Medika Hospital was bustling that morning. Qiara hurried along the corridor past the ER and outpatient areas. The backpack on her shoulders felt a little heavy, but her concern for Dewa's mother was far greater.
Qiara asked for Dewa's mother's room at the information desk. Once she got the room number, she hurried to the third floor.
"Room 304..." Qiara murmured as she matched the number to the doors of the VIP rooms she passed.
Her steps slowed when she reached Room 304. The wooden door with clear glass panels was slightly ajar, leaving a gap about two fingers wide.
Qiara offered a faint smile and was about to turn the doorknob, intending to surprise Dewa and calm him down.
But she came to a complete stop. Her eyes locked onto the scene inside the room.
There was no sign of Dewa's mother lying weakly on the hospital bed. The patient's bed was neat and completely empty. Maybe she had gone to the bathroom.
The only people in the room were Dewa and Mimi, the woman Dewa had claimed yesterday was his younger cousin from Surabaya.
Dewa was sitting on the edge of the sofa in the treatment room, while Mimi stood in front of him.
"Dewa, did you really say that to Qiara earlier?" Mimi asked in an exceedingly coquettish voice—nothing like the way a younger cousin would normally speak.
"Of course, Sweetheart," Dewa replied casually with a soft chuckle.
"If I hadn't told her Mom was in the hospital, would she have canceled that crazy plan to run away? Did she think we could live without money? Besides, if I ran away with her, I'd have to deal with her entire family and her former brother-in-law, that CEO. What a pain."
Mimi gave a charming laugh, then sat in Dewa's lap without the slightest hesitation. Her arms wrapped affectionately around his neck.
"Good. So you really are smart, Dewa. I don't want you going through all that trouble just because of a spoiled girl like Qiara," Mimi whispered with a teasing expression.
"Obviously. You're the only woman I've chosen," Dewa replied, pinching her nose playfully.
Smack!
Mimi planted an intimate kiss on Dewa's cheek, letting her lips linger there for quite a while. Dewa responded with a broad smile, showing no intention of rejecting her at all.
Behind the crack in the door, Qiara's body froze instantly.
It felt as if her blood had stopped flowing. Her breath caught so violently that her chest felt as though it were being struck repeatedly by a sledgehammer. The tears that had been flowing since yesterday had finally dried, replaced by a shock and emptiness so unbearably painful.
A lie.
It had all been a lie.
Mimi wasn't his younger cousin. And the undying love Qiara had worshiped in Dewa for the past two years... was nothing more than a cheap joke he had turned into entertainment.
He used me... He lied to me... Qiara thought, refusing to believe it, yet her own eyes had witnessed the most painful betrayal of her life.
At last, cold tears trickled slowly down her pale cheeks. There were no screams. No confrontation like yesterday. Qiara was too shattered to even vent her anger. The foolishness that had made her trust him so easily the day before now slapped her hard across the face.
With trembling fingers, Qiara slowly backed away from the door to Room 304. She turned and headed away from that cursed place.
She walked down the hospital corridor like a body without a soul.
The backpack on her shoulders felt as heavy as the disappointment and devastation filling the deepest parts of her heart. The love she had fought so desperately to preserve had turned out to be unrequited love for a treacherous man.