Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
Lily responded obediently, but she didn’t plan to follow that advice.
Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, so she didn’t need to go to the theater, but right after the holiday, she had a string of performances. She couldn’t afford to slack off. Even if she didn’t practice on stage, she’d still train in private.
James also remembered that tomorrow was New Year’s Eve.
After handing her the medicine, he asked, “Are you spending New Year’s at home, or with Jackson?”
Lily answered honestly, “At home.”
She barely knew Jackson. Of course she wasn’t going to spend New Year’s Eve with him.
She wanted to spend as much time as possible with Grace and Nancy before the divorce.
She’d already picked the small town she’d move to afterward.
Once she left for that place, she wouldn’t be coming back.
When he heard she wasn’t spending the holiday with Jackson, James’s frown relaxed a little.
But then he thought about how, once she and Jackson got married, they’d spend every New Year’s Eve together-maybe even the next lifetime-and the shadow returned to his eyes.
Still, he knew he had no business getting entangled with her. Who she loved, who she wanted to spend her life with-it wasn’t his concern.
He didn’t say anything more. Once she put her jacket back on, he opened the door coldly and gestured for her to leave.
Lily knew he didn’t want to see her, so she didn’t stick around to bother him. She wrapped her coat tightly around herself and quickly went back to her own room.
She’d also picked up on his reaction-how his face instantly darkened when she said she’d spend the holiday at the Luke house.
Clearly, this kind of family gathering made him really not want to see her.
She knew she shouldn’t be in his way, but she was about to leave the capital for good. She wanted to be selfish, just this once, and have a New Year’s dinner with Grace and the others…
The Luke family’s New Year’s Eve was especially lively.
The elders all gave Lily red envelopes filled with money.
But what warmed her most wasn’t the money-it was the laughter, the heartfelt blessings, and the care they all showed each other.
She really loved the Luke family.
She really didn’t want to leave them.
If only James didn’t hate her so much-then even after the divorce, she’d want to come back to visit from time to time.
But James really didn’t like seeing her. After she left Capital City, she planned to call Grace and Nancy often, but she would never show up uninvited again…
Tonight, John was in an especially good mood.
Lily had once told him that on every New Year’s Eve going forward, the two of them had to spend it together.
On a day meant for reunion, lovers not celebrating together would bring bad luck. Even if they had a fight, they still had to make up that day and spend the new year happy and in love.
He was certain Lily would come back to their marital home tonight.
He had given the villa staff the night off, prepared wine and ingredients for a celebration, and waited for Lily to come home and bow her head.
In previous years, Lily would start preparing early in the morning for New Year’s Eve.
She would cut paper decorations by the window while he wrote couplets at the desk.
They would paste the decorations and couplets together, Even though the massive villa only had the two of them, it would be bustling with life.
He was still in that same house now, but without her, it felt deathly quiet-so lonely it was like he was the only one left in the world.
Fireworks had been banned downtown these last couple years.
But in the villa district, people still lit them on New Year’s Eve.
Colorful fireworks bloomed across the night sky. Thousands of homes glowed with light. Families reunited. But inside the marital home, there was still only him.
From sunrise to sunset, from dusk to deep night, the certainty in John’s heart slowly gave way to unease.
He glanced at the luxury watch on his left wrist.
It was already past ten o’clock, and Lily still hadn’t come home.
He lost the last of his patience. Face cold, he picked up his backup phone and dialed Lily’s number.
Tonight, Victor-James’s second uncle-had returned home as well.
Lily was in the backyard with Ivan, Victor, and James, playing with sparklers.
To be precise, it was just her and Ivan lighting the sparklers. James and Victor, both cold by nature, stood like two ice sculptures nearby. They occasionally spoke in chilly tones, but neither of them showed any interest in joining.
“Don’t mind them. They’re always like that,” Ivan said cheerfully as he handed Lily a small firework. “Try this one!”
Lily had never played with these before and found them quite novel. She accepted it and was just about to light it when her phone suddenly rang.
On New Year’s Eve, getting a call usually meant someone was about to say happy new year.
As Lily lit the firework and watched it sparkle with pretty patterns, she answered the phone with a bright smile. “Happy New-“
“Lily, how long are you going to keep this up?” John’s furious voice barked through the speaker, full of impatience and threats.
Her cheerful face immediately froze over.
Getting a call from that disgusting rotten cucumber on New Year’s Eve? What a way to ruin the holiday. “When are you coming home?”
“Even if you’re trying to make a point, there has to be a limit. You have thirty minutes. Be in front of me by then.”
“John, did a dog eat your brain?” Lily snapped, already huffing through her nose.
He just had to ruin a perfectly good holiday by calling her? No way was she going to let him off easy.
“Talking to you is like playing music to a cow. You seriously don’t understand human language, do you? I already broke up with you. From the moment you put my handmade wedding dress on Elsa, I completely gave up on you. I don’t like you anymore. I don’t want you. I don’t even want to hear your voice or your name-it makes me want to throw up.”
“In my eyes, you’re a filthy piece of trash, a completely rotten cucumber. Why the hell would I go to you? If you’re sick, go to the hospital. If you don’t treat your illness and just go around bothering people, then you’re just plain evil. John, you’re disgusting. You’re vile.”
“Lily!”
She didn’t bother listening to his roar. She hung up without hesitation and promptly blocked his number.
“That was amazing!” Ivan gave her a big thumbs-up and handed her another sparkler. “Come on, let’s keep lighting fireworks. Forget that lunatic John.”
Ivan had always loved a good party. As a kid, he could light fireworks and firecrackers all night long on New Year’s.
Back then, Victor would occasionally join in.
But tonight, Victor was staring at the sky lit up by the bursts of color, lost in deep thought. He clearly wasn’t going to stop and go play with fireworks.
James, who’d always been an old soul even as a child, never liked noisy things. He had almost never lit a firework in his life.
But strangely, seeing Lily’s bright smile lit up by the glow of the fireworks, he suddenly found himself wondering-could lighting fireworks really bring someone that much joy?
“You don’t need them. They’re both deep in thought. It’s just us playing with fireworks,” Lily said.
James had just lifted his foot, about to join them, when he heard Lily’s voice.
The foot he had raised froze midair. In the end, he didn’t go grab a firework.
Unable to join them, he coldly scrolled through Facebook to pass the time-and unexpectedly came across another post from Jackson set to “visible to James only.”
“Couldn’t spend New Year’s with Lily. So bummed. But she said she misses my eight-pack. Gotta keep grinding-your boy’s got strength and skills to spare!”
The photo showed Jackson working out, shirt clinging tightly to his body, his eight-pack abs glistening with sweat-loud, arrogant, and shameless.
Lily missed his eight-pack…
The more James looked at Jackson showing off like a peacock, the tighter his chest felt.
His pale fingertips trembled. For a moment, he actually wanted to just delete Jackson as a friend.
But he still had to have dinner with Jackson, invite him to the Luke family home, attend his wedding with Lily. He’d even have to start calling him brother-in-law someday. Deleting him wasn’t appropriate.
All he could do was slip his phone back into his pocket with a grim face and let his heart drown over and over in that bitter, sour sea…
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.