[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":10},["ShallowReactive",2],{"viewer-data-260322A01459-498":3},{"id":4,"number":5,"name":6,"content":7,"isLocked":8,"price":9,"hasRead":8},498,5,"Chapter 5: The Sound of a Shattered Plate","\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">Seven wasn't just a cat.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">She was the stray Desmond and I had rescued seven years ago. She was our family. I still remembered Desmond saying, \"How could anyone abandon a Devon Rex?\"\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">That night, the rain had been relentless. We’d wrapped her in our coats and carried her home. We nursed her, bathed her, and raised her piece by piece. When I was sad, she would nuzzle my face. When Desmond was angry, she’d perform silly tricks just to make him laugh.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">She wasn't just a cat.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">Vienna Cruz clung to Desmond, her voice dripping with artificial tears. \"I’m sorry, Desmond. It was my fault I didn't keep a better eye on Seven. I didn't mean for it to happen...\"\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">She turned to me, looking pitiful. \"Serenity, let me take you out to dinner. I want to apologize.\"\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">I ignored her and turned to leave.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">But Desmond brought Vienna home instead.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">\"If you don't want to go out, we can just make dinner here. I’ll whip something up,\" Vienna said, holding up a bag of groceries.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">In the kitchen, they were laughing and chatting. He washed the vegetables; she chopped the herbs. They looked perfectly at home, like a pair of newlyweds.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">I didn't want to eat.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">Desmond’s face hardened. \"That's enough, Serenity.\"\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">\"Vienna has apologized more than once already. Don't be unreasonable. Sit down. Now.\"\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">He didn't give me a choice, pressing his hands against my shoulders and forcing me into a chair at the dining table.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">My eyes stung with hot, unshed tears.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">It brought me back to college. A rumor had started that I was his \"ex-girlfriend\"—the one who’d played him and left him cold—and because of that, every girl who had a crush on him steered clear of me. One afternoon, a group of girls cornered me in the back alley and smashed my phone.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">Desmond had arrived just in time, shielding me with his body.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">\"Apologize to my sister!\" he had barked.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">The girls, terrified, had mumbled their apologies while staring at the ground. Back then, I had been seething, furious that they would take their rejection out on me. Desmond had chuckled, brushing his hand over my head. \"You don't have to forgive them if you don't want to. You have the right to refuse.\"\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">But now?\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">Now, Desmond stood over me with a face of stone, his hands pinning my shoulders to the chair, forcing me to accept a flimsy, hollow apology from the woman who had hurt my cat.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">I grabbed the plate next to me and sent it crashing against the floor, then shoved him away with everything I had.\u003C/p>\u003Cp class=\"chapter-paragraph\">\"I don't want to!\"\u003C/p>",false,0,1774272915843]