chapter1541

Stella looked at Joshua, her lips parting as if to say something, but her throat felt constricted, and no sound came out.

As if reading her mind, Joshua didn't look away. He met her gaze directly. "My intentions in approaching you were not pure. Just as Rachel said, I was looking for some entertainment."

Stella finally found her voice. "And later? Why did you help me later? Was that just another part of your game?"

"You must know by now about Rachel pretending to be the girl from my past, right?" Joshua said. "The truth is, I knew she was a fraud long before she came back to find Haynes. The reason I helped her back then wasn't because I was deceived, but because I thought it might turn into an interesting spectacle. So, I watched with a smile as she carried out her clumsy plan, occasionally stepping in to help her when she was about to be discovered."

He paused, a faint smile on his lips. "What I didn't expect was for the world to be so small. The person Rachel was impersonating turned out to be you."

At this, not only Stella but also Foreman and Haynes were speechless. The one thing they'd heard most from Rachel was

Joshua's supposed obsession net

his "first love." Rachel had always believed Joshua stopped helping her because he'd found out she wasn't the real one. Only now did she, and everyone else, realize he'd known she was lying from the very beginning. The truth left her frozen on the spot, eyes wide with disbelief.

Stella pressed on. "So, you helped me out of guilt, as compensation? Or was it because I was this so-called girl from your past?"

Stella knew he was telling the truth. He wasn't making excuses or blaming Rachel for fooling him. With Joshua's intelligence, Rachel might have tricked him for a short time, but never for that long. He was admitting it freely-he did it because it was fun, because it was interesting.

"Both were factors," Joshua said, "but they weren't the main reason. Guilt and the memory of that girl accounted for maybe twenty percent."

Joshua gave a slight, wry smile. "I only thought of her because my headaches had returned. I was curious to see if finding her might alleviate them Besides her music back then truly die soothe me and offer some comfort. I won't deny that hearing that melody again felt like seeing a glimmer of light. But..."

He looked straight into Stella's eyes, his voice as rational and clear as a cool stream. "The darkness around me was too vast, and that light was too faint to illuminate everything. So, I didn't mind giving her the help she wanted. For me, it was a trivial matter. Moreover, I never even saw her face back then. The idea that I would fall in love with someone over a single piece of music, to the point where I would do anything for her, is absurd. You ask why I helped you? It's not complicated. I helped you because I felt like it. It had very little to do with whether you were the one I was looking for. I'm not a good person. And I don't have much of a conscience."