All Chapters of I Am Merely a Passing Breeze: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Deanna Somerhalder shot me a sideways glance and said quietly, “It’s just the GPS. Why are you looking at me like that? Harvey’s still here.”After that, she rolled down the car window on my side. This was a familiar gesture in every fight we ever had in the five years we had known each other.Whenever she wanted to ignore my disapproval, she would open the window or the door to calm me down. However, as the chilly air filled the car, Harvey Bishop suddenly sneezed in the backseat. Immediately, Deanna rolled the window back up tight and swerved the car to a stop by the road. “Did you catch a chill? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have rolled down the window. Let’s go to the hospital and get you checked out.”Harvey shook his head. “I’m fine. You should talk things out with Andrew first.“Don’t take this the wrong way, Andrew. It’s only because she’s so familiar with the way back to your place from the commute every day that she didn’t save the route on the GPS.”Harvey looked apologe

Chapter 2

Our home was pitch black and colder than the tundra. I made my way to the couch in the dark, leaving the light off. It was after midnight when Deanna got back. She was stunned when she found me. “Why are you still up?”She turned on the light and then sat beside me. Her tone was gentle as she said, “Don’t take what happened today to heart. It’s so rare for Harvey’s parents to visit. It would’ve been rude to leave them alone.“I’ll make it up to your parents and eat with them some other time, alright?”I looked up and met her indifferent gaze. “My parents are still upset about the wedding.”Deanna frowned. “Didn’t you explain it to them?”“How am I supposed to do that? Should I say that you canceled our wedding plans and venue to spend time with another man and his parents?”Deanna’s face darkened, and her frown deepened. “Don’t be so crude, Andrew.”“Which part of that was crude?”“Harvey isn’t an outsider.” Deanna’s tone was willful. It made me feel as though I had

Chapter 3

How dare she mention our wedding?After canceling our outdoor wedding plans, we found a restaurant in a rush after my parents threw a fit. There was no emcee, no best man, or a bridal party. The guest list had been whittled down to only our parents and Harvey, who was everywhere all the time. We had only reserved a small private room at the restaurant, so it was not very convenient to dress in fancy wedding finery. We could only wear normal clothes. Deanna’s parents had barely looked at me. They kept ordering me around to wait on them as they chatted endlessly with Harvey. My parents had been displeased throughout the celebration. It had not been a wedding. It had been a joke. Even at that point, Deanna kept repeating the same old excuse that it was rare for Harvey’s parents to come to the city. This time, Deanna was using the supposed wedding as another excuse. After a pause, I said lightly, “You can forget about it if you don’t make it this time, Deanna.”Deanna slamm

Chapter 4

There was gauze stuck to the back of Charlotte’s left hand. She looked at me disdainfully and said, “It’s so messy in here! Don’t you know how to clean?“You don’t even know how to cherish my daughter when she’s agreed to be with you. You really want to ignore the household chores?”Deanna’s parents had never liked me. Every time we had dinner at their place, Charlotte would bring up Deanna’s ex-boyfriend. Apparently, he was dashing, generous, and sensible. That was how she had always described Harvey. When it came to me, I was lazy and a layabout who spent all of her daughter’s money. I turned to Deanna. She pretended as though her mother had not just insulted me. All she did was go put a bag of fruit into the fridge. “Mom, Harvey bought you these. Make sure you eat them.”Charlotte beamed. Then, she shot me a sideways glance. “Harvey’s the best! He even buys me fruit. He’s so much better than a certain person who’s always such a jinx. I even got scalded right after t

Chapter 5

We had to take a train and then a car. By the time we got home, more than twenty hours had passed.Mom got motion sickness and had a horrible time the whole way. I took painstaking care of her and only relaxed when she felt a bit better. When I checked my phone, I saw a text from Deanna. [We’re not done going through the sights here, so I won’t be able to make it. Since we already postponed it a month before, we can postpone it another month. We’ll talk when I’m back.]I suddenly remembered that we were supposed to get our marriage registered yesterday.I had been so busy caring for Mom that I could not be bothered about Deanna and her time away with Harvey and his parents. I did not reply to Deanna. She had sent just one text, so she was probably not waiting for my response anyway. Deanna posted several things on her social media every day. It always involved Harvey and his parents. He was either by a river feeding the fish or doing something else.One post had Harvey’s

Chapter 6

That night, Harvey’s parents drank a lot. His father, Marcus, reeked of alcohol as he asked Deanna, “Dee, when are you going to marry Harvey? You’ve been together for so long!”Harvey was looking at her intensely. His ears were red. Holding her glass of beer, Deanna swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue.Back in the day, they had been college sweethearts but had broken up during graduation. Both of them missed home, and neither wanted to go with the other to theirs. After that, Deanna met Andrew, who had been in town on a business trip. They had started dating. Even so, she had never forgotten about Harvey. That was why she made every excuse to spend time with Harvey and his parents when they came to the city on vacation every year.That was why she readily picked Harvey every single time when she had to choose between Andrew and Harvey.However, she and Andrew had already held a wedding ceremony.It had been a simple affair, but they had sworn themsel

Chapter 7

Andrew had always tolerated Harvey. He always moved on from the issue after a while.But he had truly left this time. Deanna fished out her phone and called Andrew again. She did not want to give up. It still did not go through. Her mother kept muttering as she ate her snack. “That husband of yours is useless. Your marriage isn’t official yet, so you might as well just leave him. Harvey has already transferred here, hasn’t he? He was also recently promoted. “Isn’t he far better than Andrew anyway? You might as well—”“Mom, don’t talk like that!” Deanna cut her off with a dark look on her face. Deanna grabbed her car keys and ran outside. She went straight to the train station. On the way there, she recalled what had happened while their place was being renovated. Andrew had gotten a nasty gash from one of the planks. She had rushed Andrew to the hospital for treatment. He had lamented from the passenger seat and said, “Even the wooden planks here think I’m an outsider.

Chapter 8

The apartment that was supposed to be their home after marriage was more like a temporary shelter for Deanna. She would use it to shower and change her clothes. Then, she would run off to Harvey and his parents.I used to be so confused by her actions. I wondered why she was so reluctant to even spend a night there when she had put so much effort into renovating it the way she wanted.It was only when her mother revealed the truth that I finally understood. Deanna had renovated the place in a precise way because she missed Harvey. Since Harvey was right there, what was the point of the apartment?I finished the rest of my coffee and stood up. I picked up my bag.She reached out to grab my wrist, but I dodged her. “Deanna, I must thank you for postponing our marriage registration because of Harvey. It’s saved me a lot of trouble. Do look at the finance records. Email me if you have any questions.”I walked around her and left the cafe. I did not look back. …I thought sayi

Chapter 9

“What do you want from me?”I laughed. “Are you really asking me that after you took the money and paid off Harvey’s boss so that he could get promoted? You even told your mom I took the money!”Deanna was quiet for a long time. “Do you want to drag everyone down with this?”“You’re the one who pushed me to this state.”Then, I hung up.…I found out what happened next from bits and pieces I heard from friends.After I posted that, Charlotte went to Harvey to ask for the money. The amount was not that great, but it had become a matter of pride for Charlotte. When she found Harvey, she harshly said, “You took our money and got a promotion. Because of you, Dee’s husband left! You humiliated us all! Give us back our money!”Harvey did not intend to return the money. Besides, Deanna had given the money to his boss, not him.Deanna was stuck in the middle. Every day, Charlotte called her to make her ask for the money back, but she could do nothing about Harvey. “You were th

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