CHAPTER 34: CHAPTER 34: YOUR TROUBLES HAVE NEVER BEEN SMALL

Clara guiltily avoided Sophie’s gaze, "Maybe it’s because I’m your good friend, Silas only gave me special attention for your sake."

"Is that so?" Sophie was skeptical.

Clara changed the subject, "Did you see Preston when you returned to Crestwood?"

...

Silas returned to his room without turning on the light.

He lit a cigarette using the moonlight, stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, took a puff, and gently exhaled a smoke ring.

Seeing Clara with Isaac made him feel agitated.

Only smoking could ease the tension.

Silas shut his eyes, opened the surveillance video and watched it repeatedly, over a dozen times.

The video didn’t show Clara’s expression clearly.

What was her mood when she saw Isaac?

Silas knew how much Clara used to love Isaac.

After smoking for a while, Silas took a small box from the bedside cabinet.

He opened the box, took out the photos inside, and gently rubbed them with his fingertips.

This photo had accompanied him for almost four years.

He was so familiar with it that he could vividly trace her brows and eyes in his mind with his eyes closed.

During those years studying in Valden, this photo was the only splash of color in his dull life, it had helped him through many lonely nights.

Silas bowed his head, looking at the portrait in the photo under the moonlight.

The darkness concealed the deep love in his eyes.

Silas suddenly recalled the day Clara and Isaac announced their relationship.

At that time, he had just stayed up late to finish an academic paper, dragging his weary body to bed.

He habitually opened Clara’s social media.

He had always closely followed her updates.

Silas would never forget that day, at 3:42 AM, he saw Clara post a photo of a bouquet of roses and a picture of holding hands on her social media, with the caption "Someone said, love should start with a bouquet of flowers."

To this day, Silas still vividly remembers the feeling at that moment.

His body suddenly stiffened, his mind went blank, every breath was accompanied by a stabbing pain in his heart.

There’s a six-hour time difference between Klausberg and Veridian.

It was already past nine in the morning in Veridian then.

The post was just made a few minutes ago.

Past nine in the morning, did she announce it eagerly online right after meeting him?

Silas held his phone, torturing himself by repeatedly viewing that social media post.

During that cold, isolated night illuminated by moonlight, Silas lay sleepless, staring aimlessly at the foreign ceiling.

And on that day, he logged into the game, waited for three hours until she finally came online.

He invited her to dual as usual.

But right after one game, she hastily signed out without giving a reason.

After that day, her profile never lit up again.

He continued like before, logging into the game whenever possible, waiting for her to come online, day after day, but she never appeared online again.

Turned out, she quit the game for Isaac.

Those memories surged like a tide, with each scene cutting into his heart like a sharp blade.

She loved Isaac so deeply, would she return to him if Isaac sweet-talked and apologized?

Silas self-mockingly tugged at the corner of his lips, whether in reality or in the game, he had lost thoroughly.

After Clara finished chatting with Sophie, she went upstairs, noticing the room across where Silas stayed hadn’t turned on the light.

Just a mere ten minutes had passed, yet he was already asleep?

Remembering that Silas had hurried back from Crestwood tonight without taking a rest, and rushed out to find her, worrying about her all night, Clara felt a pang of guilt deep in her heart.

She hesitated for a moment, then turned towards Silas’s room.

Clara stood in front of Silas’s room for a few seconds, then reached out to softly knock on the door.

"Silas, are you asleep?"

The person inside the room didn’t respond.

Clara waited for a few seconds, just as she was about to turn around and leave.

The next moment, the door opened, and a hand reached out and pulled her inside by the wrist, Clara caught off guard stumbled into the darkness.

An overwhelming scent of ebony mixed with tobacco greeted her.

Clara furrowed her brow.

Silas had just smoked in the room, he truly wasn’t happy.

Before she could react, the man closed the door, pinning her against it.

The unexpected development made Clara instinctively startle, "Silas?"

With the room remaining unlit, Clara couldn’t see Silas’s face.

In the darkness, their bodies were closely pressed against each other.

Clara’s heart skipped a beat.

Silas’s voice was low and magnetic, "You saw Isaac tonight."

It was a statement, not a question.

Clara suddenly felt sad.

So he is unhappy because of her.

"Yes." She admitted.

"Still have feelings for him?" The man murmured beside her ear, his warm lips barely grazing her earlobe.

It was the closest she had ever been to Silas.

Where his lips touched felt electrified, sending tingles throughout her.

"No..."

"Then why did you lie to me?"

"I..." Clara stammered, "I just didn’t want to bother you with such a trivial matter."

The man’s breath was hot, "Your matters are never trivial."

Just as these words were spoken, Clara felt a soft and warm sensation on her lips.

She widened her eyes in shock.

With lips pressed together, Clara’s spine stiffened, her mind went blank.

Silas had actually kissed her.

The emotions suppressed and contained for so long couldn’t be held back after Isaac’s provocation.

The man was not satisfied with just touching lips, forcefully deepening the kiss with dominance.

Clara’s mind went blank, dazedly forgetting to resist.

There were no signs at all.

Clara was dizzy from the kiss.

After the shock, Clara belatedly began to resist.

But the disparity in strength between men and women, the more she resisted, the more aggressively Silas kissed, the tighter he held her.

"Mm..." Clara’s struggles were muffled back by the man.

No one knew how long it lasted until Silas finally released her.

Silas’s voice was husky from desire, "You’re the one who came to tempt me."

Clara felt wronged.

She just wanted to talk since she sensed Silas was unhappy, wanted to ask why he was upset.

Who knew this damn man would directly steal a kiss?

After all, it was her first kiss.

Clara’s voice carried a touch of sobbing, the grievance from being bullied, mixed with a bit of coyness, "Why are you like this..."

Her voice was soft and tender.

The man couldn’t help but lean in to kiss her lips again.

Silas seemed addicted, unable to kiss her enough.

This kiss, compared to the previous one, was less domineering, gentler and more entwined.

Clara closed her eyes, the lingering embraces stirred the suppressed emotions buried deep in her heart, she gradually stopped resisting, and her hands wrapped around the man’s neck.