Chapter 71: He Never Loved You

Natalie immediately returned to the bedroom and called Justin.

"Hmm?" came his reply.

"What are you going to do now? How are you planning to get your grandma out of here without meeting my grandpa? Your grandmother is really something." She blurted out in panic.

She heard Justin sigh on the other end before he spoke. "I’ll come by later, after dinner is over, but I won’t come upstairs. Make sure your grandpa takes his medicine right after the meal, so he would feel drowsy and won’t come downstairs to see my grandmother off."

"That’s actually a good idea. You do have some brains after all."

"Not everyone is like you," he shot back.

She frowned. "Don’t go thinking you’re too smart."

"I’m at least not dumped by a loser and still pining over him."

"Dumped? I was dumped, alright? And I’m not—"

"Yeah, sure," he interrupted. "He announced his engagement to your sister right in front of you without even trying to find out what really happened. Even if he was angry, any man in his place would have first tried to figure out who you supposedly cheated on him with. He’d have taken his time before deciding on revenge by marrying your sister. But..." Justin paused, his tone growing sharper, "what he did on your wedding day shows he was just looking for an excuse to dump you, and he took the first chance he got. He never loved you."

"Stop it!" she exclaimed angrily, her voice trembling with anger. "You don’t know anything about him, so just shut your mouth!"

She angrily hung up the call and sat on the bed, tears welling in her eyes. Feeling overwhelmed, she opened her long-inactive social media account under the name "Sunshine," which she hadn’t touched since returning home from Xyros.

Back then, she used it to chat with Ivan from Xyros city, but once she was home, there was no need to message him anymore—they were together.

On her first day in the unfamiliar city of Xyros, she had received a message from an account named "Little Star." The name tugged at her heart, as it was what her mother used to call her when she was younger. In return, she always called her mother "Sunshine," which is why Natalie had chosen that as her own account name.

The moment she received the message from "Little Star," she knew it had to be Ivan. He was the only person, aside from her mother, who knew about that nickname. Unable to contact Ivan by phone, as he wasn’t allowed to speak with her after she was sent to Xyros, Natalie clung to the belief that this message was from him. She had no one but Ivan and her friend Mia to rely on back then.

Her fingers trembling, she scrolled through their old messages.

Natalie continued to read more and more these messages and how Ivan was her only hope back then. Tears rolled down her eyes as she sobbed lightly.

Natalie wondered, her thoughts swirling.

She wiped away her tears and made sure there were no traces left, not wanting anyone outside to notice. Taking a deep breath, she forced a smile and headed to the kitchen to focus on what to cook for everyone. After placing an order through her phone for some necessary things, she prepared some juice and snacks for the three elders and got to work in the kitchen.

Julia, unable to stay away, followed Natalie under the pretence of helping, but her true motive was something else. If it weren’t for Justin’s insistence, Julia would have told Natalie the truth—that she was her granddaughter—and taken her home right then and there.

’Alright, this is a chance for me to know what kind of a man my granddaughter is married to. If he is not good enough, I will ask Justin to make that man disappear from her life.’