I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!-Chapter 52: At the Edge of the Cliff (2)

But maybe... because the soul inside that body was different now, they saw her as someone else. Or perhaps it was because Roxanna was always shy whenever she saw them naked, and without realizing it, they had begun to react the same way.

Unfortunately, this was not the time for indecent thoughts.

"Calen won’t listen to me," Luan said at last. He swallowed hard before turning his face away. "The demon beasts are probably waiting for him to fall."

"Yes," Roxanna replied quietly as she walked closer to Calen. "I don’t think he wants to listen to anyone right now."

She paused. "After all... he wants to die."

Actually, Roxanna understood that feeling.

Once, Roxanna had been in the same position as Calen, standing at a high place with the urge to throw herself down.

She had been in high school at the time.

Many people would say she was too young to think about death like that. But the truth was, those thoughts didn’t care about age and they could reach anyone.

Roxanna might never have experienced being enslaved like Calen, but at the very least, she knew what it felt like to be treated like trash.

Back in high school, she had once helped a bullying victim. In return, the bullies chose her as their new target instead.

They did countless cruel things to her simply because she had helped someone else.

They stuffed her bag with garbage. They poured juice over her in the school bathroom. They spread terrible rumors, saying she sold her body to older men just to pay her school fees.

When the truth was, she was able to attend that elite school because she had earned a scholarship.

She reported their actions to the teachers, but nothing was done, since the bullies’ parents were officials and businessmen who played important roles in the country’s economy.

When Roxanna told her caretakers about that, they brushed it off and told her she simply had to endure it.

After all, her caretakers had to take care of many children in the orphanage, and they didn’t have time to deal with her so-called trivial problems.

That was when the thought finally formed in her mind. "Ah, maybe I really am not that important."

If she disappeared, the world would keep moving.

Nothing would stop.

So she climbed onto the roof of her five-story school building. She hid there after school, making sure no one knew she was up there.

But strangely, she didn’t jump right away. She stood still at the edge of the rooftop, staring down below, thinking that maybe she was simply too afraid to do it.

Too weak. Too cowardly.

So she waited.

She told herself that if she stayed there a little longer, the courage would come. That at some point, her heart would harden enough for her to take that step.

But it never did.

The sky darkened, and rain began to fall. Cold drops hit her skin again and again, soaking through her clothes until they clung to her body. She started to tremble, her teeth lightly chattering, yet she still didn’t move.

Deep in her heart, she was hoping for something she didn’t dare to say out loud.

She hoped someone would see her.

She hoped someone would stop her.

Unfortunately... no one came.

Her phone stayed silent. It never rang. It was as if no one noticed that she hadn’t come home yet, as if no one cared that she was late.

Then, suddenly, the rain stopped. The sky slowly cleared, and the sun was already sinking toward the horizon.

The sunlight broke through the thinning clouds, and soon, a rainbow formed in the sky.

Its colors stretched across the horizon. At first, they were faint, almost easy to miss. Then, little by little, they grew clearer. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue... standing beside one another.

It felt as if the sky was trying to tell her something.

Maybe someday, she too could have people who would stay by her side, just like those colors. People who wouldn’t leave. People who would stand together with her. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

And maybe... with them, she could create a life as beautiful as that rainbow.

Because of that small, foolish hope, Roxanna chose not to end her life back then. After that day, she kept telling herself that the things she wished for would one day come true.

And for a while... they did.

Years later, she found friends who could make her laugh. She found a best friend. She even met a man who said he loved her.

However, without realizing it, all of those things were also like a rainbow; Beautiful, yet short-lived.

It appeared for a moment, then slowly faded away.

In the end, it had all been an illusion, and Roxanna had been foolish enough to hold on to that fragile hope.

She had always believed that kind of hope was stupid, even after she woke up in the body of the evil Roxanna. To her, hope was nothing more than something that set people up for disappointment.

Yet after living in this world for only a few days... after spending time with her husbands... that hope slowly returned.

She knew it was foolish, and she knew it could hurt her again. But even the silliest hope was still hope, and people needed hope in their hearts, even a small one, just to keep going.

"Calen... I don’t know if you can hear me. I don’t even know if you care about what I’m saying," Roxanna said softly.

She stopped for a moment. Her eyes stayed on his back. Every part of her wanted to reach out and grab him, to pull him away from the edge, but she knew that if she did, he might jump.

"I—I’m not the right person to say things like this," she continued, taking a careful step forward. "I’m not someone bright or strong. I’m not that kind of person."

Her voice trembled when she said, "But, Calen... I would be sad if you jumped. I really would. I will miss you." She swallowed hard, and her eyes welled with tears. "Because you really matter to me."