All Chapters of I Refused To Reunite With My Family: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Cathy Jones stood in front of the Lowe family’s villa gates and blocked my way. Her expression wavered between conflict and resolve.I said nothing, but the image of concrete and steel collapsing flashed before my eyes.Her back was bloodied and torn. She whispered in my ear, “If I’d known he would die, I would never have brought you home.”So, this was her choice.If she had another chance, she would choose to abandon me from the very beginning.That was fine with me.The ten years of marriage had been a living hell in our previous life. She hated me, and I resented her. We tormented each other day and night until death finally freed us.I actually felt a quiet sense of relief knowing everything could end before it even began.I looked at her and nodded calmly. “Alright.”A flicker of confusion crossed her eyes. The words she had prepared caught in her throat.“What did you say?” she asked, almost instinctively.“I said alright,” I repeated myself.“If there was a mistake,

In the days that followed, I poured all my focus into the final stages of my application to study abroad. I soon received an offer letter from a foreign university. My departure date was set for next month.The day before I was supposed to leave, I had just stepped out of the library when two men in black suits blocked my path. “Mr. Lawson, Ms. Jones wants to see you.” I was forced into a car that sped through the city before stopping at the topmost floor of a skyscraper overlooking a scenic river.“Ms. Jones is occupied at the moment. Please wait here.” They led me into a glass-walled room and left after locking the door behind me. The view in the room was breathtaking. One wall was made entirely of glass, and across from it stood the city’s most luxurious rooftop restaurant. The restaurant was glowing with golden light. Laughter and music spilled into the night as a lavish birthday banquet took place inside.The man at the center of it all was Zac.He wore an immacula

I did not answer. My silence was an answer in itself. “Cathy,” I said quietly, “it’s over. In this life, you protected the person you wanted to protect the most. “From now on, we’ll go our separate ways. No more ties between us.” “No!” Her head shot up, and her eyes were red with tears. “Harry, it’s not like that! Everything I did, I did for us! I just wanted us to have a different ending!”“We already had an ending,” I said. “Everything ended the day of the earthquake.” She wanted to say more, but her phone rang at the worst possible moment. She glanced at the caller ID, and her expression shifted. It was Zac. She answered the phone after a moment of hesitation. “Hello, Zac. What? Are you feeling sick again? All right, don’t be afraid. I’ll be right there.” She hung up and looked at me apologetically. “Harry, I need to go check on Zac. Stay here and rest. I’ll be back soon.” I saw the worry on her face, and the last flicker of hope died inside me completely.

One year later, I had finally been accepted into the art academy I had always dreamed of attending. I was majoring in oil painting.I rented a house with a small garden and lived a quiet, fulfilling life.My days slipped by peacefully through classes. I painted and worked in my garden occasionally.There was always sunlight here, and the air always carried the scent of lavender.I slowly let go of my past. I was happier.I never saw Cathy again. Sometimes, I would hear fragments of news about her through classmates who returned home.They said she had abandoned her family’s vast business empire and become a disaster relief volunteer.They said she was always the first to rush into danger. She saved countless lives at the expense of bruises and scars on her own body.They said someone once asked her why she risked her life like that, and she replied that she was atoning for her sins.But none of that had anything to do with me anymore. I stayed abroad after graduation and j

Three years later, I was in Norisa. I stood by the Seine. My solo exhibition was being held at a well-known gallery here.The theme was “Rebirth.” The paintings featured lavender fields in Provence, sunflowers in Arles, the blue shores of the Mediterranean, and the soft golden light on the streets of Paris.Every canvas brimmed with vitality and love for life.The only thing missing was portraits.I never included people in my paintings. I had traveled around the world in the past three years. I used my paintbrush to capture every beautiful landscape I saw.I was no longer the man who once lived in hatred and pain.I was simply an ordinary painter who loved his life. I once believed that love was an obsession, like an unbreakable bond that endured even through mutual destruction.But I finally understood that true love meant letting go and granting another person’s wish. Cathy taught me what it meant to hate in her first lifetime.In her second, she taught me what it