Their Four-Person Test, My Unopened Parachute Chapter 08

The car tore straight into downtown Manhattan.

Twenty minutes later, Damian stopped in front of a luxury apartment building owned by the Moretti family.

It was the home he and I had shared for three years.

He didn’t even wait for the private elevator to stop before he rushed out.

“Avery!”

The fingerprint lock clicked open, and he shoved the door wide.

“Get out here!”

“I know you’re hiding in here! You win – you completely win!”

“I’m not proposing to Celeste! I got the ring back!”

The apartment was pitch black. No answer.

Damian switched on the lights.

The next second, he froze.

The cozy living room that used to be crammed with plushies and plants was now as empty and bare as a

model home.

In the walk-in closet, all my clothes were gone. Only empty hangers were left.

The skincare on the vanity. The framed photo by the bed. The pink apron I used in the kitchen…

Every trace of me had vanished.

So clean it was as if I’d never lived in this house at all.

Damian stumbled into the bedroom.

On the nightstand lay a black bank card and an account statement from the Moretti family’s finance

department.

It was the account he’d set up for my living expenses and medical care.

Over five years, the family finance department had transferred a total of eight million dollars into it.

Not a cent had been touched.

Beside it sat a brown paper file.

Inside were a death certificate and a burial receipt from the cemetery.

Name of the deceased: Helen Quinn.

Date of death: six months ago.

Damian’s hand jerked.

Six months ago.

That was when Celeste had claimed she was in a bad mood and insisted on flying to Iceland to see the

northern lights.

Damian remembered it perfectly.

That day, in first class on the flight to Reykjavik, he’d received a dozen calls from Avery.

He’d snapped at her over the phone, dripping with impatience, “Avery, Celeste has severe depression and

needs to get away. Your mother has the best doctors and nurses at the care facility. Can you stop being so

selfish?”

“If you ruin Celeste’s mood for the aurora, I’ll hold you responsible!”

Then, without a second thought, he blocked her number.

Under Iceland’s endless aurora, he watched the northern lights with Celeste, booked restaurants, arranged a

private yacht.

And Avery – alone in a cold hospital – signed her mother’s critical-condition notice herself.

She arranged the funeral alone. She buried her mother alone.

She never told him. She never spent a cent of his money.

A few hours earlier, Damian had still been threatening her:

[If you’re not back before dark, I’m cutting off all funding for your mother’s care facility.]

Damian dropped to his knees on the floor and let out a low laugh.

His laughter swelled, breaking into a raw, gutwrenching howl.

“Cut off funding… What do I even have left to cut off…”

“Avery… why didn’t you tell me?! Why didn’t you ever tell me?!”

I watched the blood seeping from his forehead, and all I felt was numbness.

Damian, how can you say I didn’t tell you?

I begged you.

I cried and begged you to lend me two hundred thousand dollars for my mother’s targeted therapy.

But you were holding Celeste, and you didn’t even look up.

“You wouldn’t even go rafting with Celeste. You ruined everyone’s fun, and you still have the nerve to ask me for money?”

From that moment on, I already understood: My mother. My child. Everything I had – none of it was worth a

single tear from Celeste.

Just then, the computer by the bed lit up.

The cloud backup software popped up a notification.

[Scheduled backup complete.]

A moment later, a pre-recorded video opened on its own.

On the screen, my face appeared.