Chapter 2

Marlene hesitated for a few seconds, and had just opened her mouth to speak.

Corey's voice drifted over from far off. "Marlene, go pick some flowers in the garden."

She hurried to hand me the bowl in her hands.

"Ma'am, this is the warm porridge Mr. Farley told me to make especially for you."

"Please have a little. Don't let the baby go hungry."

The window slid shut again.

I had no appetite.

But feeling the cramping in my belly, I picked up the bowl anyway.

Food like this was a rare luxury, yet I couldn't taste a thing.

Spoonful by spoonful I forced it in, gagging as I swallowed.

The bowl was empty.

The baby inside me seemed soothed, and the cramping slowly eased.

I opened my phone and scrolled with no purpose.

Then a trending post caught my eye.

An employee of the Sprout Foundation had posted anonymously, and it had suddenly gone viral.

The article revealed the truth behind Corey founding the foundation: it was to honor his dead first love, Rita Fox, the woman he never got over.

【...He never accepts awards, never gives interviews, because he cares less about his own reputation than about her resting in peace in the other world.】

The attached image showed the fine print on the founding charter, explaining where the foundation's name came from.

【She was like a young sprout, born of the soil, returned to the clear wind. May this foundation, as she would have wished, flourish without end.】

The comment section held two hundred forty-five thousand replies, all marveling at this love that lasted unto death.

【His first love died of leukemia, so he set up a leukemia relief foundation. He's the god of pure love.】

【The one he's really saving isn't anyone else, it's his younger self who could do nothing back then. What kind of top-tier tragic aesthetic is this...】

I read through them one by one, bitterness spreading in my chest.

Before we married, I knew he'd had a first love who died.

But he promised me he'd let her go, that from then on there would only be me in his heart.

He did give me a sense of security.

He never let me carry a bag when we went out, always put food on my plate at meals, stayed on a voice call with me all night when he traveled.

Once, trapped in a disaster zone, he'd risked his life to dig out a spare battery just to check in with me through the night.

I thought that was love.

Until the foundation was set up.

Seven years of marriage, and the foundation had existed for five of them.

For those five years everyone said I'd married a living saint. Only I knew how hard those days behind it really were.

I wiped my damp eyes and kept scrolling.

The top comment came from an anonymous secondary account:

【Wait for me to come back.】

Corey had replied within seconds: 【Who are you?】

The users under that comment went wild.

【Is there a twist?】

【Was there more to what happened back then? I'm here for the follow-up!】

【Am I the only one who noticed Mr. Farley replied in seconds?】

My heart raced. I tapped into that account.

The page was empty, nothing but a single photo of a white camellia.

My fingertips trembled.

The white camellia petals scattered over the red carpet at our wedding, maybe they weren't what he liked. Maybe they were what Rita Fox liked.

While I sat there dazed, an alert popped up from the live camera feed at the front door.

I tapped it without thinking. On the screen, a strange woman with long hair loose over her shoulders was pressing the doorbell.

Seeing eyes and brows ninety percent like mine, in that instant I understood everything.

Why Corey had pursued me so intensely the moment we met.

Why, in the deepest moments, he had to look into my eyes.

Why he would sometimes stare at me in a daze, his gaze passing straight through me to land somewhere far away.

My stomach heaved, and my hands shook so badly I could barely hold the phone.

On the feed, Corey opened the door and froze in place, staring fixedly at the person in front of him.

"Rita, is it really you?"

The woman gave a faint smile, but her eyes had gone red.

"Corey, it's been a long time."