By the tthe Turner family rushed back to the Turner Mansion, the fire had already been extinguished.
The Turner Mansion was not severely damaged, but Dereck and Teri died.
Edgar, hit by multiple blows, suffered a heart attack relapse and was sent to the hospital for emergency
treatment.
Other family members went to the hospital to look after Edgar, while Natasha accompanied Alexei to collect
Dereck’s body.
The fire first started in the bedroom of Teri.
After leaving the engagement ceremony, Teri returned to the Turner family.
She could no longer return to the Westwood family. Her family members hated
her.
The Westwood family’s pillars collapsed, and their assets and residences were confiscated and mortgaged.
Overnight, her family members plummeted from privileged elites to the lowest-class commoners, condemned by
everyone both online and offline.
Struggling to survive, they had no desire to see the one they considered the root
cause.
The world was vast, but Teri was utterly alone, deserted by everyone close to her, with nowhere to go.
She had resolved to die.
When Dereck heard Teri wanted to see him and was invited to the room by a servant, he saw Teri wearing a
wedding dress and getting ready at the dressing table.
After his surprise, he pressed his lips together, speechless,
He and Teri had a very low-key wedding.
At that time, Unity had passed away, and he had been hospitalized for half a year. Physically and
psychologically, he had no desire to hold another grand wedding.
The custom-made wedding dress Teri had ordered abroad, which cost a fortune, was not completed and went
unused. She carefully stored it away.
This was one of her unresolved issues.
It was also why she was so obsessed with showing off a perfect couple image in front of others, creating the
illusion of a harmonious marriage.
Dereck didn’t understand what it meant for her to take it out and wear it.
He also didn’t ask her why she left the engagement party early.
They had stopped talking a long tago.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtTeri didn’t say much; she just combed her hair while scrutinizing herself in the mirror.
A top designer's work, even decades later, was still timeless. It was just that the person wearing it could no
longer return to her youthful, bright days.
The dress should have been tight, but she had lost so much weight recently, worrying about the Westwood
family, that it fit perfectly now.
“Dereck,” she called him, “I wish | had never loved you.”
She placed a photo on the table.
Dereck’s fingers twitched. It was a wedding photo he had tucked into a bookshelf, perfectly preserved.
His and Unity’s.
The man smiling happily in the photo and the expressionless groom just going through the motions at another
wedding a few years later didn’t seem like the sperson at all.
“I tried so hard to erase her from your heart, but for all these years, I've been like a clown frantically wiping
away someone else's marks, scrubbing countless times, only to realize that the marks weren't written, but
carved into stone,” Teri said.
Her efforts were futile from the start.
She asked, “Can you tellwhere | went wrong?”
Dereck looked at Unity, who had a faint smile in the photo, and said in a calm voice, “You didn’t lose to anyone;
love is uncontrollable.”
He once thought that reason could conquer love and power could bury the pain of losing her, but countless times
in his dreams at midnight, he clearly knew he couldn't.
Teri's expression was a mix of tears and laughter. “But | sacrificed the Westwood family, my relatives, and
everything.”
Dereck’s fingers tightened on the armrest of the wheelchair. “I failed you.”
In his life, he was neither a good husband nor a good father.
“Can | hug you again?” Teri asked.
Dereck was silent for a moment, but still reached out his hands to her.
Teri walked to the wheelchair, bent down, and hugged him, tears rolling down her face. “Dereck, | truly love
you.”
A knife plunged into his heart from behind.
“So | had no choice but to take you with me,” she said.
Dereck was not shocked, nor did he resist; he just smiled faintly in relief. “Next life, don’t likeanymore.”
Teri shook her head, then nodded. “No, I won't like you. Let's not meet again.”
As blood flowed out, she sat on the bed in her bloodstained wedding gown, pulled out the sleeping pills she had
prepared long ago, and swallowed them all in one
go,
She lay on the bed, turning to look at Dereck, in the wheelchair, bleeding profusely and enduring pain. Tears
streamed down her chin. “If only | could wake up and go back to the day you brought Unity to meet me. | would
wish you happiness.”
Dereck’s eyes blurred, and he smiled vaguely, “But Unity certainly won't want to
marryagain.”
Teri also smiled. “Dereck, we are all pathetic.”
Teri wanted to leave gracefully.
They didn’t intentionally set the fire.
Actually, Teri's stab did not hit Dereck’s heart; she showed mercy after all.
If Dereck had called for help, he could have received treatment.
Dereck felt life was meaningless. He wanted to join Unity sooner and surrendered to death’s will.
In his final moments, he tried to grab a photo of him and Unity but stumbled, knocking over a scented candle.
The flignited the tablecloth, starting the fire.
Dereck never managed to get the photo before he died.
He looked into the void at Unity, who was on stage playing the cello and smiling at him. He smiled faintly and
said, “I'm sorry, | didn’t take good care of you or our
son.”
Alexei’s eyes, so similar to Unity’s, were something he couldn't face.
He alienated and neglected Alexei, as if sticking to his choice, so no one would discover his regret.
Alexei received so little love in the first half of his life.
Fortunately, Alexei was luckier than his parents. He met a girl he happened to love and loved him and could
grasp what he wanted.
They would be very happy.
Dereck gazed at the fallen photo and closed his eyes.
sok
Dereck and Teri were found too close to the fire, their bodies already charred.
Teri never managed to win Dereck’s love, but in the end, he was willing to die with her. Was it a different kind of
wish fulfillment?
The servants were sent to a safe distance, and none were injured.
Alexei watched the corpse, covered in a white sheet, being carried out, his eyes indifferent.
During his childhood, trapped with his mother in Peace Garden, he had countless fantasies of his father rescuing
them.
But once he grew slightly sensible, he knew Dereck had long abandoned them.
Alexei hated his weakness and evasion, and his greedy clinging.
After growing up, Alexei retaliated against Dereck with equally ruthless methods, making him experience the
sunbearable confinement.
They were less father and son, more like enemies.
Now that Dereck was dead, he wouldn't spend thating Dereck; his father had becjust a fading symbol.
Above the charred ruins, a pair of warm small hands grasped his.
He pulled her into his arms, leaning down to breathe in the fragrance and warmth
from her neck.
He said, “I won't beca father like him.”
Natasha smiled and patted his head. “Of course, you will be the best dad.”
It didn’t matter if he hadn't been loved; everyone stumbled and explored life step by step. She would accompany
him, learning to be a lover, to be family, starting from scratch, and rediscovering the world.
“Mr. Turner, Miss Clark, would you like to hear Dereck’s will?” The family lawyer, who had been waiting nearby
for a long time, approached them gently to ask once they had let go,
word
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