Chapter 3

“It’s Julie. She’s getting divorced.”

The moment he heard that, the tension in Dante’s shoulders eased slightly.

“She heard you’re a lawyer, so she asked if you might know what to do.”

Dante sat back in his chair, tapping at his phone with a stylus without even looking at me.

“I’m not a divorce lawyer.”

“But I can recommend one.”

Weren’t you the one handling Camille’s divorce this whole time?

I guess anything unrelated to Camille simply gets filtered out by you.

Dante kept looking at his phone, smiling to himself every now and then.

I didn’t even want to know what he was looking at anymore.

Finally, I was discharged from the hospital.

At least it hadn’t delayed my trip home.

I stood outside by the driveway waiting for him.

He was the one who said he’d pick me up after I was discharged.

Otherwise, I would’ve just taken a cab.

So I called him.

He answered.

But in the background, I heard opera music playing.

“I’m out of town,” Dante said calmly.

I opened Camille’s Instagram.

She had posted a photo from the opera house.

If this had happened before, I would’ve been furious enough to smash my phone.

But now, I simply opened Uber instead.

Then I checked my departure time again, my packing list, and my flight information.

Making sure nothing would go wrong.

Making sure I could really leave New York behind.

That night, Dante came home after all.

He even brought me flowers.

“Tomorrow marks ten years since we met. I took the day off for you.”

“Where do you want to go?”

I still wanted to visit my old university.

I wanted to see the places where I had spent all these years.

Late autumn in New York.

The ground was covered in golden ginkgo leaves.

I looked at Dante, and for a moment, it felt like I had gone back five years.

Back then, I had looked at him like girls look at idols.

Like he was untouchable.

And now, he was still standing beneath the ginkgo trees.

But this time, all I saw was a man who knew how to lie.

I suddenly smiled.

And strangely enough, I was in a good mood.

I casually slipped my arm through his.

“Let’s go.”

The moment we reached the library building, his phone rang.

A message from Camille.

“I have a fever.”

Quietly, I watched Dante’s expression change.

First discomfort.

Then hesitation.

And when he spoke again, he had already turned back into the calm and composed Dante Valieri.

“There’s something going on at the firm. I need to leave.”

I looked at him.

I was about to nod, but then something crossed my mind.

So I asked on purpose,

“Can it wait one more hour?”

Exactly as expected, Dante answered,

“No.”

And suddenly, I didn’t feel sad at all anymore.

I already knew exactly what his answer would be.

Before I could respond, he added,

“I’ll come back with you another time.”

There wouldn’t be another time, Dante.

Standing alone on the track field, I crouched down into starting position.

Back then, Dante used to wait for me at the finish line.

Ready.

Run.

I sprinted all the way to the end.

But waiting for me there now was only a wall covered in roses.

From now on, no ending in my life would have anything to do with Dante anymore.

I walked through the entire campus alone.

I filmed countless videos.

I was about to upload them to Instagram when I saw Camille had posted another hospital photo.

【I have a fever, but thankfully he’s here. It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.】

Suddenly, I didn’t want to upload anything at all.

You know, Dante?

If you had just told me you were going to see her, I would’ve let you go.

Why did you have to work so hard to lie to me?

Ten years together.

Was I here to celebrate them today?

Or to bury them?

I think this was goodbye.

My phone buzzed with the boarding notification.

Tomorrow, I could finally go home.

That night, while taking out the trash, I saw Camille stepping out of Dante’s car.

I walked over and calmly stopped in front of them.

Camille tilted her head slightly as she looked at me.

“Dante, who’s this girl?”