Chapter 4

I laughed in disbelief.

I had wondered why she had come to see me at my stand for once.

Of course it was for Daniel.

Shining shoes barely brought in anything. I wasn’t even making enough to treat my leg.

I held back my tears and asked, my voice catching,

“Emily, do you know what taking that money means?”

“It means I’m even further away from getting my leg treated.”

“Do you want me to end up with a permanent limp?”

“And your family has money. Why can’t you use your own instead of taking mine?”

She looked ashamed.

“I…”

She raised her eyes to mine. They reddened, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

I froze. She had never cried for me, yet now she was crying for someone else.

My voice went hoarse.

“Do whatever you want.”

“But if you take that money today, from now on, we’re—”

Before I could finish, she hurried away with the cash.

I watched her disappear into the crowd.

Then I lowered my head and cried.

I used to say men shed blood, not tears. Crying over a woman was pathetic.

Now I was that pathetic man.

Looking back on more than a decade of marriage, I couldn’t help wondering what I had gotten out of it.

I thought for a long time, but I couldn’t find a single excuse convincing enough to fool myself.

That evening, I packed up my stand and slowly headed home.

Along the way, a neighbor who loved gossip said excitedly,

“Did you hear? That Brooks fellow bought a house!”

Another woman asked,

“Which Brooks?”

The neighbor clapped her hands.

“Daniel Brooks!”

“I heard Emily put up a lot of the money. They were looking at houses together, just like a married couple!”

“And Emily’s parents paid quite a bit, too. They practically treat him like their son-in-law. Lucky man!”

“Do you think Emily regrets marrying Ethan? She and Daniel seem much more like a couple.”

She laughed, completely unaware that I was standing behind her.

My grip on my cloth bag loosened as I stared at her.

They all turned toward me, then quickly scurried away.

I clenched my fist and slammed it into a rough brick wall.

The jagged edges cut my hand. Blood ran down the wall.

In that moment, I couldn’t accept it.

Why was she willing to spend money buying Daniel a house, but not on treating my leg?

Back then, she had held me tightly and cried,

“Ethan, believe me. I want to get you treatment, too, but I really don’t have any money.”

“Prices keep going up. We barely have enough to get by.”

“As for my parents, you know how they are. They opposed our marriage from the beginning. If we ask them for money now, they’ll just use it as an excuse to criticize you.”

“We won’t get the money, and you’ll be humiliated. I don’t want that.”

“Can we wait a little longer? We’ll save up. I promise we’ll get your leg fixed.”

I had believed her. I even thought that since she had stayed with me despite my condition, I needed to cherish her all the more.

Now I just felt stupid.

Deep down, I had known. I had simply chosen to believe her anyway.

At last, I let go.

If we couldn’t be honest with each other and truly love each other, then this was where it should end.

It was time to put a period at the end of my ridiculous, pitiful love story.