Chapter 1
Back in the year Charles loved me most, I walked away from him, leaving him sick and all alone out in the rain.
Years later, after he made a name for himself, he pulled every string he could to track me down and buy out the company I worked for.
Everyone said I was the love he could never forget. But to please his new flame, he went out of his way to hurt me again and again.
Whenever he lost his temper, he would grab me by the throat, kiss me like he wanted to bite, and snarl, "Emily, tell me—why are you still alive?"
But in the end, I really did die. And Charles completely snapped, clutching my urn as he threw himself into the sea.
*****
It had been three years since we broke up, and this was the first time I'd seen Charles.
His face suddenly popped up on the concert's big screen, right near me.
The moment I turned to look, I froze.
Charles was down on one knee, eyes slightly red, looking up at the girl in a white veil. "Sophie, will you marry me?"
My eyesight had never been great, but somehow, through the crowd, I saw the ring.
It was the promise Charles made to me when he was twenty-one and had nothing.
Back then, the two of us together didn't even have a hundred bucks, but his eyes were burning with love. He once held a drawing of that ring and wrapped me in a hug. "Emily, just give me a little more time. I swear I'll make this ring with my own hands and propose to you."
He'd asked me where I wanted to be proposed to. I'd told him at my idol's concert.
And he kept that promise. Just not to me.
The music thundered in the background as if celebrating the perfect ending for the new leading couple.
Meanwhile, tears streamed down my face. The test result I'd received only ten minutes earlier suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.
We were only a few dozen feet apart, yet it felt like there was a whole galaxy between us.
Charles was stepping into a new life. And I was walking toward the end of mine.
I tried to tuck myself deeper into the crowd, praying he wouldn't see me.
When the concert ended, a dull ache spread through my head, and my vision kept dimming. I fell backward, and someone caught me just in time. But before I could steady myself, I was shoved hard onto the ground.
A familiar voice snapped above me, "Emily, after all these years, you're still using this pathetic trick?"
The sarcasm in his tone jolted me wide awake.
Charles stood in front of me, his eyes full of nothing but disgust and hate.
I looked at him, stunned. "Charles, I only fell because my low blood sugar—"
But before I could finish, the girl beside him smiled and slipped her arm through his. "Charles, who's she?"
Charles smirked, his voice dripping with contempt. "Just a gold-digger." He turned and slipped his jacket over her shoulders. "Put this on. It gets cold at night."
The rest of my words died in my throat as the two of them stood there acting like no one else existed.
He didn't spare me another glance. He wrapped his arm around his fiancée and walked away.
It started to drizzle again, just like that night two years ago when I left Charles out in the cold.
A sharp sting ran up my arm, and my sluggish mind finally caught up. When he threw me earlier, a huge patch of skin had scraped off. Blood was dripping down my arm in thin lines.
I pressed my hand over the wound. It hurt, but not as much as my heart did.
Back then, even the smallest scrape on me would send Charles into a panic. But now, he walked away without blinking.
That night, when I got home, I dreamed about the past for the first time in ages.
Sometimes, it was us when we were young, lying side by side under the same blanket, talking about all the things we'd do someday.
Other times, I saw myself on that rainy night, watching Charles disappear into the darkness as I wiped away my tears and walked into that lonely alley.
And sometimes, it was the way he looked at me now—his eyes filled with nothing but contempt.