The Conclusion That No One Expected
The media frenzy eventually faded, but for Richard, the question remained: What happened to Adeline?
He would never know. The guilt gnawed at him for the rest of his life—haunting him, not just for abandoning her, but for the way he had treated her every single time before.
His life, now empty, was just as hollow as the space she had left behind. And as he sat in the silence of his once-thriving home, he realized that his empire had crumbled, not because of a joke, but because of the cruelty behind it.
Adeline had been his anchor, and now, without her, he was lost.