Chapter 4

The rain was about to stop.

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

Meryl got up and glanced at the time.

"Let's take a cab to the courthouse. He's scared to be home alone."

I didn't refuse.

Just as I reached the entrance of the coffee shop, a taxi stopped a short distance away.

Elwin, in a black coat, walked quickly over to Meryl's side.

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

"Can't you bear to leave Keith? Are you not planning to come back?"

His hurried tone made Meryl's heart ache for him.

She steadied his shoulder with a pained look and said softly.

"How could that be?"

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

Such a familiar line.

Meryl had said it to me a thousand times too.

On the school field.

In the coffee shop on the corner.

She liked to press her forehead to the tip of my nose and murmur it over and over.

"Keith, I really love you so much."

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

Her whole life was so short, wasn't it.

I turned my head away, not wanting to keep looking.

Elwin glanced at me and deliberately spoke up in front of me, sounding displeased.

"This is where the two of you used to go on dates. I forbid you to come here again."

"Any place connected to him, you're not allowed to go to again!"

Meryl didn't argue.

She just said "Okay," several times in a row.

The three of us went to the courthouse together.

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

Several times she seemed about to speak, then stopped.

In the end, she only said one thing.

"Keith, take good care of yourself."

But where could I go?

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

I couldn't work it out, so I just sat alone by the roadside, staring into space.

Elwin was discussing with Meryl where to celebrate that evening.

When he saw me, he smiled and walked over.

Looking at his face, the gentleness and timidity from before were long gone.

"Keith, you've lost."

"So what if you spent three years in jail for Meryl? In the end, she still belongs to me."

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

"But she was afraid your appearance would ruin my mood, so she destroyed all of it with her own hands."

He took a few steps closer.

A victor's smile on his face.

"Do you get it now, Keith? You lost from the very beginning."

"You never had any right to fight me for her!"

He thought I would break down and lose control, thought I'd be heartbroken and miserable.

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 consulted several lawyers for me.

They all said the chances of a successful appeal in the second trial were extremely high.

The star attorney, ranked first in the field of law, had somehow lost the very case she was determined to win.

The lover I'd longed for.

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, fooling myself, and laughed softly.

"None of it matters anymore."

"Meryl and I… were over long ago."

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

I didn't want to keep dragging it out.

I stood up and walked toward the taxi at the roadside.

But Elwin's face suddenly darkened, and he shoved me hard from behind.

Bang—