When my wife underwent artificial insemination for her cancer-stricken first love, I left a divorce agreement and walked away. Before leaving, I commented on their sweet photo on social media: “Let’s divorce. I’m making room for you two.” A minute later, she called, “Ethan, how can you be so selfish? Can you bear to let him die without an heir?” I laughed coldly and replied, “I don’t love you anymore. It has nothing to do with me.” But she became anxious. On our wedding anniversary, I asked my wife to come home early. Her usually cold expression showed a brief surprise before she silently nodded. That night, I prepared dinner and cake, waiting for her on the sofa until dawn. She never came home. Zoe Pei and I had been married for five years, but we were husband and wife in name only. She was the only daughter of Pei Group, the future heir. As for me, I was just an adopted son Grandpa Pei picked up from an orphanage twenty years ago. I met Zoe when I was eight years old. It was my first time being brought into the Pei family by Grandpa Pei. Years of living in ordinary circumstances made me feel out of place in such a grand house. Every move I made was cautious, careful not to upset anyone. Despite this, Zoe gradually helped me integrate into the family, taking care of my fragile self-esteem. To this day, I still remember when Old Mr. Pei told me to marry Zoe. I was overjoyed, thinking it would be worth it even if I died that day. Although everyone around me said I wasn’t good enough for her, I still plunged headfirst into the relationship. After all, who would pass up the chance to hold the moon in their arms? I sat on the sofa, silently watching the clock on the wall strike midnight, but there was still no news from Zoe. I couldn’t help but call her, but all I got in response was a cold electronic voice. Just as I was about to go out to find her at the company, Leo sent me a photo. In the picture, Zoe was hugging Leo, who was wearing a hospital gown. They looked intimate. Like a loving couple. Below the photo was a message from Leo: “Sorry, Ethan. I’m sick, and Zoe is keeping me company. The hospital needs to be quiet, so I muted her phone.” Leo’s message shattered my last bit of hope. I should have known all along that Zoe never loved me. I always knew that Zoe was never my moon. It’s just that for a moment, the moonlight really shone on me. I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at myself, mocking how long I had clung to the title of her husband. So long that I had become complacent. I didn’t reply. I just silently walked into the kitchen and reheated the already cold food. I swallowed this bitter dinner bite by bite, along with the cake. In fact, I had long understood that Zoe loved Leo. Leo was her first love from her teenage years. One was a beautiful and well-mannered heiress, the other a campus celebrity. And I was just the Pei family’s adopted son, hidden in the shadows. No matter how you look at it, they should have been a couple, but Grandpa Pei didn’t agree to their relationship. After Leo left heartbroken, I was able to pick up this bargain. On my eighteenth birthday, I wished that Zoe would look at me once more, and later she married me. Now, at twenty-eight, I only ask that she let me go in the little time I have left. At the same time, I’m letting myself go too.
