Chapter 2
Accompanied by Maya, I arranged Julian’s funeral.
He had left a will, stating that all his assets were to be donated after his death.
For some reason, I was eerily calm these past few days.
Seeing Maya’s eyes swollen from crying, gritting her teeth at Julian’s memorial picture, yet still trying to comfort me, I almost wanted to laugh.
After the funeral, I received a call from his lawyer.
“Mrs. Julian, Mr. Julian owned a villa not included in the donation… You can come arrange for its transfer whenever you have time.”
The villa was in the suburbs, south of the city.
I pushed open the front door, speechless at the sight before me.
The main hall was filled with portraits.
The strokes were wild and frenzied, almost deranged, like rough sketches from a beginner.
But the person in the portraits came alive, made vivid by the overflowing, intense affection captured within them.
It was Seraphina, our high school’s ‘It Girl’.
Ten years. I had never once heard her name from Julian’s lips.
I had no idea his feelings for her were hidden so deeply.
I stumbled forward a few steps, steadying myself against a table.
Neatly arranged on the table were several amber pieces.
Each encased a small fruit candy, a dried flower, and a fragment of a glitter nail.
The amber was smooth and rounded, clearly often handled and cherished.
Things Seraphina had carelessly discarded, he treated as precious treasures.
My wedding ring, which I had personally chosen for him, lay discarded nearby in a dried-up paint palette.
My heart clenched with sharp, shooting pains, and tears welled uncontrollably in my eyes.
Sitting down, I masochistically opened the notebook on the table.
It was a chronicle of Julian’s ten-year unrequited love.
On his first day of transfer, he received a fruit candy from Seraphina, the girl who sat in front of him, along with a friendly smile.
It was as if a ray of sunshine had pierced his shadowed, inner world.
For the gloomy boy, who had suffered domestic abuse and bullying, it was the first pure act of kindness he had ever received.
He fell for her then and there.
He wanted to lock her away, to possess her, to make her smile only for him.
But he couldn’t bear to drag such a bright, vibrant girl into his darkness.
R.a.n. wasn’t Chloe. It was Seraphina.
It was his wedding gift to her.
I flipped through the entire notebook. There were only a few brief mentions of me.
“My new deskmate is too nosy, annoying.
…
Married. A bit regretful, but I must be responsible for her.”
All the breakfasts I brought him when he had low blood sugar, the bullies I chased away for him, the time I dragged him by the hand out of the fire his deranged, abusive father started, all these years of my companionship and comfort… he didn’t mention a single one.
The only thing he couldn’t forget was Seraphina’s vibrant smile from all those years ago.
Each word was a slow, agonizing slice to my heart.
I clenched my fists, breathing deeply.
The crisp, clean scent of pine, his scent, still seemed to linger in the air.
I felt nauseous.
Some people are just inherently vile, unworthy of salvation.
I pressed my palm to my stomach.
He didn’t deserve me bearing his child.
Just as I was about to stand, I heard a sound from the doorway.
Two figures pushed the door open and stepped inside.