Chapter 462:

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After holding power for so many years, arrogance had become a habit he hadn’t even realized he’d formed.

Water was still running in the master bathroom, the muffled sound filling the bedroom.

Connor withdrew his gaze and turned to leave.

Out in the hallway, his eyes settled on the closed guest room door opposite him.

Since Joslyn was using the master bathroom and he had no patience to wait, he decided to take a shower in the guest room instead.

He walked over, gripped the handle, and pushed the door open.

Click.

The door swung inward.

Yet the neat, welcoming guest room he had expected was nowhere to be seen.

A stale, dusty smell drifted out to meet him, as though the room had been shut away and forgotten for a long time.

𝘍іn𝖽 n𝗈𝘃𝗲𝘭 𝖯𝖣𝗙s 𝗈𝗇 g𝘢𝗅nоve𝗅s.𝗰𝗼𝗆

With the light from the hallway spilling inside, Connor finally saw the room clearly.

It was spacious, but every piece of furniture was covered with dust sheets. The wooden floor had collected a visible layer of fine dust, while the windowsill, nightstand, and other flat surfaces were coated even more heavily.

No one had cleaned this place at all.

In fact, it looked as though no one had stepped inside since the day Joslyn moved in.

Connor still remembered that day. Joslyn had intentionally brought him to this very door and, with a perfectly earnest expression, told him that her mother had specially instructed the housekeeper to prepare this room for him.

He had believed her. After that, he had deliberately exaggerated his injury and found a way to remain in the master bedroom with her.

Only now did he realize that Joslyn had never intended for them to sleep separately.

Back then, her eyes had been bright with playful mischief. She would joke with him, tease him on purpose, and make the room feel alive without even trying.

Yet only a few days had passed, and the young woman who had once laughed and teased him, who had comforted him with such gentle patience, whose eyes used to shine so vividly, had been worn down by his family and by Evelyn’s domineering, unyielding pressure until all that radiance seemed nearly gone.

Joslyn was like a flower suddenly deprived of water, wilting in silence right before his eyes.

Connor quietly pulled the guest room door shut. In the end, he did not shower. Instead, he turned around and walked back toward the master bedroom.

The bedroom door had been left slightly ajar, and the sound of water from the bathroom had already stopped.

He pushed the door open.

Joslyn had finished showering. With her back to him, she stood before the glass door leading to the small balcony.

She remained completely still, gazing silently into the dense night beyond the window.

Her figure looked thin and unbearably lonely.

It was as if an invisible pane of glass had risen between them, quietly separating her world from his.

Connor did not go to her immediately. He only stood there, watching her in silence.

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