Chapter 119: Chapter 106: Birthday Gift

Isla Prescott’s words were like a stone dropped into a deep pool. They produced no echo, only ever-widening ripples of silence.

In that instant, it was as if all the sound had been drained from the world.

The air thickened into a transparent gel, making every breath she took feel thick and difficult.

After a long moment, Shane Sterling finally spoke. “I’m not just going to let it go.”

His voice was so calm it bordered on obsessive.

Isla Prescott’s eyelid twitched. “If you weren’t going to agree with me, why did you even ask what I wanted?”

“I meant I won’t give up on our relationship. As for you… you’re free.” He looked at her and let out a slow sigh. “Isabelle, I can’t promise you a definite future right now. I can’t predict what’s going to happen next. But I won’t ask you to wait for me anymore. Until I can truly control my own destiny, you don’t have to be bound by this relationship at all.”

“Even if I fall in love with someone else?”

“If you truly fall in love with someone else, then I’ll have to accept my fate.”

His gaze was like grain basking in the morning sun—full and honest.

Isla Prescott felt a hole being chiseled into her heart, and the pain instantly grew worse.

She almost wished they had hurt each other terribly. At least then, the pain would be a reason to let go. But there was no betrayal, no deception—just fate, which had already written a cruel footnote on the first page of their story. And she didn’t have the courage to gamble everything she had against it.

“You should get some rest.” Shane Sterling stood up. “I’m heading back.”

He turned and left the moment he finished speaking, his rushed, unsteady steps betraying that he wasn’t nearly as detached as he sounded.

Isla Prescott didn’t ask him to stay, but the moment the door clicked shut, she was consumed with hatred for her own cowardice.

* * *

For the better part of the next month, Isla Prescott didn’t see Shane Sterling.

She didn’t consciously think about him, either. Instead, she threw herself into her work at the studio, numbing the pain with long hours. She would work until she collapsed, sleep, and then get right back to it the moment she woke up.

Annabelle Leighton was very worried about her but was at a loss for how to offer any comfort.

At the end of the month, it was Isla Prescott’s birthday.

Annabelle Leighton discussed it with the others at the studio, and they all decided to throw her a surprise party.

They booked a private room at a lounge bar in Skysea Plaza and arranged with the owner to decorate the space ahead of time.

On the day of Isla Prescott’s birthday, everyone pretended they had forgotten, leaving work right on time.

Annabelle Leighton, worried she’d blow the surprise, made an excuse about running errands and stayed away from the studio all day. It wasn’t until after hours that she called Isla Prescott, claiming an advertising client urgently needed a document and asking her to deliver it to the lounge bar.

Isla Prescott, successfully lured to the lounge, knocked and opened the door to the private room. Inside, all her colleagues from the studio were lined up. One person held a birthday cake, another set off a small confetti popper, and a third placed a birthday hat on her head. Finally, with Annabelle Leighton conducting, they all launched into a chaotic but heartfelt rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

The moment the first notes of “Happy Birthday” rang out, Isla Prescott burst into tears.

Her tears were partly from being moved, but mostly, they were the result of long-suppressed emotions finally finding a justifiable moment to come flooding out.

Annabelle Leighton stepped in at the perfect moment to hug her.

“Isla Prescott, you’re one year older now. You have to be braver, and you have to love yourself more.”

Isla Prescott nodded in Annabelle Leighton’s embrace.

It was a happy occasion, after all, so she didn’t let herself cry for long. After blowing out the candles and making a wish, she wiped her tears away.

The studio hadn’t had a get-together in a long time, so everyone took the opportunity to relax and enjoy themselves.

“Isabelle, these flowers are for you.” Candy, the studio’s new dance instructor, said as she returned from taking a call, a bouquet suddenly in her hands.

“Whoa, Candy, you’re putting the rest of us to shame!” Kiki Ford cried out.

“They’re not from me!” Candy clarified. “They’re from Keegan, the owner of the gym upstairs. He wanted me to give them to Isabelle.”

“How did he know it’s Isabelle’s birthday today?”

“I have no idea. I was at the gym yesterday, and he just came up to me and asked if I could deliver some flowers for him today.”

“Ooh, sounds like this Keegan has had his eye on our Isabelle for a while now.”

“But doesn’t Isabelle have a boyfriend?” another new dance instructor, Maisie, suddenly spoke up.

“Who are you talking about?”

“You know, the one who came to bring Isabelle food every day when her hand was hurt. The one who always wore a suit and was pretty handsome.”

Maisie was talking about Justin Wyatt.

“That’s not her boyfriend! That’s her boyfriend’s *assistant*.” Kiki Ford, unaware that Isla Prescott and Shane Sterling had broken up, eagerly filled the newcomers in. “Isabelle’s actual boyfriend is, like, a hundred times more handsome than that assistant.”

“Seriously? Just how handsome could he be?” Maisie thought Justin Wyatt was already incredibly handsome. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what someone a hundred times better-looking would be like.

“Next time…”

“Kiki!” Annabelle Leighton cut Kiki Ford off, shooting her a pointed look. “These strawberries are really fresh. You love strawberries, don’t you? Eat up.”

Kiki Ford suddenly realized that Shane Sterling hadn’t been to their studio in a long time.

Back when he and Isla Prescott were in the honeymoon phase, he was at the studio almost every day. His attendance record was better than some of the actual employees.

’Did they break up?’

The two new dance instructors still wanted to gossip, but Kiki Ford quickly changed the subject, not daring to mention Shane Sterling again.

Isla Prescott set the bouquet aside. Her expression remained neutral, but she couldn’t suppress the dull ache spreading through her chest.

“Isabelle…” Annabelle Leighton looked at her. “You don’t look so good. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Stop thinking about it. If you’re really that miserable, we can change venues later and hire you some male escorts.”

“You’re always going on about male escorts. Have you ever actually hired one?”

“Actually, no.”

Isla Prescott laughed. Annabelle Leighton was all talk, after all.

Just as the two of them were chatting, there was a knock on the door of the private room.

“Who is it?” Kiki Ford asked.

A staff member from the lounge bar pushed the door open and came in, carrying a bag in her hand.

“Excuse me, is Miss Isla Prescott here? A gentleman outside asked me to deliver a birthday present.”

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