Chapter 17 - Chapter 17: The Echoes of a Shattered Soul

​The basement vault felt smaller now, the red light pulsing like a warning siren that no one was coming to heed. Xuan sat against the heavy iron door, his fingers digging into the velvet carpet until his nails bled. "Why do you look at the door every time it creaks, Ning?" he asked, his voice a haunting whisper that carried the weight of a thousand jealousies. "Are you waiting for the 'hero' to break through? Are you waiting for the man who bought your family's life with a silver platter of lies?" Ning crawled toward him, her white dress stained with the dust of the room and the salt of her endless tears. "I'm looking at the door because I'm afraid for you, Xuan! If they break in, they will take you from me!" she cried, her voice cracking with an extreme level of misery. She reached out to touch his knee, but he recoiled as if her touch was a brand of betrayal. "You fear for me, or you fear I'll kill him before he can claim you?" Xuan roared, standing up so abruptly he nearly knocked her over. The misunderstanding had reached a fever pitch; every word she spoke was filtered through the lens of his possessive madness. He saw her concern as a shield for the rival, her tears as a mourning for a life she could have had with a "better" man. "I gave you my kingdom! I gave you my blood! And you give me... gratitude for a stranger!" He swept a row of crystal decanters off the side table, the crash echoing like a gunshot in the soundproofed room. Ning flinched, her body racking with extreme sobs. "He is nothing to me! My parents are being fooled, Xuan! Can't you see they are using the accident to chain me?" She grabbed his hand, forcing him to feel the frantic rhythm of her heart. "Feel this! It only beats for the man who is hurting me right now! It only beats for you!" Xuan looked down at her, his eyes softening for a fleeting second before the green-eyed monster of jealousy clawed its way back to the surface. He gripped her chin, forcing her to look into the abyss of his gaze. "Then tell me," he hissed, "if I killed him tonight, would you cry for the man who 'saved' your mother, or would you smile because your owner is safe?" Ning gasped, the cruelty of the question stealing her breath. This was the extreme level of their love—a devotion so fierce it demanded the death of all other connections. She realized then that to love Xuan was to live in a world where only two people existed, and any third shadow was a death sentence. She leaned her forehead against his chest, her crying turning into a low, broken moan. "I would die with you," she whispered. "Is that enough? Is my death the only thing that will make you believe I am yours?" Xuan's grip loosened, his own tears falling into her hair. "Your death would be my end," he muttered, "but your life... your life is a constant threat to my sanity." He pulled her into a suffocating embrace, his possessiveness so absolute that he felt jealous even of the air she breathed that wasn't his.