Chapter 1645

The assistant had barely picked up the phone when a strange expression crossed his face. “Mr. Lucas, this call seems to be for you.”
The receptionist had called to say that someone was specifically asking to see Ben Lucas.
Ben frowned.
This wasn’t the kind of person he would waste his time meeting. If he entertained every random person who claimed they wanted to see him, his days would be endless.
But just as he was about to decline, the assistant slowly added, “She says her name is Winnie Lewis.”
Ben’s sharp eyes narrowed as a glimmer of light flickered across them. “Let her up.”
The assistant nodded and made the arrangements. Ben immediately headed to the lounge to wait.
Before long, the door opened, and a woman stepped inside.
Ben’s gaze landed on her face, and for a moment, surprise flickered in his eyes. “Your face…”
From her build, she was unmistakably Winnie. Her facial features were strikingly similar too, yet something about her was vastly different.
It was her aura.
The Winnie he used to know would never have carried herself with such a sharp, cutting presence. At first glance, she gave off the impression of a sword unsheathed, gleaming with a dangerous edge. Winnie sat down on one side of the room.
The closer he looked, the more obvious her transformation became. Her collarbones jutted out, her shoulder blades were more defined, and she had grown noticeably thinner. Even her demeanor had sharpened, and paired with her black dress, she resembled a black rose blooming fiercely in the night.
“It’s been a long time. I didn’t expect you to still remember me,” Winnie said, her tone complicated.
That was as good as admitting that Ben had guessed her identity correctly.
Ben’s tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and he exhaled a deep breath. “It really is you.”
Winnie nodded. “Yes, it’s me. As for why I look so different now, it’s because I was severely burned back then. Seventy percent of my skin tissue was replaced.”
She spoke of her tragedy so
casually, as if it had happened to
someone else entirely. For most
people, it would have been
unimaginable to recount such
horrific experience with such
detachment.
But Winnie didn’t seem to think so. Her tone was calm and unshaken, as if she were recounting someone else’s life story.
Ben’s expression darkened, his gaze growing deeper.
“Jack, I’m so glad you could still recognize me,” Winnie said with a faint smile.
Ben frowned and cut her off, his voice cold and deliberate. “I’m not Jack anymore. Don’t call me by that name.”
His tone carried an unmistakable chill, a clear distance that was hard to ignore.
Winnie’s face froze. She stared at his stoic expression, and her heart felt like it was sinking into ice. “I thought that after surviving life and death and coming back to see you, even if you weren’t happy, you wouldn’t be this indifferent
This wasn’t the reunion she had imagined.
Ben, however, mercilessly pointed out the truth. “That’s just what you assumed. You’ve always lived in your own fantasies, even now.” The weight of his words hit her like a blow, leaving her heart raw and bleeding.
She lowered her gaze, her hands curling into fists against her lap.
“I know you’re about to marry Jamie.”
“So, is that why you came to see me today?” Ben interrupted.
Winnie stared at him intently, as if trying to etch every detail of his face into her memory. Her eyes betrayed a stubborn determination. “I just want to know… if Jamie hadn’t been there, would you have chosen me?”
There was a faint, desperate hope in her voice.
Winnie wasn’t here to fight for anything with Jamie. She only wanted to confirm if there had ever been even the slimmest chance for her.
She had always believed that Ben’s unwillingness to accept her was because she came second. Someone else had already etched an inerasable mark on his heart before her. But what if Jamie had never existed? Would things have turned out differently for her and Ben?