The Heart Left Behind の小説・ストーリー

Later I burned the acknowledgment ground, severed my bloodline, left for the far North, and forgot the whole thing, along with that love. And it came, late, after he was dead. He never knew, to the day he died. He never knew that the me he'd wounded past mending had once thought, too, of standing before the Moon Goddess and acknowledging him as my Alpha, of handing him all of my acknowledgment and my love. I buried that wolf-bone token in front of his grave. The me and love that had belonged to “E” had died three years ago, in scar after scar. It should stay in the past, along with the self who'd once loved him so abjectly.

Her eyes welled up with tears, but I didn’t care. “It’s too late,” she whispered. A hollow, terrible silence filled the room. I clenched my fists. “What do you mean, too late?” She wiped at her tears, her voice trembling. “During the transfer… the heart was accidentally contaminated.” The remains of my fragile heart finally shattered into a million pieces. She swallowed, voice thick with emotion. “The hospital hasn’t reported it yet, but… it can’t be used anymore.” My shoulders shook again as I cried, realizing that I had just gone back to square one again.

My journey had just begun. But my heart? It remained behind, burning inside the man I’d left behind.

Like she was never there. I hated that she left without a word. I hated not knowing. I didn’t even know if she was angry… hurt… scared… alive. I didn’t know anything. And the worst part was that I couldn’t hate her for leaving. I wanted to. God, I wanted to. But I couldn’t. Because she didn’t just disappear, she disappeared with a heart that was failing her. A heart that needed surgery. A heart that might have stopped somewhere out there, alone, and I wouldn’t even know. That thought pulled something tight in my chest every time it crossed my mind.

Her fingers trembled with anger as she dialed the first number I had sent her. The call connected almost immediately. A tired, worn woman's voice came through. "Hello?" "Hi," Evelyn said. "I wanted to ask if you know a young man named Thomas Carter." The other end went silent for a moment. Then, the woman gave a bitter laugh. "How could I not? My ex-husband left me and took our child because of him. "Back then, he told me his family was forcing him into a marriage. Over time, I gave him almost 600 thousand dollars.

It showed he was in a good mood. He sat down beside me and handed me a look. "Cheer up. I won't hold what happened yesterday against you. Here, I got this for you. Didn't you always want it?" It was a collection of legal cases, the one I'd been searching for. It was already out of print, and most importantly, it was the last book my mother edited before she passed away. Four years ago, her final wish was to see this book one last time. She never did.

I felt no attachment to this place anymore, and there was also no reluctance to leave at all. Before leaving, I cast one final glance at the apartment that we'd meticulously decorated, the refrigerator with the food we bought together, the coffee mug he used the last time he stayed up all night with me as I drafted designs, and the wedding gown still hanging up in my bedroom. Every corner of this place was filled with sweet memories, but now, I realized that they were nothing but lies. Mistry growled. "Let's go. There are better opportunities and a bigger stage for you elsewhere. They're not even worth your hesitation at all."

Juliet Somehow, I was back at the cafe, facing Grace's piercing gaze. After I struggled to hold back from crying, which I had been doing a lot these days, Grace managed to convince me to go back to the cafe with her. “So… how about Naomi and Leah?” I asked, not just because I was trying to shift the conversation from me, but because I was curious about the women I used to call my friends. “Leah left the country to manage her mother's farm a year after graduation”, Grace answered.

The map of Isla Menor was on the coffee table. The cartography book was beside it, open to the page about blank spaces. There were no dragons. There had never been dragons. There was just this — the ordinary remarkable thing of a life that had broken open and grown back truer than it was before. The market, the bookstore, and the barrel that functioned as a table. The plant has seven leaves. The man who drew maps. The woman who finished her sentence. The things worth keeping, kept. She had walked out of one life with her hands completely still.

"If this is truly what you want, Liam, then I'll leave. But please know, deep in my heart, I still love you." As Chloe walked away from Liam's house, her heart heavy with longing and regret, a sense of finality washed over her. The path ahead was uncertain, but she vowed to carry the bittersweet memories of their love, cherishing them as a reminder of what once was.