Chapter 2

I had no choice but to stop and greet her.

“Chloe? What a coincidence.”

“You have good taste. That wedding dress really suits you.”

Liam saw me and instinctively stood up. He started to explain to me.

“I…”

I shook my head, smiling, signaling that it was fine.

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“Picking out a wedding dress is a top priority, and as the groom, of course you should be here. Since you’re busy today, let’s do it tomorrow. We’ll go to the County Clerk’s Office and get things done. If we drag this out any longer, I might not have the time.”

Chloe tilted her head, a hint of surprise in her voice.

“Riley, you finally agreed?”

Then, as if she suddenly realized her tone sounded a little too triumphant, she apologized to me.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. I just…”

I chuckled, walking over to straighten her veil.

“You don’t need to apologize. I’ve just recently had a change of heart. If the twenty-eight-year-old Liam had shown up when he was seventeen, with all his memories, I definitely wouldn’t have given him up to you either.”

“Because love is selfish.”

By the time I got into the car, it was already raining.

I sat in the back, then spoke suddenly.

“To the old villa, please.”

The driver instinctively started to turn his head to advise me against it. Because of my heart failure, my body had been particularly frail recently. Forget getting caught in the rain, I couldn’t even stand a slight breeze. It seemed even the smallest illness could become my death knell.

But seeing the determined look on my face, he eventually said nothing.

The security guard at the old earthquake site, Mr. Henderson, already knew me. The moment he saw my license plate, he promptly lifted the barrier. He was a widower who had lost his wife in the earthquake. He watched the rain, murmuring.

“It’s raining. I’m afraid some of the old houses might collapse.”

I stood in the rain, umbrella in hand, looking at what used to be our wedding home.

Three years ago, I was abroad on a business trip when a major earthquake hit the city.

When Liam was rushed to the hospital, covered in blood, I sat numbly outside the emergency room.

The hospital walls heard more fervent prayers than any church.

At that moment, I wished, I swore I would give up ten, twenty, even thirty years of my life, just for Liam to wake up.

Later, I thought fate had finally favored me.

Now, I just felt that everything was destiny, and I had no control over any of it.

I felt like a wax figure, slowly burning away these past three years, leaving only half of myself. Yet my thoughts were still fixated on the time when Liam and I were most in love.

As if to confirm the security guard’s prediction, just as I was leaving.

Our wedding home collapsed.

With a thunderous crash, the already precarious walls crumbled down.

I turned back to look. What was once recognizable as our home was now just a pile of rubble.

When Liam walked out of the mall, he received a phone call. On the other end was a German man, speaking broken English, sounding very excited.

“Hey, Liam! I finally got a hold of you.”

“I finished your ring a long time ago, just as you requested, but then you never came to pick it up. I heard something bad happened on your end. How are you doing now? I’ll ship it to you.”

Liam’s mind was suddenly slammed by the words “ring.” It was like something was trying to break free from deep within his memory.

A single tear fell, calmly, from his eye.

He wiped it away, then replied quickly.

“I’ll send you the address.”

Liam had never felt such panic. His mind flickered with chaotic, unclear memories. Strange yet familiar, the last image was of my eyes, red from crying, by his hospital bed.

He felt like he was on the verge of remembering.

Perhaps right after he saw that ring.

But suddenly, a text message popped up on his phone:

“You have successfully booked your divorce registration application at the City County Clerk’s Office. Please arrive on time!”