"Miss Preston, where are Dad and everyone?" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"They should be on their way. They’ll be back soon. Go rest for a little while."

"Okay."

...

Rachel Royce went to her room. Even though she was married now, her father had always kept a bedroom for her, which he had recently redecorated just the way she liked it.

Being back in a home that truly felt like her own, all her exhaustion and grievances seemed to melt away in an instant.

She sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes landing on the photo album on the nightstand. She reached for it and opened it. The first picture was a torn family portrait.

The photograph was very old.

She had only been eight years old.

Her young, handsome father was holding her. Standing next to him was her brother, who was fourteen at the time, and on the other side was her mother.

She had torn the photograph herself.

She had hated her mother for taking her brother and abandoning her and their father. With the passage of time, that tearing pain had faded.

She turned the page.

In the photograph, a teenage girl in her prime stood under a golden ginkgo tree, looking vibrant and beautiful. She wore a long white dress and a small, light-brown woven boater hat, the sunlight landing perfectly on her radiant smile.

She had long, raven-black hair, a delicate oval face, and luminous features. She was as captivatingly beautiful as the bright moon, especially her eyes, which sparkled like stars in the sky.

It was only later, after a serious illness, that she had to take hormonal medication. Her body gradually put on weight, and no amount of dieting seemed to work. All she could do was rely on near-starvation and exercise just to keep from gaining any more.

Rachel Royce’s mind suddenly flashed to the girl she had seen today. Her features bore a striking resemblance to the girl in the photograph—especially her eyes.