Chapter 2

Inside the bar, Nathan held Vivian close, his voice full of concern. "Stop hurting yourself with the past. You're still not well. You need to take it easy."

Vivian buried her face in his chest, sobbing softly. "I only hate myself for being powerless back then. I made you suffer for four years."

Suffer? My father had risen before dawn and worked until nightfall, carrying a basket on his back and walking dozens of miles to sell vegetables. His feet blistered, yet he still refused to take a bus, all to save money for her surgery. Yet she still had the nerve to act like she was the one who'd been wronged.

I turned to leave, but the gossiping crowd shoved me from behind, and I fell to the ground.

Nathan looked over at me. His tall figure wavered, then he rushed over and grabbed my arm. "Summer, is it really you?"

I pushed myself up. "It's been a long time."

The urgency in Nathan's eyes faded into shock.

Vivian stared at me, totally stunned when she realized who I was. "You look like you are fine now."

"I got treated abroad," I replied.

Nathan's throat moved as if he wanted to say something.

Vivian cut him off, lifting her chin as she looked down at me. "Look at you, so shabby. You didn't come back just to beg for money, did you? After all, your father changed Nathan's college choice over a measly pile of cash."

When I didn't respond, Nathan tightened his grip on my hand and then suddenly let go. His gaze turned cold. "Did you come back for money?"

Yes. And no. A year earlier, I had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I needed a fortune to stay alive through chemotherapy. But I gave up.

I worked in the bar to save enough for a burial plot, so I could be laid to rest beside my father.

But there was no point in explaining. Anything I said would only sound like I was playing the pity card. "Mr. Rivers, you're interrupting my shift."

Suddenly, my vision went black. My body, already worn out, just gave out, and I dropped to the floor.

In my haze, I dreamed again of that night when Nathan never came home.

The dim light made my father look painfully old.

"Nathan's just too good for us," he had said softly. "You and I... we were never meant to walk the same road as him."

He wiped my tears, his eyes full of sorrow. "Summer, darling, I was too selfish before. Now, let's give Nathan back the future he deserves."

He went out with Nathan's contract in his pocket, his back heavy with grief.

I sat crying on the doorstep all night and finally understood that Nathan was never coming back.

What I didn't expect was that my father didn't come back either.

That very night, he slipped and fell into the river. He died.

On the day of his funeral, he was cremated along with piles of hospital slips and medical reports. It was late-stage bone cancer.

The people who had pitied Nathan just yesterday turned their sympathy toward me.

"Good grief, did Mr. Swan catch his daughter's stupidity? He got sick himself but spent his money treating someone else."

"I heard Nathan fled overnight with Vivian and her mother. Poor Mr. Swan, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on that ungrateful brat. What's Summer supposed to do now?"

I hugged the urn, drowning in the pain of losing my father. Overnight, I lost the two people I loved most.

Later, the Foster family—whom my father had once helped—adopted me and took me abroad for treatment. Slowly, my mind cleared.

After I learned how to read, I opened Nathan's diary. He had left in such a hurry that he hadn't taken it with him.

It read: [I don't want to marry that fool at all. I want to be with Vivian. I've even picked out names for our future kids.]

Vivian was the girl Luna said that Nathan had a crush on.

It continued: [As long as Vivian can make it, nothing feels tough. Even if that fool grosses me out, I'll just deal with it.]

[Today I tricked the fool into hiding in the latrine to play hide-and-seek, just so I could sneak out and see Vivian. She's lost so much weight. It breaks my heart. I want to go back and take care of her.]

Every line of the diary was filled with resentment toward my father and me and how he had to swallow his pride and a humble, almost worshipful love for Vivian.

As I turned the pages, memories surfaced one by one. The dried ink blurred under my tears.

Only then did I realize that in all the little details, Nathan's disgust for me had been there all along.