Chapter 4

The rain was almost over.

Ivy's messages kept popping up, one after another.

Abner stood and glanced at the time.

"Let's take a cab to the county clerk's office. She's scared at home by herself."

I didn't refuse.

Just as I reached the door of the coffee shop, a taxi pulled over not far away.

In a white dress, Ivy flew into Abner's arms like a butterfly.

"Abner, why aren't you home yet?"

"Can't you bear to leave Zoe? Don't you want me anymore?"

Her big, watery eyes broke Abner's heart.

He pulled her into his arms tenderly, aching for her, and said,

"How could that be?"

"I told you, I'll spend the rest of my life taking care of you."

Such a familiar line.

Abner had said it to me a thousand times too.

On the school field.

In the coffee shop on the street corner.

He liked to press his forehead to the tip of my nose and murmur it over and over.

"Zoe, I really do love you so much."

"I'm willing to spend my whole life loving you."

His whole life turned out to be so short.

I turned my head away, not wanting to watch any longer.

Ivy glanced at me, then deliberately acted coy in Abner's arms.

"This is where you two used to go on dates. I won't let you come here again."

"You're not allowed to go anywhere connected to her ever again!"

Abner stroked Ivy's head fondly.

He said "Okay" several times over.

The three of us went to the county clerk's office together.

When it came to signing the divorce agreement, Abner hesitated.

Again and again he seemed about to speak and then stopped.

In the end, all he said was,

"Zoe, take care of yourself."

But where could I even go?

In all the world, it seemed there was no longer any place for me.

I couldn't figure it out, so I just sat by the roadside, dazed.

Ivy was discussing with Abner where to go celebrate that evening.

When she saw me, she smiled and walked over.

By the time she reached me, her expression had long lost the gentleness and timidity from before.

"Zoe, you lost."

"So what if you served three years in prison for Abner? In the end, he still belongs to me."

"There's something you don't know yet. Abner found the evidence that could prove you acted in self-defense a long time ago."

"But he was afraid that if you showed up it would ruin my mood, so he destroyed all of it himself."

She stepped a few paces closer.

A victor's smile on her face.

"Do you understand now, Zoe? You lost from the very beginning."

"You never had any right to fight me!"

She thought I would break down sobbing, thought I would be heartbroken and grieved.

But I pressed a hand to my chest.

Strange, I didn't feel a thing.

Maybe I'd known the answer all along.

After I went to prison, the friends around me had helped me consult a few lawyers.

They all said the chances of winning an appeal in the second trial were extremely high.

The gold-medal attorney, ranked first in law, somehow lost the very case he'd been determined to win.

The lover I had longed for.

He had given up on me a very, very long time ago.

My face felt cold.

The rain still hadn't stopped.

I lowered my head as if fooling myself, and laughed softly.

"None of it matters anymore."

"Abner and I... were over long ago."

At least from the moment I went to prison, we were already over.

I didn't want to be tangled up in it any longer.

I stood and walked toward the taxi at the roadside.

But Ivy's face suddenly went dark, and she shoved me hard from behind.

Bang—