When Ronnie left the hotel, an inexplicable sense of unease washed over him.
Maybe it was the way Andrea had looked at him before he left, silent, yet piercing, as if seeing through him. It made him feel unsettled.
Impossible, he told himself, “She couldn’t know about Judith.” He reassured himself with the thought.
He had ensured that everyone around him kept their mouths shut. This lie would stay buried forever.
Judith had been the star of his high school, the girl he’d secretly loved from afar.
The things they couldn’t have in youth often haunted him for life.
Over the years, with Andrea by his side, Ronnie had slowly let go of this obsession.
But then, one day, Judith returned, tears streaming down her face, saying she couldn’t go on.
6:54 PM
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“Ronnie, I’ve been diagnosed with severe depression. I’ve ruined my studies, my career, everything. I just can’t keep living like this.”
Her tears shattered him completely.
He couldn’t help but pour all the tenderness he had into warming her icy, fragile heart. He vowed to help her complete a list of 100 small acts of love to remind her life was worth living.
Their connection grew like a wildfire, intense, uncontrollable, impossible to stop.
Then, one day, as she lay against his chest, Judith looked up and asked him softly, “Ronnie, when we finish the 100th thing on the list, and I find the strength to live again, will you marry me?”
Ronnie didn’t answer right away. Deep down, he knew the truth.
He was only chasing a dream he’d never had the courage to grasp before, a fleeting inf
He never intended to leave Andrea. In his heart, she had always been the only woman he truly saw as his wife.
That day, as the helicopter hovered near the coastline, Ronnie noticed a crowd gathering on the shore.
“What’s going on over there?” he asked.
The pilot glanced at the rescue teams assembling below and casually replied, “Looks like someone jumped off the cliff. It’s the highest one around here, lots of suicides every year.
“Mr. Douglas, should we head over to help?”
Ronnie hesitated. Judith, already geared up for their skydive, pouted in frustration.
“Ronnie, didn’t you promise we’d go skydiving together? Why should someone else’s problems matter to us?”
Her voice wavered, her eyes welling up with tears. “Ronnie, I’m scared to jump. Will you hold my hand?”
At first, he didn’t think much of it and followed her out of the helicopter, plunging through the clouds.
The Douglas family forbade extreme sports, so this was Ronnie’s first skydive.
In that free fall, as they descended into the clouds, he felt a thrill he hadn’t experienced in years of marriage, raw, electrifying, and new.
“Ronnie, let the heavens be our witness. Promise me, you’ll never, ever leave me.”
He clasped her hand tightly and rasped, “I promise.”
After their parachutes landed safely on the beach, they wandered hand in hand along the shore until evening.
Later that night, a driver took them to the city.
Once Judith was settled in, Ronnie was greeted by his assistant’s pale, trembling face.
“Mr. Douglas, something terrible has happened. We couldn’t reach your phone all day…”
Ronnie raised his eyebrow and thought, “What could possibly have gone wrong in just one day off?”
As they entered the city, he saw it, massive screens in every square displaying a glaring message.
It read, “Andrea wishes Ronnie and Judith a long, happy marriage. Ten years of secret love finally fulfilled, yet the tune of longing remains
unwritten.”
The screen transitioned to a slideshow of photos, evidence of his affair, painstakingly collected by Andrea.
Messages from their 100 acts of love plan. Romantic love lines he’d whispered to Judith.
And worse, a blurred image of their intimate moment at the gazebo.
6:54 PM
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