No Regrets, Only Goodbye

I stared at the photo of a neck covered in hickeys and stayed silent for a long time.

Yesterday, a woman named Molly Fox came to find me. She claimed to be Jasper Brook’s girlfriend and demanded I step out of their lives.

At first, I was stunned. Then it hit me that Jasper had been unfaithful.

The woman tilted her chin slightly, her eyes gleaming with a brazen confidence that came from being doted on. Before I could fully grasp the situation, she splashed a cup of warm coffee on me.

“Hey, did you hear me? I’m telling you to divorce Jasper. I’m going to marry him.”

The brown liquid stained the white dress I just bought, and the dampness on my face made me look utterly disheveled.

As if that wasn’t enough, she brazenly caressed her stomach, ignoring the curious stares of those around us.

“I’m pregnant and want my child to have a proper family. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come to confront you. I know you and Jasper grew up together and have been married for six years, but you’ve been together with him too long. All Jasper feels for you now is kinship, not love.

"You should act wisely and leave him. If you do, I might persuade him to give you a generous settlement. If not, don’t blame me when he throws you out with nothing."

Jasper? Throwing me out?

A laugh bubbled up inside me, sharp and sudden.

The woman pointed at me, looking furious. “What’s so funny, you lunatic?”

I locked eyes with her. She had a delicate face, like a porcelain doll—pure and fragile, but clearly lacking common sense.

I smiled. “Sweetie, does Jasper know you’ve come to find me?”

Her face flushed red with anger, and she started hurling insults at me.

Tilting my head, I glanced past her and spotted Jasper striding over with a dark expression.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the woman’s wrist and slapped her hard. Her cheek swelled instantly, and a thin line of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.

Tears welled in her eyes, disbelief and vulnerability written all over her face as she looked at him.

“Mr. Brook, you… you hit me.”

She cried like a fragile doll, but Jasper’s face remained cold and unmoved. His eyes were filled with icy disdain as he said, in a voice devoid of warmth, “Scram!”

Clutching her face with an expression full of grievance, she turned and left in a rush.

After she left, Jasper pulled out a tissue with a pained expression.

Kneeling on one knee, he gently wiped the coffee stains from my face.

“Darling, don’t listen to her. There’s nothing between me and her. She’s making it up.”

I lowered my eyes, staring straight into his. His dark eyes were unfathomable, showing no sign of guilt.

Warmth welled up in my eyes as I gently caressed his face.

“Jasper, tell me. Who is she?”

His lips trembled slightly, and there was a faint glimmer at the corners of his eyes.

When he refused to answer, I stubbornly pressed him, over and over, until my face turned red, and my breathing grew uneven.

Finally, he panicked and stammered, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, darling. It’s my fault. Hit me, yell at me, punish me however you want. Just don’t cry. You can’t cry.”

He still remembered that I couldn’t cry.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips, and a stabbing pain filled my chest.

Terrified, Jasper sped through every red light on the way to the hospital.

He yelled for a doctor, completely ignoring how he might look. As I caught the panic in his eyes, memories from the past suddenly surfaced.

I was kidnapped when I was five.

A knife was held to my throat as the kidnappers demanded ransom from my father. The terror was so overwhelming, I could barely breathe. Even after I was rescued, I lost my voice for a while.

During that time, Jasper visited me every day. He stayed by my side, gently telling me jokes. Even when I ignored him, he didn’t seem to care.

There was one time when Jasper got into a fight with a classmate. The larger boy had him pinned, and Jasper could barely breathe.

In a moment of panic, I called for the teacher.

After that incident, I slowly began to speak again.

Jasper was even happier than I was. He picked fights with that boy every day, just so I would talk more.

It wasn’t until later that I learned the reason for that fight—Jasper overheard the boy calling me mute. He wouldn’t allow anyone to bully me, not even with words.

From that day on, he was fiercely protective of me.

Eventually, I overcame my mutism, but I still couldn’t cry. Crying would leave me breathless, and in severe cases, I could even suffocate.

After that, Jasper became even more protective of me, vowing to always make me laugh and never let me cry.

But now, because of him, I was rushed into the emergency room.