Chapter 2

I had known Claire for seventeen years.

Seventeen years later, the red brick of the old neighborhood was exactly the same, but the people inside were gone.

I still remembered my freshman year of high school, the first time I forgot my keys.

Claire had just moved in next door. She was the one who walked with me to the admin office to get the spare. What should have been a long, boring trek felt like it was over in seconds just because she was there, talking to me.

We walked to school together. We walked home together. We spent every winter and summer break side by side.

On the day of our high school graduation, we finally held hands.

Those were the brightest, most vibrant years of our lives.

Claire's parents had passed away early, leaving her to be raised by her grandfather, Walter.

During the summer after our freshman year of college, she stood on her tiptoes, running her fingers through my chestnut hair. She told me she wanted to drop out and get a job. She couldn't bear to see her grandfather struggle with the bills anymore.

The thought of her leaving terrified me so much that I ran straight home.

It was the first time I ever begged my father for anything.

I told him I wanted to be with Claire.

Michael drained the last of his coffee from his travel mug and stared at me for a long time.

"You really can't live without this girl?"

I wiped my eyes and nodded hard.

From the day she walked with me to get those keys, from the moment she touched my hair and told me I was handsome, I knew. No matter what happened, I was never going to let her go.

My dad let out a heavy sigh.

He and my mom talked behind closed doors for hours.

That afternoon, Michael hired a lawyer to set up an educational trust account. It would pay Claire's tuition and essential living expenses directly to the university. Every cent was tracked by bank and school records.

He took the paperwork and knocked on the door next door.

"Getting into college is the hard part," he told her. "You don't need to worry about the money now."

"Get your degree. Build a life. Take proper care of Walter."

Claire looked down at the documents in her hands, and the tears spilled over.

She kept saying thank you, sobbing so hard she could barely form a complete sentence.

My dad held up a hand to stop her.

"I'm not looking for a lifelong debt."

"If you and Ethan really love each other, just do right by him."

Claire nodded, tears streaming down her face.

"I'll spend the rest of my life repaying you for this. As long as Ethan and I are together, I will always be good to him."

She promised she would always be good to me.

And from that day on, we were officially a couple.

For a long time, she kept that promise.

Claire finished her undergrad, went to law school, got her JD, and passed the Pennsylvania bar. She started at a firm in Pittsburgh. A few years later, she passed the Illinois bar, moved to Chicago, and became one of the fastest-rising young corporate lawyers in the city.

And she was the perfect girlfriend.

The day before our wedding, she watched me weaving a hand-woven memory bracelet. She suddenly asked, "Weave a strand of your hair into it."

"So no matter where I go, you're with me."

She touched my hair, her eyes shining with an intensity that took my breath away.

"Ethan, I can't live without you."

I smiled.

In that moment, my heart felt so full it could burst. Everyone envied me. They all said I had a wife who loved me more than anything in the world.

After the wedding, she joined a massive national firm in Chicago. Even as her caseload exploded, she tried to fly back to the neighborhood every weekend.

Just to spend a few extra hours with me, she would catch the earliest flights or trains, waking up at four in the morning.

It wasn't until her career really took off that the visits stretched to every few weeks.

Once, I had a severe bout of acute gastroenteritis. The pain was so blinding I couldn't get out of bed. My parents rushed me to the ER.

When I woke up in the middle of the night, Claire was sitting by my bed.

She had a high-profile court appearance scheduled for the very next morning.

The moonlight caught her silhouette, and for a second, I thought I was hallucinating.

Then a tear slipped from her eye and landed on the back of my hand.

"Ethan, I'm not going back to Chicago. I'm staying right here with you, okay?"

I had no idea how she managed to get a flight back in the dead of night.

My heart ached for her. I reached out, and she pulled me into a desperate hug.

Right then, I believed with absolute certainty that we were going to be happy forever.

So, I quit my job and moved to Chicago to be with her.

I wanted to surprise her.

Instead, I opened the door and saw her and Noah, naked, asleep in the same bed.