All Chapters of If Only We Could Love Again: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

After Duncan Stewart yelled at me, the room fell silent for a long time.It was long enough for Duncan to finish gnawing that half of a cold, hardened slice of bread.He brought me, Wendy Joseph, a bowl of hot oatmeal and murmured an apology."I'm sorry, Wendy. I'm just so tired."I didn't have the courage to look at him, so I could only close my eyes and pretend to be asleep.Just before dawn, Katie Lindt sat up from the sofa.She put a straw into a carton of soy milk and handed it to me."Wendy, here. It's low-sugar."You shouldn't have anything too sweet right now."Her movements were still as practiced as ever, but when I lowered my gaze and saw the bruises around her wrist, my fingers still trembled.The soy milk was sweet enough, yet it tasted bitter enough to make my throat tightened.Duncan was opening the oatmeal container.His hands had once been beautiful and almost looked like a work of art. They were perfect for playing the piano.He always said that once I re

Duncan leaned closer and tried to see what was on my phone.My fingertips trembled, and I didn't manage to turn off the screen in time.Before he could make out what was on it, Katie suddenly covered her mouth and retched violently.Duncan's attention was instantly drawn away."Katie?"Katie leaned against the wall and vomited until her face turned pale.Looking at Katie's pale face, a thought suddenly appeared in my mind.She hadn't had her period in a long time.An absurd yet terrifying possibility slowly surfaced in my mind.Before I could think it through, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my chest.The next second, I doubled over and violently vomited a large amount of blood.Duncan turned to look at me. There was a flash of panic in his eyes.But Katie retched again, and her whole body went limp as she collapsed into his arms.Duncan's hand froze in midair.On one side was me, vomiting blood and on the verge of losing consciousness.On the other was Katie, pale-faced

When the phone screen lit up, Katie was leaning against Duncan's chest.There were still tears at the corners of her eyes while she tightly gripped his clothes.She seemed to be afraid that the moment she let go, Duncan would suddenly come to his senses and return to me.A text message appeared on the screen.[Are you Wendy's family?]Katie's body felt tense.She reached for her phone.The full message hadn't appeared yet, and she only caught the first part.[Are you Wendy's family? Please come to First City Hospital–]The rest was blocked by the notification bar.Katie's fingertips trembled.She immediately thought of me.I had fainted again, and I had been taken to the hospital again.The doctor was going to ask Duncan to pay the medical bill again.There had been too many calls and messages like this over the years.Every time it was about me, Duncan would immediately drop everything and rush over.It didn't matter if he had just returned from the construction site,

Duncan suddenly stopped walking.He stared at those two words for a long time as if he suddenly couldn't recognize them.A few seconds later, he dashed forward like a madman."Where is she?"Where's Wendy?"The staff member was startled by him."Her remains have already been cremated."The color drained from Duncan's face.He reached out to touch the urn, but his fingers stopped in midair and trembled violently.The urn was small and light.It was far too light to contain a person's cremated remains.It couldn't possibly contain the cremated remains of the girl who used to sit outside the orphanage and secretly divide the only egg among the three of us.Back then, none of us ever had enough to eat.The director gave me an extra egg.Katie stared at it longingly but stubbornly said, "I don't like eggs."Duncan also lowered his head without saying anything.I peeled the egg and gave each of them a bite."No one's allowed to complain that it's not enough."We all get the