Chapter 3

I was hunched over the toilet, throwing up until I felt lightheaded.

Someone knocked on the door. “Do you need help?”

I fumbled to flush the toilet, wiping my mouth.

The glaring red on the back of my hand, I didn’t have time to clean it, so I hid my hand behind my back.

When I opened the door, Mrs. Sterling, Alex’s mother, stood there.

She looked surprised to see me. “Clara?”

I awkwardly greeted her and quickly made my escape, feeling utterly disheveled.

“Clara!” Mrs. Sterling hurried after me, her eyes a little red.

She looked at me, hesitating to speak.

After a moment, she quietly said, “I’m sorry.”

My throat felt parched, my voice hoarse. “Mrs. Sterling, you don’t need to apologize.”

What happened back then was my own choice.

Nothing else mattered.

Mrs. Sterling looked at me with aching sympathy, tears welling in her eyes. “Clara, you and Alex weren’t meant to be. Just forget him.”

Everyone said Alex and I weren’t meant to be.

Even I believed it.

But why?

Back then, our love was so fiery, so passionate.

Why could Isabella’s appearance erase over a decade of our shared history?

I clutched my chest, suppressing the agonizing, tearing pain, and forced a pale smile. “Mrs. Sterling, I let go a long time ago.”

As I left the hotel, I saw Alex and Isabella standing by the entrance, seeing off guests.

I didn’t go over, just watched Alex from a distance.

Someone bid him farewell. “Congratulations, Alex, you finally married the girl you love.”

He rarely smiled, but at that moment, a touch of genuine joy softened his eyes and lips. “Thank you.”

I watched him, and it felt as if time and space had frozen.

It was like going back years, to that sweltering summer.

He held my hand under the stars, giving me a rose as a promise.

“Clara, why haven’t you grown up yet?”

“I wish I could marry you sooner, my silly girl.”

Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved me with such devotion.

In the most beautiful years of our lives, we promised each other forever.

We shared our first innocent kisses on snowy nights.

And finally, in a spring filled with pear blossoms, we pledged our lives to each other.

Time flowed on and on.

In the end, the boy I loved married someone else.