Chapter 145
Every gaze in the recording studio locked onto Serena as she commanded the stage, Vivian's eyes among them burning with intensity.
What had begun as Oakley's solitary unease now rippled through Vivian's consciousness-something about the face beneath that mask stirred memories she couldn't quite grasp.
Millie moved with liquid grace across the stage, her fingers working deliberately at the mask's edges,exposing fragments of her true face with theatrical precision. Through the remaining plaster, her eyes sought Brandon's distant figure in the sea of spectators.
His brow had creased into worried lines, confusion clouding his expression like storm clouds gathering overhead.
Millie's mouth curved into a knowing smile beneath the crumbling disguise.
The charade had reached its final act.
Her gaze dropped momentarily before her right hand rose with deliberate slowness.
The sharp crack of splitting plaster sliced through the hushed auditorium.
Half the mask exploded into powder, fragments dancing away on the evening breeze.
Brandon's eyes contracted to pinpoints, recognition dawning across his features with brutal clarity.
Only one delicate shard clung to Serena's face now, the last barrier between truth and revelation.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd as awareness began its slow burn.
Brandon's mouth compressed into a bloodless line. His stare burned into the figure onstage, torn between desperate denial and the terrifying need for confirmation.
Serena remained motionless, her head tilted Eownward in a moment of perfect stillness. Her right hand moved with gentle finality.
The last fragment of her plaster mask surrendered to gravity.
Wind swept across the stage, liberating her hair to flow like liquid silk. As she raised her head with agonizing slowness, those familiar locks framed her revealed face, exposing her identity to every shocked observer.
Brandon exploded from his seat, eyes stretched wide with disbelief, his entire body trembling as he gaped at the transformed woman onstage.
The audience detonated into chaos, screams of astonishment tearing through the night air.
"That's Millie!"
"Serena was actually Millie this entire time?! How-"
"Wait a second! So she's really Millie? As in... Brandon's wife?"
"This defies belief! Millie's supposed to be nothing more than a spoiled trophy wife! How could she possibly be Serena?"
"Someone's playing an elaborate trick on us!"
"Maybe this is all wrong? Did Serena realize she couldn't save her reputation and convince Millie to participate in some twisted performance?"
Disbelief crashed over the crowd like ocean waves against stubborn cliffs.
Serena's genius had blazed undeniably bright, particularly after her triumphant third performance. Even when the donation fraud scandal had tried to destroy her reputation, no soul had questioned the raw power of her artistry.
During the scandalous fourth show, when vicious rumors had swirled around Serena, she had once again silenced every critic through pure artistic brilliance.
But now reality stood naked before them-Serena had been that supposedly pampered housewife all along?The same woman whose husband paraded pâblicly with Vivian, practically announcing their affair to the world while she waited silently at home for Vivian's influence to diminish, her eyes fixed on the Watson family fortune? The same woman everyone believed to never ever measure up to Vivian's legendary twenty-five-second musical masterpiece?
The revelation stretched beyond the boundaries of human comprehension.
"This cannot be happening! What we're witnessing defies all logic-it must be an elaborate deception!"
Hysteria erupted from countless throats as the auditorium plunged into absolute pandemonium.
From his position at the rear, Charles observed Millie's commanding presence onstage with quiet satisfaction before his attention shifting to Oakley's ashen face beside him.
"You see, sometimes there really are miracles," Charles murmured, his smile carrying the weight of vindication.
Oakley remained transfixed by Millie's revealed identity, his expression carved from pure disbelief as his world crumbled around him.
Only after forcing himself to process the impossible reality before him did Oakley rotate toward Charles with mechanical stiffness, terror blazing in his widened eyes.
The screaming crescendoed as hundreds of faces swiveled between Vivian's frozen figure on stage and Brandon's shocked figure in the concealed seating area.
Vivian stood paralyzed by the magnitude of what she had discovered.
Oakley's earlier warning message had planted seeds of worry in her mind, and her own instincts had whispered danger, yet nothing had prepared her for this earth-shattering revelation.
Her memory conjured Brandon's casual mention that Millie would grace today's performance, how he had thoughtfully reserved the seat directly beside his own for his wife's arrival. But not a single soul had breathed a word that Serena was actually Millie.
