?Chapter 1501:


    A bitter, hollowugh threatened to rise in Ste’s chest.


    Dumped without a second thought?


    Marc had discarded her like garbage, and then turned around and did the exact same thing to another woman?


    Ice flooded Ste’s veins, and her legs refused to support her weight.


    Josie noticed first, her eyes widening in rm. “Sharon, stop. Stel, are you okay?”


    Ste gave no response, her gaze distant and unfocused.


    Panic flickered across both their faces. “Stel, don’t scare us like this! None of this is your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. Marc is the scumbag here—he’s the one who destroyed everything!”


    Ste blinked once, then twice, and slowly pushed herself up from the floor.


    She looked at her two friends, her voice barely above a whisper. “Sharon, you should head back now. I’m exhausted. I need to rest upstairs.”


    Sharon watched Ste turn and climb the stairs, worry gnawing at her insides. She couldn’t follow her into the room, so she stood helplessly at the bottom, anxiety tightening around her throat.


    “Is she really okay? Something feels off. She’s too quiet.”


    Josie pressed her lips together and stared at the empty staircase where Ste had vanished, her own anxiety mounting with each passing second.


    “Staying here won’t help her right now. Let’s go. I think Stel needs time alone to process all of this.”


    Even they—who knew the full story—considered Marc absolute scum. For Ste, who had lost two years of her life and had no memory of his betrayal, the truth must have been devastating.


    Regret twisted in Sharon’s stomach. She shouldn’t have let her emotions take control like that.


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    “Josie, do you think we made a mistake? Should we have kept quiet?”


    Sharon had expected Josie to agree, to say they should have hidden everything. Instead, Josie shook her head firmly. “No. She would’ve discovered the truth eventually, one way or another. Better she heard it from us than from a stranger, or worse—remembered it herself and realized we’d all been lying to her this whole time.”


    At least this way, the truth hade from people who loved her. That had to count for something, even if the pain cut just as deep.


    William stayed away from the vi all day. He had no desire to see Ste.


    The information Ste had leaked to Marc posed no real threat to Briggs Group, yet William couldn’t stomach the fact that she was constantly trying to flee from him—back to Marc.


    He buried himself in paperwork at the office, working well past midnight. Outside, the sky had gone pitch ck.


    Luca had stopped by an hour earlier, but William dismissed him.


    Another knock sounded at the office door. William nced up to find thepany’s newest intern stepping inside.


    “Pardon me, Mr. Briggs. Still at it, I see. I made you some coffee—checked with Mr. Chadwick about how you take it,” the intern offered.


    He was young, couldn’t be more than twenty-five.


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