Year Five The Perfect Goodbye Plan novel Chapter 204

She lifted her head just slightly, her voice calm but cold. “The most foolish thing I ever did in this life was to believe you were someone I could trust.”

“Sweet Silvia, don’t do this,” Shipley replied, his tone still gentle, as if trying to smooth things over.

She almost laughed at herself. “You—of all the backgrounds, I somehow chose to throw away everything and follow you out of some misplaced charity… God, I was naïve.”

Of all the things Silvia could have said, nothing wounded Shipley like that.

The thing he had always hidden deepest was his own family background. Truth be told, Shipley’s family was comfortable, middle class in Capital City. But compared with the Ashfords—old money, the city’s elite—he was always coming up short.

Back at school, he’d spent most of his time with Finn Ashford, and people always compared them. There were whispers that he was just Finn’s tagalong. Shipley heard them, and every time, it stung, feeding a sense of inferiority he could never quite shake.

That was why he’d been so determined to start his own business, to break out of Finn’s shadow and become someone important on his own terms. Silvia knew all of this—she’d always known—but she never said it out loud. Instead, she just cared for him quietly.

Now, after all these years, their love had unraveled to the point where they were throwing knives with their words.

Shipley let out a short, bitter laugh, his gaze fixed on Silvia. There was a mocking curl to his lips as he looked at her, eyes sharp, posture rigid.

“Silvia,” he said, voice low, “do you really believe, after all these five years, that you were the only one making sacrifices? Do you think I gave nothing?”

Silvia barely glanced at him, her eyes drifting past his shoulder. She saw the security guards approaching, and with a small wave of her hand, she called out, “Excuse me, could you please help? This man is disrupting our work.”

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