By the time the 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 rpse and was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.


    Other family members went to the hospital to look after Edgar, while Natasha apanied 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 pirs copsed, and their assets and residences were confiscated and mortgaged. Overnight, her family members plummeted from privileged elites to the lowest–ssmoners, 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 <i>to </i>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. <fnf394> Official source is find{n}ovel</fnf394>


    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 notpleted 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 time ago.


    Teri didn’t say much; she justbed her hair while scrutinizing herself in the mirror.


    A top designer’s work, even decadester, 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 I had never loved you.”


    She ced 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 yearster didn’t seem like the same person 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 tell me where I 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 uncontroble.”


    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 andughter. “But I sacrificed the Westwood family, my rtives, 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 I 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, I truly love you.”


    A knife plunged into his heart from behind.


    “So I 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 like me anymore.”


    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,


    Shey on the bed, turning to look at Dereck, in the wheelchair, bleeding profusely and enduring pain. Tears streamed down her chin. “If only I could wake up and go back to the day you brought Unity to meet me. I would wish you happiness.”


    Dereck’s eyes blurred, and he smiled vaguely, “But Unity certainly won’t want to


    marry me again.”


    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 me ignited 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 ying the cello and smiling at him. He smiled faintly and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t take good care of you or our


    son.”


    Alexei’s eyes, so simr 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.


    *****


    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 same unbearable confinement.


    They were less father and son, more like enemies.


    Now that Dereck was dead, he wouldn’t spend time hating Dereck; his father had be just 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 be a 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 apany him, learning to be a lover, to be family, starting from scratch, and rediscovering the world.


    “Mr. Turner, Miss rk, would you like to hear Dereck’s will?” The familywyer, who had been waiting nearby for a long time, approached them gently to ask once they had let go,