He Knelt and Asked Me to Give My Heart to His Student Chapter 02 (Continue)
By the time I found out, it had already made the news.
In the interview clip, Adrian looked perfectly calm. “In my five years of teaching, Chloe isn’t the most gifted student I’ve ever had. But she is, without question, the toughest.”
“I’m grateful she came into my life. She gave me the courage to keep doing research.”
That same day, I accidentally dropped and shattered my favorite vase.
When Adrian saw it, he did nothing more than calmly tell the housekeeper to clean up the mess.
But that vase was something we had made together at a pottery studio in Asheville, back when we were most in love.
He had even said, with a completely straight face, that one day it would become a family heirloom.
“Maybe I can piece it back together.”
My hands were shaking as I crouched on the floor, trying to fit the scattered shards back into place.
He frowned and pulled me to my feet. “It was just a cheap vase.”
My eyes stung before I could stop it, but his gaze dropped to my stomach instead. “Is the baby giving you a hard time again?”
I tried to comfort myself by thinking that he was just a rational person. Maybe not caring about keepsakes was normal for someone like him.
But that night, when I brought fruit to his study, I saw a locked glass display case.
Inside, carefully preserved, was a cheap fountain pen Chloe had bought at a stationery store, the kind that would have cost only a few dollars.
It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head.
We had a massive fight. I even smashed open the case and hurled the pen into the trash, only for him to snatch it back up the next second like it was something precious.
When he looked at me again, his eyes were full of impatience.
“Natalie, go look at yourself in the mirror. Do you have any idea how much you look like a shrew right now?”
“You were the one who broke the vase. What exactly are you blaming me for?”
I demanded that he swear he had no feelings for Chloe.
If he did, then let the two of them die a miserable death.
Professor Carlisle, a staunch materialist, actually hesitated.
Only after a long while did he finally say, “Yes. I do have feelings for her.”
“But nothing has happened between us, and nothing will. You don’t need to act like you’re some tragic victim.”
I couldn’t hold back my tears. He sighed, then reached out and gently smoothed my messy hair back into place.
“Natalie, we’ve been together for eleven years. There’s no excitement left.”
“To be blunt, kissing you feels about as thrilling as pressing my own lips together.”
“Sometimes I even regret that we got legally married abroad the second we were old enough. Back then, I never imagined I’d fall for someone else ten years later.”
He was the man who had once lit up the entire city with fireworks just to make me smile, and now he was the same man coldly looking down on me as he talked about his change of heart.
“Chloe’s lively and fun. She’s not dull like you.”
“She likes messing around, watching cheesy romance movies, and feeding stray cats on the street.”
“You like all those same silly little things too, but when she does them, I find her unbelievably cute. I can’t help falling for her.”
At the very end, he lit a cigarette, his voice gentle and merciless at the same time.
“As long as you want it, you’ll always be Mrs. Carlisle. But you have to accept that she’s the only one in my heart.”
After that night, I sank into a constant cycle of breakdown and self-torment, crying until my eyes were swollen every day.
I tried to detach myself. I tried not to care when he came home late, when he skipped my prenatal appointments over and over, or when he took Chloe on a trip to Hawaii.
But all I was doing was lying to myself.
Then today, in front of everyone, he knelt before me and begged me to give my heart to Chloe, even if it meant giving up the baby I was six months pregnant with.
That was when I suddenly realized this marriage had become meaningless.
“Natalie, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me.”
Chloe sounded much more confident now than she had a moment ago, and there was a faint, almost imperceptible smile hidden in her eyes.
Someone beside her chimed in, “Natalie, Chloe didn’t mean anything by it. She’s always joking around and never knows when to quit. One time she got drunk and even said she wanted to marry Professor Carlisle.”
The room fell silent the instant those words landed.
That person clapped a hand over their mouth in regret. “That’s not what I meant. I just meant she jokes without thinking. Everyone knows you and Adrian have been rock solid for years. There was never going to be room for anyone else.”
I let out a silent little laugh, then looked at Chloe. “It’s fine. I’m not blaming you.”