Chapter 4

Back at the villa, the staff had the birthday cake ready.

Martin lit the candles.

The flames flickered in his eyes.

"Make a wish."

I closed my eyes.

My mind stayed empty for a long time, and then one thought slowly surfaced.

Go.

Don't stay here anymore.

I blew out the candles.

Martin gripped my wrist, his voice low. "What did you wish for?"

I gave a small tug, but couldn't pull free.

He watched me, then started to smile. "Did you wish that you love me again?"

I looked at him.

There was a certainty in his eyes.

Certain that I could never get past him.

Certain that no matter how much it hurt, in the end I would still turn back and hold him.

I said nothing.

He took that as agreement, and kissed my forehead, pleased.

"You don't need to wish for that. I'll always love you."

The candlelight swayed, lighting up his smile.

For a second, it really did look like a scene out of some warm, tender movie.

That night, I couldn't tell whether he was happy or sad. I only watched him drink a great deal.

I looked at his sleeping face, and it was as if, across all that time, I saw the man I first met.

Back then he'd stood at the university gate holding a bunch of bellflowers, bright and full of himself.

"I'm Martin Vance. You're going to fall in love with me soon."

He wasn't wrong.

Looking back now, maybe from the very first meeting he'd already seen straight through me.

This love had tangled us up for seven years. Now it was time for it to end.

At four in the morning, I dragged my suitcase out of the walk-in closet.

I only took a few old clothes, my ID, one bank card, and a copy of my medical records.

Everything Martin had bought me, I left behind.

The door pushed open.

Martin stood in the doorway, his robe loose, shadows under his eyes.

"Where are you going?"

I shut the case. "Leaving."

He looked at me for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed.

"No wonder you've been so quiet these past few days. Waiting here to spring this on me."

He walked in and pressed his hand down on the suitcase handle.

"How many days are you planning to hide this time? How long will the phone be off? When I find you, are you going to hold me and cry again, tell me you were wrong?"

Martin lifted a hand to touch my face.

"Anna, my patience has limits. You've made your point. That's about enough."

I turned my head away.

His hand stopped.

"I'm not making a scene."

"Then what do you want?"

"To leave you."

The smile drained completely off Martin's face.

"Say that again."

"I'm leaving you."

The room went frighteningly quiet.

The next second he yanked my wrist and dragged me to the wardrobe.

He threw the doors open.

A wall of luxury goods hit my eyes.

"Leave me?"

His voice dropped, cold.

"Anna, you eat what I give you, use what I give you. I'm the one who treated your illness, and I'm the one who pulled your life back out of your own hands, again and again. And now you tell me you're leaving?"

I looked at him. "Then I'll give it all back."

I set the bank card down on the vanity.

"Your money, I'll pay back slowly."

"If I can't pay it off, I'll just keep paying."

He looked at me like he'd heard a joke, his eyes dark and vicious.

"Pay it back with what?"

"I can work."

"What can you do?"

He stepped closer.

"Smash things? Follow people? Bang on someone's door in the pouring rain? Or drive yourself into a facility so I have to go fish you out in the middle of the night?"

He laid out those old things one by one, and I couldn't argue with a single one of them.

Martin watched my silence like he had the upper hand.

He reached out and tipped up my chin, his tone suddenly softening.

"Anna, I know you've been wronged."

His thumb brushed my cheek.

"But Bella's different. Her father took on debt to protect mine. I promised I'd look after her. She's pregnant now. I can't just abandon her."

He paused, his voice going lower.

"Once she's had the baby, I'll send her away."

"The one I want has always been you."

How nice it sounded.

If I hadn't listened to it for seven years, I might still believe it.

I took his hand off me.

"Then go want someone else."

Martin's eyes changed in an instant.

"Anna, don't push me into sending you back."

I looked at him. "Send me."

He froze.

I took the lawyer's letter out of my bag and set it on the table.

"If you restrict my freedom again, I'll go to the police. And I'll sue the facility and everyone who signed off on it."

Martin stared at the document, the color draining from his face bit by bit.

"You had this ready all along?"

"Yes."

"Since when?"

I thought about it.

"Probably since I found out I couldn't cry anymore."

Outside the door, Bella stood holding the railing, her voice trembling.

"Martin, my stomach hurts…"

Martin didn't turn around right away.

Bella called out again.

I lifted my suitcase and stepped around him.

At the doorway, he suddenly clamped down on my wrist.

"Anna, if you walk out that door today, don't come back regretting it."

I looked down at his hand.

A few seconds later, he let go.

Because Bella started crying.

I went downstairs, opened the door, and walked out.

The pre-dawn wind was cold against my face.

I flagged down a car and gave the airport.

It was two hours later before Martin saw what I'd left on the dining table.

The bank card, the lawyer's letter, and a copy of the medical records.

At the very bottom of the records was the doctor's handwritten assessment.

【Note: Patient has taken emotion-suppressing medication long-term; suspected overdose has resulted in emotional non-responsiveness.】

The paper crumpled out of shape in his grip.

He thought back over everything strange about me these past days, as if I'd become a different person.

Bella came downstairs with a coat over her shoulders and edged carefully toward him.

"Martin, is Anna trying to make you go find her again?"

Martin slowly raised his head.

That one look was cold enough to drain the color from her face.

He held the medical records, his voice cracked beyond recognition.

When he turned to go, his steps faltered for the first time.

"She really doesn't want me anymore."