Chapter 1

It was the seventh year since our divorce when I ran into Andrew Grant, my ex-husband, at the Heroes' Memorial Garden.

I was alone, holding my father's urn, while he carried a young boy in his arms and held hands with his first love.

We stood three steps apart, nodding slightly in acknowledgment.

Just as we were about to pass each other, he suddenly said, "Claire Sutton, you've changed."

I forced a smile, not looking back. But in my palm, I clenched two cold grave ID tags.

One was for my father, and the other was the one I'd already set aside for myself.

*****

"Ms. Sutton, are you sure you want to reserve a grave for yourself?"

I traced the overlapping scars from IV drips on my wrist and flashed a bright smile.

Just in case I pass away suddenly and no one's around to handle things for me, it feels safer to have everything arranged ahead of time.

Standing before my parents' shared grave, holding my father's urn, I could distinctly hear the last string in my heart break with a sharp snap.

The last person in this world connected to me by blood was gone forever.

"Claire?"

A voice I'd carried in my soul for seven years suddenly hit me out of nowhere.

I looked up, dazed, and locked eyes with a pair of deep, familiar yet distant eyes.

"Andrew..."

My throat tightened, and my eyes burned. For a second, I almost wondered if the pain from my cancer was making me see things.

Seven years ago, just after our new house was finished, he left behind the divorce papers and headed off to lead an escort mission across distant seas. He disappeared from my life completely, as if he'd vanished into thin air.

I waited 1,912 days, constantly checking the mission casualty lists, thinking he might have been lost to the depths of some faraway ocean.

But now, he was right here in front of me. Not only unharmed, but now even a general.

He walked closer, his eyes flashed with surprise, but he quickly masked it with calm. "Long time no see."

A thousand questions caught in my throat, but all I could manage was a hoarse, "Long time no see."

His gaze fell on the urn, his brows furrowing slightly. "Who passed away?"

"My dad," I replied.

When I was twenty-two, my mom passed away. He kept vigil at the wake for three days in his military uniform, and in front of her portrait, he swore he'd always be there for me.

When I was twenty-six, he left behind the divorce papers and vanished without a word.

Now, at thirty-one, my dad died suddenly from a heart attack,. And I was holding a diagnosis for terminal stomach cancer. The doctor said I had less than three months left.

"My condolences," Andrew said quietly.

I swallowed hard. "Thanks."

All those years of love and promises, and now it's just two empty pleasantries between us.' Claire thought.

Andrew swallowed. "How have you been all these years? Still living at Seaview Residence?"

"Same old," I replied calmly. "I've already listed Seaview Residence with a realtor."

That apartment was our first home together. For seven years, I stayed there, always hoping he'd come back one day and have a place to call home.

But after all that waiting, I was left exhausted. He never returned, and all I got in the end was a terminal diagnosis.

Anyway, I won't be living there anymore, so there's no point in keeping it.

Andrew paused for a moment. "I just moved back to the country. Sell it to me."

I hugged the urn tighter. "I've already handed it over to the realtor. Just go through the proper channels."

I didn't have the strength or the right to get into it with him anymore.

The air fell silent, and I couldn't hold back anymore. "It's been seven years. Can you finally tell me the real reason you divorced me?"

Andrew's brows tightened, his eyes shadowed with something unreadable. "We're grown-ups now. There's no point in reopening old wounds."

He picked up a white flower and set it on the stone ledge by the grave. "Let the past stay in the past. Keep moving forward. Don't look back."

As he turned to leave, my hand shot out, trying to catch his sleeve.

I needed an answer to finally untangle the knot in my heart that had been eating at me for seven years.

But just then, a clear, childlike voice called out, "Mr. Andrew!"