?<strong>Chapter 1258:</strong>


    “I understand. I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. Cliff brushed aside her apology with cold indifference.


    “One more thing,” he added sharply.


    “Why didn’t you properly secure the photos on your phone?”


    The question struck her like a physical blow. A chill slithered down her spine as she grasped his implication.


    “I locked away everything rted to you. Kira had been plotting this exposure for ages. She stole my…”


    Cliff interrupted coldly, “Tell me the truth. Was our rtionship being exposed part of your scheme?”


    Laney stared at him, disbelief etched across her features.


    “You suspect me?”


    The words hung heavy between them. Could he truly believe she was still desperately clinging to him, resorting to such underhanded tactics to force his eptance? How could he paint her with such a cruel brush? He had offered her nothing but a counterfeit rtionship—one fleeting month of borrowed happiness before casting her into an abyss of despair. Yet, even drowning in her own suffering, she had never once let hatred or me take root. Why must he insist on seeing the worst in her?


    Numbness spread through Laney’s body, her fingers betraying her with uncontroble tremors.


    Watching the color drain from her face, Cliff felt rity slowly seep back into his mind. He’d beenshing out indiscriminately all day, and thatst usation—it was as if some dark force had possessed him, driving him to wound her just to ease his own turmoil. The realization left him sickened.


    Cliff swallowed hard, about to speak, when he saw Laney lower her gaze, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. With unsteady hands, she unlocked her phone. He watched intently, unable to look away.


    Her slender fingers moved with practiced familiarity to a hidden storage app, revealing a collection of photographs. They were moments captured of them together.


    These were the pictures Laney had carefully selected, private treasures she would look at in secret when the ache of missing him became too much to bear, using them to soothe her wounded heart.


    Before his eyes, Laney began deleting them all—each photograph vanishing without a moment’s hesitation.


    Cliff’s heart plunged into an abyss as he instinctively reached out to stop her.


    “Enough.”


    But Laney shoved his hand away, her movements frantic. She didn’t stop at just deleting the photos—her trembling fingers moved to uninstall every rted app, erasing all traces of their shared past. Each swift tap of her finger felt like a blunt de twisting in Cliff’s heart, the pain almost unbearable.


    After what seemed like an eternity, Laney finally lifted her tear-stained phone. She met his gaze, her jaw set with steely determination, her eyes burning with resolve.


    “Everything about you is gone. Are you satisfied now?”


    Cliff froze on the spot. Deep down, he knew better than anyone that Laney would never do something like that. His cruel usation hade straight from his own possessiveness clouding his mind.


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