Chapter 4

The words had barely left her mouth when a new e-ticket confirmation dropped into my inbox.

Raymond leaned over eagerly, but the moment he saw the destination, his face changed.

"The high-altitude wetlands? What about your flight home?!"

I said coldly, "Canceled."

The next day, before check-in at the airport, Raymond handed me a new boarding pass.

Seat 14A. He'd put himself in 14B.

Charlotte he'd arranged for the back, several rows away.

"Rosamund, this is the best I can do right now."

"Trust me, I can sort it all out. Let's go together."

I took the boarding pass, and in my head I laughed to myself.

The two flights took off only forty minutes apart.

Just like every trip in the past four years, he checked my equipment cases for me and bought me a hot drink with no sugar.

He'd even thought ahead and gotten a blanket ready.

Charlotte trailed behind us the whole way and couldn't help asking Raymond, "Raymond, after we're back home, are we still going to try on wedding dresses?"

Raymond refused flatly. "The wedding's on hold."

He gripped my hand and pleaded.

"Rosamund, I'll take care of everything. I'll treat you right."

I didn't answer, because I had no interest in a pointless argument.

In the waiting area, I calmly finished handing over every access right to the studio.

The boarding announcement for the flight home came over the speakers.

Just as Raymond took my hand to get up, Charlotte, in the back row, let out a sudden cry of pain.

She was clutching her stomach, her face twisted, and under the pale hem of her dress a faint smear of blood had appeared.

After a quick look, the airport doctor advised going to a hospital for a check right away.

Raymond went white.

With one arm holding up the swaying Charlotte, he clutched my boarding pass for the flight home in a death grip.

He looked at me, and the fear in his eyes was real, and so was how much he didn't want to let me go.

But what he said was, "Rosamund, wait for me one last time. Just once."

His body had already moved, on its own, to shield Charlotte.

I nodded. "Go. This time you don't have to come back looking for me."

His eyes went frantic, and he shook his head desperately. "Rosamund Swanson, don't go to the high country. Let's go home and have the wedding!"

He reached out to stop me, but Charlotte's pained moan called him back again.

I just watched him rush off with Charlotte toward the airport's emergency corridor.

He took a few steps and looked back at me once.

A few more steps, and he looked back again.

Every time he turned, it was full of reluctance and struggle.

But inside me, nothing stirred.

Then I walked straight toward the gate in the opposite direction.

Before the cabin door closed, his calls came in one after another.

I declined them, then switched to airplane mode.

Then I pulled the blanket over myself and said softly, to myself.

"Raymond, this is goodbye for good."