Chapter 16

The next day, Adeline immediately started looking for someone to take over Lake Mitage. She didn’t plan on taking any of the blame for the establishment's closure. Thankfully, the new owner planned on operating it as a lounge bar as well, so she left everything.

All happened so quickly that Sullivan couldn’t help but gape. He didn’t even get to see when she had left. However, it cemented his belief that Adeline…

Meanwhile, Adeline planned on heading to a different country, but she didn’t expect Sullivan to ambush her.

“You’re not Maddie, why are you trying to hide from me?” he questioned.

To this day, he couldn’t understand why she had chosen to fake her death and leave.

When Adeline heard the question, her eyes flashed with confusion. Maddie? Why was she hiding? What was she hiding from?

Her mind turned chaotic once more. Her memories kept spinning and changing. Soon, her lips turned pale, and she broke out in a cold sweat. Sullivan was terrified by the sight of this. Seeing that she was about to crumple to the ground, he quickly pulled her into his arms to take her to the hospital. “Don’t be scared, Maddie. I’ll take you to the hospital right away!” he said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Adeline’s breathing evened out. She shook her head and said, “I want to go home.”

Sullivan was relieved to find that she had gotten better, but he was a little flustered at the mention of “home.” He didn’t know which she was referring to. Sensing his cluelessness, Adeline sighed and requested to be put down. She went to the ticket counter and booked the earliest flight back to her country, and Sullivan did likewise.

During the flight back, Adeline asked, “Why did you come looking for me?”

She finally gave up on trying to hide her identity, probably because she could see that Sullivan truly believed that she was Madeleine anyway. Apart from that, there was an even more important reason why she abruptly decided to head home.

From the moment Sullivan appeared, someone seemed to be secretly doctoring her memories. She was afraid that at some point, she would really forget that she was once Madeleine Emerson. She would forget all about her past, including her parents.

Sullivan looked at her. Instead of answering her question, he asked the one thing that had been on his mind ever since he realized she wasn’t dead.

“Why did you choose to leave in that manner all those years ago?”

This gave her another headache.

“I asked you first, so you need to answer my question,” Adeline replied as she rubbed her forehead. His persistence was giving her a headache. A long silence ensued before Sullivan finally said, “I don’t know.”

He just wanted to see her. He wanted to see if she had a happier life without him. Was that why she had suddenly chosen to leave him? The truth was, he couldn’t bear to live a life without her.

However, Sullivan didn’t confess those thoughts. The only thing he could get out was, “I don’t know.” It startled him. For some reason, he felt as though he was being controlled again. He tried to speak, but no words came out.

Adeline could hear the conversation between the other people on the plane, so she knew her hearing was fine. Yet, although Sullivan’s lips were moving, she couldn’t hear anything.

Instantly, she was reminded of her doctored memories. She was living in the world of a novel and had to follow its plot. Madeleine was destined to…

Hit with realization, she fully understood the situation. They were indeed living in a novel. Someone was interfering, changing lies, and relaying this information to Adeline and leaving.

However, Madeleine was dead. That was why her memories were thrown into chaos when Sullivan approached her and wanted her to admit she was Madeleine. She was being made to slowly forget who she originally was and think of herself as only Adeline.

Sullivan was the male protagonist. He was meant to end up with Mabel, the female protagonist, so he couldn’t fall in love with anyone else. Even if he did, it would be forcibly changed.

Therefore, Adeline knew she could return to her country, but she and Sullivan could never be together. In his world, Madeleine could only be someone who had already died a long time ago.