Chapter 12
Greendale Village, Caledon City.
Bella stood behind a worn wooden podium, reading aloud from an elementary school
textbook.
It was her fifth day in Greendale. Only after arriving did she truly grasp how difficult life
was for the children here. She’d thought it was just a matter of lacking educational
resources. What she hadn’t expected was that many of them couldn’t even meet their basic
needs.
Their only source of income came from their parents–mothers and fathers who went out
on one exhausting fishing trip after another.
But since she’d committed to the Caledon Volunteer Program, Bella had resolved to give
these kids her all.
She couldn’t offer them material comfort, but she would teach them everything she could. She would do it wholeheartedly.
Books might not change their fate. But they were the best shot the children had.
As Bella recited a poem from memory, a burst of noise suddenly broke out among the kids.
She turned toward the door, and there Danny Montgomery was. He was leaning against the window outside, eyes crinkled with amusement as he watched her.
When he saw her glance his way, he raised his eyebrows playfully.
Just then, the bell rang for the end of class.
Bella closed the textbook and walked over to him.
Danny was a notorious playboy from the city she had left. He had confessed to her more than ten times—and each time, she’d turned him down.
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And yet, this same Danny, who always avoided hardship like the plague, had somehow signed up for the Caledon Volunteer Program.
Over the past few days, she had slowly started to change her mind about him. Maybe he wasn’t as unreliable as she’d thought.
She looked at him and asked bluntly, “What are you doing here?”
He smiled, unfazed, and simply held out his phone to her.
She tapped the screen. A video started playing.
In the video was Seth.
Gone was the disciplined man she remembered. In his place was someone disheveled, downing one drink after another, until he finally collapsed against the bar counter, drunk
out of his mind.
The shock on Bella’s face was impossible to hide.
The Seth she remembered never even went to bars. He was always in control, always
composed.
But in this video, he hadn’t stopped drinking.
Was this really the same Seth she had once known?
Danny must’ve noticed her reaction, because he began explaining in a calm, even tone.
“Turns out the woman Seth was going to marry was a scammer. Her explicit videos got
exposed at the wedding. Right there, on the spot. The scandal made waves. The Rogen
family took a huge hit. Seth didn’t just lose a promotion–he got chewed out by his boss in public.
“And with his vindictive personality? He didn’t hesitate. That same day, he had her kidney removed and sent her off to a desolate wasteland overseas. Pretty brutal, considering he
used to love her.”
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Bella’s expression turned pained.
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She had seen that cold–blooded side of Seth before, but she never thought he would one day
turn it on Faye.
Even now, memories from her past life made her shudder.
Thankfully, in this life, she hadn’t made the same mistake.
Danny looked at her with a kind of tenderness in his eyes.
He had known from the beginning. From the moment he fell for her, he’d understood— Bella’s heart belonged to someone else. To Seth.
Still, he had pursued her again and again, hoping she’d be moved by his sincerity.
All he got in return were rejections. He didn’t need her to say it—he already knew why.
He just didn’t get it. What was so great about Seth, that cold old man? Sure, he had a decent
face, but his character was a disaster.
He had used Bella’s love against her, had hurt and humiliated her without remorse.
What right did a man like that have to be loved by someone like Bella?
So when Danny learned everything Seth had done to her, he had launched his own
investigation into Faye.
And what he uncovered was beyond what he’d expected–page after page of dirty secrets.
Yet Seth, always so meticulous, had never once looked into her. Instead, he had treated
Bella, who had given him her whole heart, like she was the enemy.
The wedding scandal? The video? The evidence? Danny had orchestrated it all. Not to ruin the wedding, but to leave Seth with a guilt he’d never shake. To make sure he could never forget what he’d done to Bella.
So when he saw the drunken mess Seth had become on social media, he had rushed over,
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wanting to share it with her. But he hadn’t expected Bella to look so… unhappy.
He had traveled all this way to the middle of nowhere for one reason–to see her smile
again.
So he quickly changed the subject.
“Bella, look,” he said, glancing at the sky, “the weather’s great today. The sun’s even shining into your classroom.”
Bella followed his gaze toward the sunlight in the distance.
And then Danny, in a voice soft as a whisper, said, “What I mean is… we’ll always have a
brand new
day.”
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