Chapter 3

Maybe I couldn't accept what had happened. Maybe I couldn't let go. Either way, my soul didn't fade. It stayed with Calvin.

I watched him wait from late that night until the early hours of the morning. I never came. Meryl did.

She showed him a fake message in which I supposedly said I was sick of being poor and didn't want to waste my youth on a man with no money or power!

She also claimed I'd only ever been with Calvin for his money, and now that he was broke, he was dreaming if he thought I'd still marry him.

Calvin didn't believe her at first. Then Meryl showed him a stack of photos of me leaning close to another man. The camera angles made us look intimate.

Calvin clutched the photos and stared at them, dazed. Their edges sliced into his palm until it bled, but he didn't even notice.

Then he snapped. He tore the photos to shreds, yanked off his wedding ring, and hurled it as far as he could.

I rushed toward him, desperate to explain, but no sound came out. All I could do was watch the ring arc through the air and disappear into the snow.

It landed so softly that it left no trace.

Not far away, Meryl kept her head down, a smug smile on her lips.

Watching her, I went cold all over.

She knew perfectly well those photos were taken when I'd had to drink with clients to earn a project bonus.

I'd drunk so much that my stomach problems flared up again, and I ended up alone in the hospital. I didn't want Calvin to worry, so I lied and said I was on a business trip. Then I had Meryl use my bonus to pay for his mother's surgery.

Now Meryl was using it all to smear me.

With a few words, she made me out to be a scheming, money-hungry woman.

She even passed off my bonus as her own gift to Margaret.

I watched Meryl take my place, spending more and more time with Calvin and Margaret.

Later, when Calvin started his business, she gave him money and promised to support him however she could.

But no one knew the money came from the house my parents had left me, the one I'd trusted her to sell.

Calvin was deeply moved. He held Meryl's hand and said he'd find a way to repay her.

And he did. Three years later, in that very place, he gave Meryl a wedding a thousand times grander than the one he'd planned for us...

A startled cry pulled me out of my memories.

I looked up. At some point, Calvin had crushed a glass in his bare hand, and his hand was covered in blood.

Meryl rushed over to stop the bleeding, but Calvin stared at her and asked hoarsely, "Did you really see Cecilia leave with someone else back then?"

Meryl went pale, then forced a smile. "Calvin, what's that supposed to mean? You think I'm lying to you?

"Even if you don't believe me, those photos can't be faked."

Calvin studied her for a long time before lowering his head. "Sorry. I was overthinking it.

"Go on. I want to be alone."

Meryl tried to say more, but he'd already pushed her out. She stared at the closed door, fists clenched, hatred churning inside her.

She'd schemed for so long and waited so many years to reach this day. Why, why did that bitch Cecilia have to show up again?!

Calvin sat there all night, smoking one cigarette after another.

At last, he opened the chat thread that had been silent for years and typed, deleted, then typed again.

"Cecilia, where are you?"

"Don't think faking your death can erase what you did. I'll never forgive you!"

"Why..."

By then, it was broad daylight. Calvin gripped his phone, its screen already dark. Then he stood abruptly, as though he'd made up his mind, and walked out.

But he ran into Meryl at the door. She blocked his way and hesitated. "Calvin, there's something I don't know if I should show you..."

"What?" Calvin asked, confused.

Meryl held out her phone. On the screen was a wedding photo of me and another man, with an audio clip below it. Then my voice rang out.

"That idiot Calvin? I hear he still can't get over me. How pathetic. I stopped caring about him ages ago. I've been living it up overseas all these years. Why would I waste my time on him?

"Besides, I've found my real love. Calvin could get on his knees and beg me to look at him, and I still wouldn't bother..."

In the recording, my voice sounded scornful and dismissive, as though everything Calvin and I had shared meant nothing.

I stared at the photo, my mind blank. I'd never said any of that. I didn't even know the man in the picture.

Meryl had faked it all. When I saw the smile on her lips, my blood ran cold.