A year ago, Leo, who had been missing for a long time, suddenly reappeared. Unlike before, his still handsome face now had a sickly pallor. After learning that he had cancer, Zoe began to devote her entire heart to him. Every day after work, she would go to the hospital to take care of him. I, who was already insignificant in her eyes, became completely invisible to her now. Occasionally, I would call Zoe to come home for dinner, only to be met with her cold rebuke. “All you think about is these trivial matters. Do you know how much Leo is suffering alone in the hospital?” “Honestly, why couldn’t it have been you who got this disease? It’s a waste for Leo to suffer like this.” Before I could answer, she would hang up. Sometimes, even Zoe’s gaze towards me carried a hint of resentment. Perhaps she hated me for agreeing to Grandpa Pei’s marriage arrangement back then, hated me for driving Leo away. But no matter what she thought of me, it no longer mattered. Because, just as she wished, I had been diagnosed with bone cancer six months ago. I had been hiding it from Zoe, afraid she would think I was trying to gain her sympathy by appearing weak. Ironically, even God seemed to think I was redundant. In these six months, my condition had rapidly deteriorated. The chemotherapy that was once a month became twice a month or even more frequent. The pain that seeped into my bones tortured me constantly. But I still persevered. I wanted to live a little longer, to see my moon once more. Until that day, right after chemotherapy, trembling in pain on the hospital bed, I saw Leo’s social media post. “Thank you to my angel for bringing me a little angel when I needed companionship the most.” Accompanied by a sweet photo of the two of them. At that moment, I only heard a boom in my mind, my heart feeling like it was being wrenched. Even the lingering pain from the chemotherapy couldn’t compare to the pain in my heart at that moment. The girl I had loved for over ten years, my wife of five years. She was having a child for another man. Nothing could be more heartbreaking than this. I knew it was time to let go. I drafted the divorce agreement. Zoe rarely came home these days, and I wouldn’t pretend to be pitiful to trick her into coming back. So, I chose our wedding anniversary as a reason to ask her to come home. To tell her about the divorce decision, and also to tell her that my time was running out. I didn’t expect that I had underestimated Zoe’s indifference and overestimated my position in her heart. I cleaned up the dining table, went back to the bedroom to pack my meager belongings, and left with nothing. I had entered the Pei family with nothing, and now leaving, I naturally couldn’t take anything with me. Thinking about how I had spent my entire life seeking a proper home. Now, as I was about to die, I realized that being clean and unencumbered was quite good too. After doing all this, I left the house keys along with a copy of the divorce agreement on the dining table. I sent Zoe a message. “The divorce agreement is on the table. I’m making room for you two.” Then I turned off my phone, closed the door, and left without looking back.
Half a month later, I came to the hospital to complete this month’s last chemotherapy session. On my way to deliver the medical report. I happened to run into Zoe accompanying Leo for a checkup. “Pregnant?” I asked casually. “No, Zoe is just accompanying me for a checkup. Thanks to her, I’ve recovered so quickly,” Leo explained, seeing my unfriendly expression. “That’s good, congratul-” Before I could finish, Zoe, who had been holding Leo’s arm, interrupted me. “Ethan, what are you doing? Why aren’t you answering your phone?” “And what’s this about divorce? Who allowed you to divorce? Are you planning to leave with nothing?” “What, now you’ve come to the hospital to win me back? Are you trying to play the victim?” Zoe’s barrage of questions made my already unclear mind feel even worse. Thinking about the upcoming chemotherapy, I didn’t bother with them anymore and walked straight into the doctor’s office. “Mr. Cheng, this is your last chemotherapy session for this month.” “Given your current condition, we suggest you start inpatient treatment after this session.” The doctor’s expression was grave. Combined with my current physical state, even I understood. My time was running out. I nodded, telling the doctor I wanted to think about it and finish this chemotherapy session first. After arranging with the doctor, I walked out of the office, preparing to enter the treatment room. Zoe grabbed me at the door. Leaving Leo looking at us with reluctant eyes. “Ethan, what are you doing? Are you serious?” Zoe crossed her arms, her usual dismissive gaze showing a hint of confusion. “What else? At this point, what reason do I have to lie to you?” I waved my hand wearily, just looking at her calmly. “Then why didn’t you say anything? Dragging it out until now, are you waiting here to make me pity you or-” “Do you remember our wedding anniversary half a month ago? I wanted to tell you that day, but where were you?” Zoe’s expression was shocked when I suddenly interrupted her, as if she couldn’t believe it. In fact, this was the first time in my life I had ever interrupted her. In the past, I would have been happy for an entire day just for having an extra word with her, but now I only found it annoying. Her words were either constantly ignoring me or endlessly mocking me. She really thought the world revolved around her. Although I hadn’t received the divorce certificate with Zoe yet. In my view, since I had drafted that divorce agreement, we had already become strangers. Suddenly realizing this, I felt that I was actually colder than I had imagined. Once I decided I had no relationship with someone, I thoroughly cut off everything with them. Be it relationships or emotions. The deeper my love for Zoe had been, the more indifferent I felt towards her now. At this moment, the nurse from the chemotherapy room called my name, asking me to come in for treatment. Hearing this, I turned to leave. Seeing me about to leave, Zoe hurriedly said, “What about my grandfather?” With these words, I immediately understood her meaning. Back then, Grandpa Pei had used the Pei Group heir position to threaten her into marrying me. Now that I wanted a divorce, I naturally had to give Grandpa Pei an explanation. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll explain everything to him.” After saying this, I left directly, not looking back at her once. In the past, I always watched Zoe’s retreating figure. Now, I no longer needed to.
