Chapter 2 Their Past

Edward sent me something. It had a watermark across the corner and had been recorded on my birthday.

In the video, Edward was filming a woman in a wedding dress. Daniel stood in front of her, carefully helping her adjust the veil.

"You're gorgeous, Mommy Jessica! Ten times better than my mom's wedding photo!"

Daniel smiled. "I think so too."

The woman gave them a look of feigned anger. "Nonsense."

The last scene showed the bag on the couch. Last semester, Edward went to kindergarten in Brundela, staying with his father.

The two of them came back unannounced to celebrate an early birthday with me. Edward bashfully and guiltily told me his best friend asked him to go on a camping trip. He said yes and remembered that it was on my birthday.

I smiled and told him it was fine. I even packed up the handmade giraffe plushie I was so proud of and told him to give it to his friend.

The plushie was hanging on that woman's bag. He and his father had been lying to me since the beginning. I tried to give him a complete family, but I was only lying to myself.

The phone's wallpaper was a photo of a family of three chatting happily. Tears welled in my eyes, and I laughed at myself. Fate had already veered off course from the moment it made its first decision.

Even if I tried my best to fix things, it would only come apart in the end.

I met Daniel when I was twenty-two. I applied for a postgrad exchange program and came to Brundela alone.

I was down with a severe cold, and my whole body felt heavy. Someone snatched my backpack, and I lost my new laptop I had just bought a week ago. That laptop had a paper I had to hand in later that night.

Earlier in the day, I found out my mother had broken her bone in a traffic accident, and she had been hiding that for two weeks. I could do nothing but worry.

The pressure broke me.

As I walked down the street, my tears would not stop coming. Then, someone called my name in Chanaean. "Yvonne Zimmer?"

The guy handed me a bag of tissues. "You are Yvonne, right? My aunt's a lecturer at Ashdale U. I saw you at their Top Ten Singers event. You were the runner up, and you nearly tripped over your dress when you were going to take the award."

I was stunned. "What are the odds?"

He treated me to a hot meal and lent me his laptop, then he helped me finish up my paper. When the upload finally went through, I let out a breath I had not realised I was holding. A smile slowly appeared on my face.

Daniel smiled too. "Not the worst day, I think?"

The moment our eyes met, my heart began to race.

Two months later, he confessed to me. I went back to Chanaea after the exchange program was over. He stayed back for his studies, and our long-distance relationship went on for a year.

Distance and time did not hamper our love. Whenever he had time, he would come back for me.

I did not want him to tire himself out. He would smile and shake his head. "It's worse when I can't see the person I miss."

After I graduated, he came back for the photoshoot with me and proposed as well. "This might be quite the rush, but you're the one I want to live my life with. I want us to be bound for life."

A week later, we got our marriage certificate. I had gotten a job at a multinational organization. We had the loveliest three years in Brundela. Every day, we woke up to a day where we loved each other more than before.

Then, Edward came, and happiness climbed to its peak. I had serious morning sickness, however, and I could not eat anything. I hardly saw the sun, and my mood sank with it.

One cloudy morning, I burst into tears. "I want to go home. I miss my mom."

He booked a flight back home. I stayed in Chanaea during my pregnancy. Though my morning sickness was still torture, at least my mother was there for me. I was in a better mood, and my condition lightened up considerably.

Half a month before my expected labor date, my water broke. When Daniel rushed home, Edward was already born.

He felt guilty, but also moved, and he kissed me. Then, I saw the hickeys under his collarbone. He tried his best to explain and said it was just a prank that went too far during a wine-and-dine.

That woman sent me a photo where they were nude and close together. Daniel was furious, and he confessed his 'mistake'.

"I'm sorry. I promise it's just this once. Never again! Hit me. Yell at me! You can do anything, but please don't cry. You're breaking my heart."

I cried my heart out during my recovery period, and I lost more than twenty pounds. Anyone who did not know the truth might have thought I was seriously ill.

Then, before I had even fully recovered from that betrayal, my mother was diagnosed with ALS.