Chapter 2

She was sobbing on the screen.

Grief and shock flooded her eyes, and she kept shaking her head.

"How... how did we end up like this?"

I couldn't answer her. Honestly, I didn't know either.

I could only warn her, "You won't be happy after you marry him. Chloe, promise me, okay?"

She wiped her tears, her eyes red and puffy.

"But he's not even with me right now. He went to San Francisco to beg that retired specialist to treat my legs."

I froze.

Right. I had almost forgotten.

Back then, a stage accident had crushed my legs. I could barely stand.

Ethan was more devastated than I was. He stayed up night after night, massaging my legs and changing my bandages until dawn.

When we heard about a retired specialist in San Francisco who might be able to save my legs, Ethan left without a second thought.

He camped outside the doctor's house in the freezing rain for three days and nights, refusing to eat or leave, until his own legs were dangerously swollen. That was how he moved the doctor to treat me.

But now...

I gently touched my leg. It was completely healed. But we had lost each other.

The cruelest irony of all?

"Do you know who that woman downstairs is? Lily."

She shook her head, looking like a lost puppy.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "She's that doctor's granddaughter."

She stopped breathing.

She covered her mouth to muffle a sob.

"So... Ethan fell in love with someone else on the way to saving me?"

I shook my head.

"I don't know. Maybe it wasn't love back then. They reunited two years ago—which is five years in your future."

We fell into a heavy silence.

Just then, the sound of the smart lock chimed at the front door.

Instinctively, I hid my phone behind my back.

Ethan walked in.

His eyes fell on my movement, but he didn't ask. His eyes were red, and he looked completely drained.

"Are you happy now?"

A sarcastic smile played on his lips. "I sent her away."

I stared at him blankly.

Behind my back, my nails dug deep into my palms. It stung.

"Happy?"

"Ethan, is this marriage a solo project? Am I the only one who has to fight for it?"

He ripped off his tie and threw it onto the couch.

"Don't start acting crazy," he muttered coldly before brushing past me into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

My entire body went numb.

After a long time, I slowly brought the phone back to my face.

On the screen, my younger self was covered in tears. "That's not the Ethan I know. It's not him..."

But I couldn't cry.

I wanted to scream and cry like her, but my eyes were bone-dry and burning.

"People change, I guess."

Just as I grabbed my suitcase to leave, a sudden thunderstorm cracked outside, and rain began to pour.

My phone buzzed with a notification: Your flight has been canceled.

I sighed.

I wasn't leaving tonight. I dragged my suitcase to the guest bedroom and pushed the door open.

"Are you guys... sleeping in separate rooms?" she asked quietly.

My hand froze on the doorknob. The bitterness in my throat was suffocating. "Yeah. We've been in separate rooms for almost a year."

She sobbed louder.

"But Ethan... he literally can't sleep unless he's holding me right now..."

My chest tightened. It had been so long that I'd almost forgotten.

Ethan used to have severe insomnia. He could only sleep peacefully when I was in his arms.

We had never spent a night apart.

I said softly, "He found someone else to help him sleep now. Lily is a great doctor. She knows how to soothe him."

After a long silence, the girl on the screen looked at me with bloodshot eyes.

"Three days. Ethan will be back in three days in my time. Let me use these three days to completely give up on him."

I nodded. "Okay."