Lahat ng Kabanata ng I Kept the Vow, She Kept Another Man: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

"Chad, please don't be mad at Suzie," Finley pleaded.He then grabbed my hand and said apologetically, "She lost a game of rock-paper-scissors with me and promised that she could only drink my wine. How about this? Play a round with me. If you win, I'll let Suzie drink your wine."Suzanne's expression softened. When she turned to look at Finley, her eyes were full of helpless affection.She said, "Go on. Play a round with Finley. If you win, I'll drink your wine."Suzanne spoke in a volume that was neither too soft nor too loud. It was just loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.I closed my eyes, feeling like I could barely breathe. "I forfeit."A flash of smugness quickly crossed Finley's eyes.He cleared his throat and said smoothly, "Then since I won, shouldn't I get a reward? My mom said that after drinking the wedding wine, we're supposed to go pray in church."I heard several people around us gasp in disbelief.This custom had been passed down for generations.On the

After leaving the Landon residence, I went straight back to where I was staying. This time, I packed even faster and more thoroughly than I had the night before.I didn't have many clothes to begin with. Aside from a few sets of work clothes I wore regularly, there wasn't much worth keeping. I didn't hesitate over the things on the table that were connected to Suzanne.I took the framed photo of us off the wall and placed it face down on the table.The drawer was still stuffed with little souvenirs she had brought back from business trips, along with a few notes she had casually written for me.I looked through them one by one, but I felt strangely calm.Only then did I realize how difficult it really was to completely pull myself out of a relationship that had lasted for so many years. Even so, throwing these things away was unexpectedly easy.The sky gradually darkened.I had only packed halfway when a message from Ivan came in.He texted, "Chad, have you gone back? Things ha

The moment those words left Ivan's mouth, Suzanne stood frozen like a statue.I had kept that bottle of wine for 28 years and had never let anyone touch it. She knew better than anyone what it meant.Ivan looked at her and said slowly, "If one realizes that they've entrusted their most precious thing to the wrong person once, they won't repeat that mistake a second time."With that, he turned and walked back into my home, cutting off her chance to beg to see me.That evening, Finley went to see Suzanne again.He brought medicine and food while still wearing that gentle, considerate, understanding expression. In a tender voice, he asked if she was still upset over what had happened with me.If he'd done this in the past, Suzanne wouldn't have thought he was being thoughtful.But now, the moment he appeared, he reminded her of the wine she had drunk that day, the visit to the Shrine of Aphrodite later that night, and the loss of boundaries that had occurred in that room.Noticing

After my engagement to Taylor was finalized, my family quickly began preparing for the wedding.Meanwhile, Suzanne seemed to have suddenly gone crazy. She repeatedly asked people about me and waited outside my house several times, hoping to see me. But in the end, she was turned away every time.Unwilling to give up, she went to Ivan.However, he was thoroughly disgusted with her. He either sent her away or mocked her coldly. He refused to pass along even a single word for her.The more she was rejected, the more she couldn't stop thinking about the years she had spent with me.She remembered those first few years after we left home and moved elsewhere. We had lived in the cheapest basement we could find. It was damp in summer and freezing in winter. Afraid that her stomach problems would flare up, I'd always pushed the only thick blanket toward her.She remembered the hardest days of starting our business, when I ran around with her looking for potential clients. I'd stayed up u

The wedding day drew closer and closer. My family and the Sheare family were both so busy that we barely had time to catch our breath.Meanwhile, Suzanne seemed to have trapped herself and was unable to move forward.She stopped coming to see me and stopped causing a scene outside my home, but she grew more withdrawn with each passing day.Later, I learned that during that time, she kept thinking about the past over and over again.Over the years, she had grown so accustomed to my kindness that she had taken everything for granted. Only after I was truly gone did she realize how large the emptiness I had left behind really was.Tilda eventually fell silent too. It wasn't that she didn't know how much hardship I had endured over the years, nor was she unaware of how much I had done to support the family.People were often like that. They failed to cherish what they had while they had it and only realized what was missing after they truly lost it.But by then, it was too late to r