After the chemotherapy, I stared blankly at the ceiling of the hospital room as usual. The color was so white it made me feel cold. It reminded me of the morgue where my adoptive father’s body was kept twenty years ago. Everything there was equally hopeless. As far back as I could remember, the only person by my side was my adoptive father. My adoptive father made a living as a taxi driver. The neighbors all said he was a bachelor approaching thirty who still hadn’t found a wife. And I was an orphan abandoned by my birth parents from birth. At that time, I was just a baby, thrown like garbage at my adoptive father’s doorstep. Seeing that I was as pitiful as him, he took me in. For the next eight years, it was just me and my adoptive father relying on each other to survive. Although life was tight then, those were some of the few happy days in my impoverished life. Perhaps it was destined that I shouldn’t have lived a peaceful life. When I was eight, my adoptive father went out to work a night shift in the rain and never came back. I only remember being led by a group of people in white coats into a very cold place. My adoptive father’s cold body was lying there stiffly. No matter how heart-wrenchingly I cried, he wouldn’t get up and hold me like he used to. Gently patting my back, telling me not to cry, that everything would be alright. After my adoptive father’s death, the neighbors avoided me like the plague. I became an orphan once again, entering the orphanage as my final destination. The long night was hard to endure, but the sun would always rise as usual. On the second day after I entered the orphanage, Grandpa Pei personally came to take me back to the Pei family. “Child, what’s your name? Would you like to come with me?” “My name is Ethan, meaning peace.” Ethan means long-lasting peace, to be safe and sound for life. My adoptive father hadn’t read much, I only heard him often murmuring in my ear that as long as one lived peacefully, it was good enough. After I finished speaking, he gave me a smile. That smile made me feel like my adoptive father had returned. It was also this smile that made me plunge headfirst into a world that didn’t originally belong to me. It was in this world that I met the person I would chase for most of my life. When we first met, Zoe was wearing a pure white princess dress, sitting at the grand piano in the center of the spacious living room. Her fingers, white as jade, continuously played beautiful notes. At that moment, I gazed at her as if entranced. Perhaps seeing my gaze was too intense, Zoe looked at me and walked over with a smile. “Are you the new friend Grandpa mentioned? Hello, I’m Zoe Pei.” “Zoe means ‘like’ or ‘love’, you know!” As she spoke, she reached out her hand to hold mine, leading me to tour every corner of the Pei house. At that time, I didn’t ask for anything, didn’t want anything, just a home, just love. Even if I died, I didn’t want to be abandoned again. Thinking of this, I unconsciously gripped Zoe’s hand tightly. Like a drowning person clinging desperately to the only lifeline nearby. In the days that followed, Zoe became like my little shadow, following me wherever I went. In her words, I was the only one in this family willing to play and have fun with her, her best companion. We absolutely couldn’t be separated. And so, Zoe and I grew closer and closer. Sometimes, the colder a person is, the more they want to get close to something warm. Zoe was gentle and passionate, like a ray of sunshine illuminating my originally barren life. When I was with her, I always felt a long-lost sense of peace and tranquility. So, I will never forget what she once said to me: “From now on, this is your home, and I am your family.” But now, hearing these words, I only feel extremely bitter.
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “295974”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster #浪漫Romance #现实主义Realistic #励志Inspiring #重生Reborn #惊悚Thriller #校园School
Leave a Reply