Chapter 8

Giselle didn't expect Rebecca to be unfazed by this. For a moment, she forgot about the taunting words she'd rehearsed. Stephan was also caught off guard by Rebecca's calmness. He was about to speak when Giselle clung to him and turned on her charm. "Look, Stephan. Even Mrs. Lodge had agreed!" His words of rejection became lodged in his throat. He looked up at Rebecca and frowned when he finally noticed just how uncharacteristic she was acting. "Do you really not mind, Becks?" She looked at him stoically. "There's nothing to mind. She can move in if she wants." After that, she gestured for the housekeeper to bring her breakfast to her room. Then, she turned and gracefully headed upstairs. Giselle was delighted after achieving her objective. She immediately headed home to pack her things, leaving Stephan standing there in a daze. He spent the rest of the morning feeling uneasy. He made excuses to knock on Rebecca's door multiple times. "Young ladies like Giselle generally get up to all sorts of hijinks. Aren't you worried she'll disturb you if she moves in? You can be frank if you're upset, Becks. I won't let her move in. I told you that I'm just fooling around with all those other women—they can't compare to you. Don't bottle up your anger." He kept repeating this until he got on Rebecca's nerves. She pressed a hand to her forehead and said, "I already said that I don't mind." Seeing the look on her face, Stephan dropped his usual air of indifference. A rare flicker of panic flashed across his face. "But why don't you mind? You would never have acted like this in the past." Rebecca glanced at him and smiled. "That's good, isn't it? Hasn't it always been your wish for me to be like this?" With that, she kicked him out of her room, saying that she wanted to rest. That night, Giselle moved in with her things. Rebecca watched as she ordered the maids around obnoxiously, like she owned the place. Instead of saying anything, she tore another page from the calendar. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard to Stephan. For some reason, he suddenly felt afraid. He looked at the remaining pages of the calendar—there weren't many left. He couldn't help saying, "You tear pages from that calendar every day. Is it for something important?" "No. It's just for fun," Rebecca said flippantly. Her attitude only deepened his panic. He thought about her recent odd behavior and realized they'd only started after Giselle had appeared. Suddenly, something occurred to him. He looked up at Giselle, who was bossing the maids around on the second floor. Then, he stood up and said, "Becks, this is our home, and my promise remains unchanged. It's not right for Giselle to stay here. I'll send her home right now." With that, he hurried upstairs and said something to Giselle. A moment later, she came downstairs with her suitcase, looking aggrieved as she left with Stephan. He didn't return for the next few days, but Rebecca wasn't bothered. She started packing her things. Three days before her departure, she went to the notary's office to have the deeds to the properties she'd purchased with Stephan's money notarized. She wanted to make sure they were in her name. Two days before her departure, she packed all the jewelry she owned into cases and sent them to be stored in a bank vault. She would only move them to her new place after the divorce was finalized. She'd wasted five whole years on Stephan, so she wouldn't let even a dime of the money she was supposed to get in the divorce slip away. It was compensation for the mental and emotional distress he had caused her.