Chapter 3
I took a dissolution of adoption agreement from my bag.
“I’m sorry. Sorry for presumptuously saving you, for intruding into over ten years of your life without permission, and for making you unhappy.
“So, let’s part ways amicably.
“May you finally achieve everything you wish for, and live a life filled with joy and ease.”
Damian ground his molars together, a sound of pure rage, his face dark as he asked, “What do you mean?”
I said calmly, “It means we’re breaking up.”
I then pulled out a property transfer deed and a bank card for him.
“I sold the house. We’ll split the money evenly, and with this bank card, you’ll have enough to buy a small studio apartment for yourself.”
His face grew even darker. “You’re abandoning me?
“Didn’t you say you loved me?”
Did I love Damian?
I had wondered about that myself.
I had never truly received love, so I wasn’t entirely sure what love felt like.
I just thought that love meant being good to someone.
I looked up at the small house filled with our memories.
I had moved out with Damian after I came of age. At first, he was reluctant.
Back then, I had to both study and work to support him, so I was always out early and back late, with little time to spend with him.
He’d be all alone in that cramped rental apartment, his snake tail sticking out from the folding bed with nowhere to go.
I thought that was why he was reluctant.
So I worked seven or eight jobs, saving up to buy a house for him.
Even then, he still didn’t want to touch me, locking his bedroom door even though we each had our own room.
But I still wanted to melt his icy demeanor.
He was my responsibility, the one I had saved and raised. I couldn’t just abandon him.
Yet, I had seen how others in my family interacted with their shifters.
My childhood friend, Hailey, had a snow leopard beast-man. That snow leopard had been very arrogant when first adopted, but Hailey’s gentle persistence eventually melted his icy heart.
He’d affectionately rub against Hailey’s neck, and gently lick the back of her hand.
Like a mouse in the gutter, I watched, craving a beauty that wasn’t mine.
I searched for shifter vlogs online, learning their preferred ways of care. I spoiled him rotten, never letting him do any chores, giving him whatever he wanted.
I never thought that what was my sweet gesture was his bitter poison.
I also thought that one day I could truly enter Damian’s heart, but his heart had long been occupied by someone else.
Perhaps I had loved Damian once, but those feelings had slowly eroded over the years.
Until I saw him wrapped around Chloe – that was when the melting snow mountain of my hope finally crumbled into dust.
“I don’t love you anymore.”