Golden Melody (Editing)

Chapter 101

Chapter 101 - If Love Meant Choosing Pain Together

Wayne Academy Silver Island Field Trip - Day 5

Jayson blinked his eyes open.

For a fleeting second, he thought he was floating, weightless, free. No blood-slicked coral. No twisted tunnels. No girls sobbing through seawater knots. Just silence. Just peace.

He exhaled slowly and pushed himself upright. His shirt was wrinkled, the blanket half-draped over him like something abandoned mid-battle.

Reality settled in.

To his left, Zatariel was curled in the next bed, headphones tangled around his neck, mint-green pajamas dotted with tiny moons. His chest rose and fell in an easy rhythm.

 Asha lay on her bed like she had lost a war in her sleep—snoring loudly, drool staining her pillow, a single sock stuck to her cheek like a ridiculous badge of survival.

And near the window— Miexha.

She was tucked neatly into a smaller bed, cocooned in a soft, fluffy blanket. Sunlight slipped through the curtains and rested gently against her face, tracing the curve of her cheekbones. Her lips were slightly parted, her hands tucked beneath her chin like something fragile... something untouched by the chaos of yesterday.

Jayson stood, stretching carefully.

Was it really just a dream?

No.

The ticking of the wall clock cut through the quiet.

1:03 PM.

The Silvery Water Park Talent Show would start at six.

His gaze moved across the room again, battered but safe, and chose to let them rest.

He stepped quietly toward Miexha's bed. Each step felt heavier than it should.

She looked... unreal up close. Like a porcelain doll placed too carefully into the world.

"So delicate..." he whispered. "So... undeniably mine."

The words tasted wrong the moment they left his mouth.

She's not really his.

"My fiancée..." he murmured, softer this time.

His hand lifted—hesitated midair—before slowly curling back into a fist.

"...My wife."

The title had been carved into him long before he ever understood what it meant.

The title felt like a brand. Fiancée. Wife. For seventeen years, his parents had drilled into his head: You will marry the Wayne heiress. You will be worthy. You will protect the asset. He hadn't even known her then—she was just a glossy photo.

The first time he'd actually seen her, she was laughing with Zatariel, purposely looking anywhere but at Jayson. He told himself then that it didn't matter. He was in love with someone else.

That should have been the end of it.

But it wasn't.

Those late nights in her room practicing intimacy, which his family insisted on— something changed.

What began as an obligation blurred into something dangerously real.

He fell. Completely.

And still— It never reached her.

To Miexha, he was never the man she could choose.

He is just a name. A future decided for her.