Chapter 4

"Saw what?" I tilted my head and gave a pretend-confused smile.

"Saw you personally write an application for a one-year extension? Or saw you putting on this whole martyr act for atonement?"

Hayden's face turned from white to green.

"Vivian, let me explain. Lily really is very ill. She can't survive without me..."

"Enough."

I cut him off, exhausted beyond measure. "I don't want to hear a single word of your explanation. If you love her so much, then keep staying to be with her. One year, nine years, even a lifetime—do whatever you want."

I shook off his hand and turned to walk out of the infirmary.

Behind me, Hayden was still frantically calling out my name, but I didn't stop.

Walking out of the infirmary, the sunlight stabbed at my eyes.

I pulled out my phone and dialed my mother.

"Mom, please contact the Bennetts. Tell Trevor I'll be back in Brookhaven the day after tomorrow. If he's willing, we'll go register the marriage the first day we meet."

My mother was stunned for a long while on the other end, then answered with a trembling voice: "Okay... okay! Mom will arrange it right now! Vivian, I'm glad you've come to your senses. Mom will wait for you in Brookhaven."

I returned to the temporary guest house.

This room was filled with old keepsakes I had collected for him over five years.

Every letter he had written me had pressed dried flowers I loved stuck to the envelope.

Every medal he'd given me, I had carefully wrapped in red velvet boxes.

There were also stubs from every plane ticket from when I'd flown across the world to see him.

I once thought these were proof of love.

Now I saw them as evidence of my own stupidity.

I found a huge trash bag and started clearing them out one by one.

The medals went into the trash bag.

Those memory-filled photos, I crumpled into balls and threw away.

I saw the fountain pen he had once given me.

I remembered him saying: "When we get married, I'll use this pen to sign my name on our marriage certificate."

I gave a cold laugh, grabbed the pen, and snapped it hard against the corner of the desk.

The expensive barrel cracked open, ink splattering across my hand.

I threw away the last thing belonging to Hayden.

The room became empty—just like my heart.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from outside the door.

Lily pushed the door open, her eyes triumphant.

"Hayden has already submitted another stay application for me. In this war zone, no one can replace my position—and no one can replace his place in my heart."

She walked up to me, her tone full of venomous provocation: "What does waiting five years matter? The person who's slept beside him for five years is me. The person who survived death with him is me. You're just a joke living in a fantasy."

I looked at her and felt that she was pitiful.

She thought she'd won.

What she had schemed so hard to steal was a piece of garbage I didn't even want.

"Lily."

I looked at her calmly, even revealing a genuine smile. "Congratulations. I don't want this piece of trash anymore. I hope you can guard him for the rest of your life."

The smile froze on Lily's face.

I picked up my light suitcase and walked right past her, out the door.

"Tell Hayden for me—ninety-nine laps is too few. What he owes me, he can't repay even in this lifetime. But it's okay. I'm generous. I'm giving him to you two."