All Chapters of Seven Days Until Forever Ends: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I possessed the ability to see the expiration date of every relationship.My father, Saul Baxter, and my mother, Julia Barrymore, had been married for 23 years.On the day the number above their heads hit zero, Mom neither cried nor made a scene. Instead, she simply placed the divorce papers on the table and left with her suitcase in hand.That night, Dad knelt outside the door, begging her to stay until dawn.But Mom told me, "Relationships don't expire all at once. Behind every number that ticks down is a trust that's been betrayed."When I was 25 years old, I married Francine Spence.She was a renowned family law attorney, known for her rational mind and level-headedness. She had never believed in fairy-tale romance or happily-ever-afters.Yet, when we got married, the number above our heads wasn't ten or 50 years. It was a single gold word—Forever.Thirteen years into our marriage, we had a 12-year-old son, Oscar Baxter.To support Francine in her career, I had given up a

Francine didn't return until that evening.Oscar followed behind her, clutching the space shuttle model I'd given him. I'd spent two months making it by hand, but his name had already been removed from the base.Francine flipped through the divorce papers before tossing them back onto the table."Ian Baxter, you're already 38—can you stop acting so childish? Dale just lost Zachary, and you're threatening to divorce me over one meal?"I looked at the space shuttle model. "What happened to the name on the base?"Oscar instinctively hid it behind his back."Zachary loved aerospace too, and Dale got very emotional when he saw the space shuttle model," Francine explained. "So, Oscar agreed to let him keep it for a few days.""But I gave Oscar that as his birthday gift," I argued."Oscar has the right to decide what to do with his own things," Francine said calmly. "Besides, he's only lending it to Dale. It's not like he's giving it away.""Is that what you wanted?" I asked Oscar.

On Dale's first night in our home, Oscar gave up his own bedroom for him. His reason was that the guest room didn't have the starry-sky projector Zachary had loved when he was alive.When I entered Oscar's room, Dale was rearranging the photographs on the nightstand. He had tucked away the picture of Oscar and me together beneath a snowy mountain and replaced it with one of himself and Zachary."Who gave you permission to touch those?" I demanded.Dale froze. "Oscar said it was okay."Oscar walked in and said, "Dad, Mr. Stratton can't sleep. Looking at Zachary's picture helps him feel at ease.""What about our photo?" I asked."Let's put it away for a few days," Oscar replied, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.I gazed at him for a long time. "Fine."I took the photo out of the drawer and brought it back to my study.…The next day, the school held a career day where parents were invited to share their professions.I had originally been invited to speak a

The first week after I left, the household fell into chaos. For three days in a row, Francine forgot to order Oscar's lunch.When the robotics club reminded parents to submit additional paperwork, she didn't notice the message in the class group chat until just two hours before the deadline.On Thursday, Oscar was supposed to wear his school uniform, but she laid out a tracksuit for him instead.For 13 years, these had been nothing more than ordinary little details she'd never needed to worry about, as I'd always made sure everything was taken care of in advance.For the first time, Oscar began to realize that the breakfast waiting for him every morning, the after-school snacks that somehow always appeared when he got home, and the signed permission slips that were never missing from his schoolbag hadn't simply materialized out of nowhere.On the third evening, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Mom, did Dad really have to do all these things every single day?"Francine was reply

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.As if afraid I'd hang up, Oscar tightened his grip on the phone and hurried to speak."Dad, please come back. Mr. Stratton keeps treating me like I'm his dead son. He keeps calling me Zachary and making me wear his clothes. I don't want to be his son anymore."His sobs grew heavier. "I'll never call anyone else 'Dad' again or give away anything you give me. Please come back and get me, okay?"I stood outside the conference room at the overseas branch. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I could see the unfinished new city project.Back home, it was still the middle of the night just half an hour ago.In the past, even if Oscar had said only that he was scared, I would have immediately booked the earliest available flight home.But now, all I asked was, "Where are you?""At the airport.""Is there an adult with you?"Oscar turned and saw Francine. His eyes reddened all over again. "Mom's here.""Put her on the phone."