A violent tremor seized Vivian as her past actions crashed over her. She remembered wth crystal clarity how she had cornered Serena backstage, hervoice dripping with calculated menace as she attempted to forge an alliance against Millie.
If her eyes weren't deceiving her now, then every scheme she'd crafted crumbled into pathetic comedy.
Denial clawed at her throat-Serena and Millie existing as the same person violated every law of probability and logic.
Vivian's head snapped toward Brandon with desperate urgency.
He remained motionless as carved marble, his entire being focused on Millie's figure bathed in stage lights.
His mind reeled against the evidence of his own eyes.
How could this extraordinary woman possibly be Millie, the wife he thought he knew intimately? How had he failed so completely to recognize the person who shared seven intimate years of his life?
Their history stretched back to childhood innocence and youthful dreams. Seven years together as partners had woven their lives together through countless shared experiences. Endless intimate moments had mapped every detail of her presence into his memory. She had occupied the space beside him for so long-how could he fail to recognize her after she just put a mask on?
His mind dragged him back to that first encounter with Serena, replaying the scene with painful clarity.
She had appeared wrapped in an elegant coat while Charles guided her through the backstage maze with protective care.
Then came Serena's debut performance, burned forever into Brandon's consciousness.
Her slender silhouette had been draped in that rose-red costume, the mysterious mask concealing her identity. The stage lights carved harsh shadows across her form, exposing the extensive bruising that painted her skin in shades of purple and yellow, making her appear fragile enough to shatter with the next breath.
His consciousness conjured that moment in the sterile hospital-Millie's voice calling his name after her devastating fall down the stairs, that single word "Brandon" now echoing endlessly through his memory.
His right hand quivered as memory dragged him back to that night after her first performance, when he'd pulled her aside for a word. She had swayed on her feet like a broken reed, her body eventually surrendering to exhaustion before Charles swept her away to safety.
Brandon's legs threatened to buckle beneath him, his jaw locked in a rigid line while his mouth compressed into a bloodless slash.
Though his face appeared carved from marble, anyone who truly understood him could read the hurricane of emotions tearing through his very foundation.
How had he failed so catastrophically to recognize Millie? Could a simple mask truly possess the-power to blind him to the woman whose soul had intertwined with his for countless years? The answer struck him like a physical blow-absolutely not.
From their very first encounter, Serena had awakened something achingly familiar within him-her distinctive vocal style, her extraordinary musical intuition, and that inexplicable sense of recognition that had haunted him whenever she graced the stage. Yet he had systematically crushed every instinct that whispered the truth.
Vivian's words echoed through his tortured thoughts-her claim that reliable sources had revealed Serena's tragic miscarriage following a devastating fall just ten days before the live performance, explaining her absence from crucial rehearsals.
During those conversations, Vivian had planted seeds of suspicion that Serena belonged to Charles, that their relationship extended far beyond professional boundaries.
Brandon's hands contracted into trembling fists, his knuckles whitening under the strain.
His vision blurred with unshed tears.
In his memory, Millie had never possessed Serena's ethereal thinness, her almost ghostly fragility.
Only mere days had separated his final glimpse of Millie in that sterile hospital room and Serena's breathtaking stage debut.
His logical mind couldn't comprehend how anyone could shed such dramatic weight in such an impossibly brief timeframe.
This rationalization had become his fortress against recognition.
But their later encounter at Moonlit Estate-
He had witnessed firsthand how dramatically she had withered away, how she shivered uncontrollably even during April's mild warmth, and how weakness had settled into her bones. Why had his heart remained so stubbornly blind to what his eyes were desperately trying to show him?
His fingernails carved crescents into his palms as Brandon fixed his burning gaze on Millie's triumphant form, vertigo washing over him in crushing waves.
Drowning in the depths of his shock and self-recrimination, Brandon remained completely oblivious to Myron's penetrating surveillance from the shadowed recesses a few rows away.
Myron's-characteristic gentleness had evaporated completely, replaced by a gaze that pierced Brandon with arctic hostility, every glance promising retribution for sins yet to be acknowledged.