Chapter 3

“I listened to you yesterday. I stayed away from the alley.”

I immediately looked down at my wrist.

The scar was gone.

It was really gone.

Twelve years ago, Claire had taken that shortcut and been attacked by a stray dog.

I happened to be passing by and rushed in to save her.

The dog badly injured my left wrist.

The scar never faded, and I never played the piano again.

But I hadn’t regretted it.

Back then, eighteen-year-old Claire had held my injured hand and promised, “You saved me, Ethan. I swear I’ll be good to you for the rest of my life.”

She’d kept that promise until one week ago.

At a friend’s engagement party, Jason played ‘Mariage d’Amour’ for the guests.

When he finished, the entire room burst into applause.

One of our friends casually mentioned that I used to play too.

Claire laughed.

She glanced at the scar on my wrist and scoffed.

“Ethan, play the piano? Please. That hand has been useless for years.”

I stood beneath the banquet hall’s dazzling lights, cold to the bone.

At eighteen, I never could’ve imagined that the girl I’d risked my life to save would one day turn the injury I’d suffered for her into a joke.

And eighteen-year-old Claire never could’ve imagined that, twelve years later, she would destroy every last bit of love I had for her.

I stared at my smooth, unscarred wrist.

Then I started laughing through my tears.

The past really could be changed.

I turned to Claire, who still had no idea what was going on, and smiled at her.

“Will you promise me one more thing?”

“Stay out of Ethan Lawson’s life forever.”

Claire froze.

The excitement vanished from her eyes, replaced by disbelief.

“What did you say?”

“Don’t tell me how you feel. Walk away from me and never come back.”

She stumbled back, her eyes instantly filling with tears.

“Why?”

“Ethan Lawson, do you have any idea how much I love you?”

“I know.”

I looked up at her, my eyes swollen and red.

“I know exactly how much you love me.

“When I forgot my textbook, you gave me yours and took the punishment in my place.

“When someone talked behind my back, you got all your friends together, found the person responsible, and warned him to stay away from me.

“If I had a cold, a fever, or felt even slightly unwell, you always noticed first and took me straight to the nurse’s office.

“I know how much you used to love me.

“But the woman you become treats me terribly.

“Worse than you could ever imagine.”

Claire stared at me.

Then she moved closer, her eyes red and her voice hoarse.

“I don’t believe you, Ethan.

“I love you so much. How could I ever hurt you?”

She sounded so certain that, for a moment, I could see the girl she used to be.

The girl who had taken my hand on an empty school field, her cheeks burning red and her eyes shining like stars.

“Ethan Lawson, I love you.

“More than anyone else in the world.”

She was right.

She loved me so much.

How could she ever bear to hurt me?

How had she forgotten that love by the time she turned thirty?

How had she stopped loving me altogether?

We stood there in silence for a long time.

Finally, I decided to show her exactly who she would become.

I opened the bedroom door.

The house was completely silent.

Dirty breakfast dishes still cluttered the dining table.

The entire room was a mess.

This had become normal in our marriage.