Chapter 2

I simply tidied up the place and slept just like that on the relatively clean sofa.

Early the next morning, I was woken up by rapid knocking on the door.

There seemed to be a woman’s voice outside too, and I instantly woke up, thinking Sophia Bennett had found me.

I walked over and opened the door.

However, when I clearly saw the young girl standing at the door in a pink dress, I did not react for a moment.

Because of the redevelopment, many residents in this area had already moved away.

When I came back last night, I had glanced around in passing, and everywhere nearby was pitch black and did not look like anyone was living there.

“Ethan, you’re actually back?”

Her eyes were full of surprise, and as she spoke, she opened her arms as if she wanted to hug me.

I took a step back and looked her over with doubt in my eyes.

It was not until I saw the red mole at the corner of her eye that a thin figure gradually surfaced in my mind.

When I was little, there was a girl in the neighborhood with twin ponytails who always liked following behind me and calling my name.

She had a baby face, and when she smiled, the red mole at the corner of her eye seemed vivid and alive.

I still remembered that her father was addicted to gambling, and whenever he lost, he would come home and beat her and her mother.

My mom was still around then, and because she felt bad that Mia was always injured, she often called her to our place for meals.

I did not expect that after not seeing her for years, she would still be the same as before, with her eyes curving when she smiled.

I suddenly thought of the photo I had seen in Sophia Bennett’s bedroom before.

In the photo, she also had two ponytails and leaned against a young man, with a brilliant smile on her face that I had never seen before.

It was also then that I learned Sophia Bennett was not someone who did not like to smile.

She simply wanted to save all her beauty for another man.

Because of this, I had argued with her too, but she only sneered and said that in her heart, I would never compare to her first love.

Because of this, the two of us fell into a long cold war, and it was my mom who persuaded me.

Why would a living person bother competing with a dead man for no reason?

Later on, I coaxed myself into feeling better, but after that incident, Sophia Bennett’s first love became a forbidden topic between us.

In the past, I was lost in my own fantasies, but only now did I realize something.

If a woman was unwilling to leave even a heartfelt smile for you, then naturally, you had no place in her heart either.

After some small talk, Mia Parker invited me to go hiking with her.

She said there would be a Taurus meteor shower tonight, and if I had any wishes, I could take the opportunity to make one.

I originally wanted to refuse, but looking at the anticipation all over her face, I still did not dampen her mood.

On the way up the mountain, the two of us talked a lot.

I learned that she had actually had a very hard time these past few years, and a year ago, because her mother could no longer endure the daily domestic violence, she stabbed Mia’s father to death while resisting him.

On the surface, it was liberation for Mia Parker, but the death of both her parents and the huge debt left behind by her father would also crush her until she could hardly breathe.

Yet even so, she still looked optimistic and positive.

I lowered my head and stared at my toes, and suddenly felt that I had actually lived quite poorly these past few years.

I thought that if I married Sophia Bennett and stayed with the person I loved, my future would also become very happy, but I was wrong.

For her, I gave up the design work I was best at, and for her, I practiced cooking, learned flower arranging, and tried to have things in common with her.

Now, I had only turned myself into a joke.

But when I looked at Mia Parker in front of me, although everything she had experienced was full of hardship, she was still moving toward her dreams.

She had always been herself.

Just then, I received a voice message from Sophia Bennett.