“Near the coast, they only found Mrs. Douglas‘ phone… and
a
waterlogged marriage certificate.”
Ronnie held the photo, which had been washed away, and the blank certificate in his hands. It felt as if his heart had been ripped apart.
His eyes burned with anguish, and he rushed madly toward the sea.
He thought, “No, it couldn’t be… My wife couldn’t have ended her life by jumping into the ocean.”
“Andrea! Andrea, come back!”
He tore off his jacket and plunged into the frigid water, each step searing his skin with its icy grip.
He thought, “Andrea always had a cold constitution. How could she have endured this freezing sea?”
His vision blurred with tears of regret. He thought, “It all made sense now, how she had looked at me so strangely that day”
She had already given up on him.
On the shore, curious onlookers lingered, some sneering, some pitying, others murmuring in anger.
D
6:54 PM
<
She had vanished, taking the proof of their love with her, leaving him utterly alone.
She would never speak again, never smile at him while eating his steak, joking that her husband’s cooking was the best in the world. She wouldn’t blush when he spun her around, nor would anyone else ever remember those moments that belonged solely to them.
He trudged further into the deep, his clothes soaked, his steps heavy.
“Andrea, I was wrong, so wrong…”
Ronnie collapsed in the water, lifeless, until a lifeguard dragged him back to shore.
He ran a high fever for several days in a row, barely functioning like a shell of a person.
When he finally awoke, he vaguely heard Judith on the balcony, speaking in a low, gleeful voice.
“Well, his wife’s already dead… If I can convince Ronnie of my depression and that I need him, he’ll soften and agree to marry me.
“The company’s finances are in trouble. You need to secure his support from the Douglas family’s funds.
“Got it, Daddy. He should wake up soon.”
When she turned around, she was startled to see Ronnie’s dark expression.
Her face turned pale. “Ronnie… you heard everything?”
Suddenly, Ronnie realized he no longer felt the same obsession with Judith.
His youthful infatuation had peaked the moment he reached for the moon. Now, it had faded into nothingness.
He finally understood that the person he once saw as his perfect ideal was, in truth, just a shallow, calculating woman.
He had experienced true love once.
And he had thrown it away with his own hands.
Ronnie ended things with Judith and locked himself in the room Andrea had once lived in.
Then came the fallout. Tabloids exploded with the scandals, plummeting his company’s stock value.
Yet Ronnie didn’t care. He hired countless ships to search the open seas, a hopeless quest to recover Andrea’s body.
He sailed to the endless sea himself, and there, he fell to his knees on the deck, crying out in heart–wrenching despair.
“Andrea, come back…”
His anguished voice echoed across the vast ocean.
But no one answered.
Following Ronnie’s reputation crisis and his recent neglect of work, the chairman of the Douglas family refused to let him remain as the heir, cutting off his financial support.
Left with no choice, he began piloting a yacht alone, bringing only an oxygen tank and diving gear, tirelessly searching these waters day after
day.
One day, while diving underwater, he cramped up and suddenly lost his strength.
On the verge of drowning, Ronnie was spotted and rescued by a servant from a nearby island.
“Sir, wake up! Are you okay?”
Chapter 9
<
6:54 PM
I never imagined I’d see Ronnie again in this lifetime.
Nor did I know that for the past year, he’d been piloting a yacht alone, searching the sea for my body.
Once, when I looked at Ronnie, it was like gazing at the moon, a distant, untouchable beauty.
Now, when the servant brought him back from the sea, he was unshaven, disheveled, reeking of sweat, and utterly unrecognizable as the man
he used to be.
When he saw me, he froze in disbelief for a long time.
After he confirmed my identity, tears welled up in his eyes, and his voice was a mix of sorrow and joy.
“Andrea… I knew it. You couldn’t have died. You’re so smart. How could someone like you give up your life for someone like me?”
I smiled calmly and looped my arm around the strong, upright figure of my husband. He was my perfect partner, custom–designed to be loyal to me in every way.
“Yes, not only am I alive, but as you can see, I’m doing very well.”
Ronnie stared at our intertwined hands, stunned, and then let out a bitter laugh.
“Andrea, I thought I was strong enough to endure anything, but the day I lost you, I learned what true despair feels like. You’ve always been my
one weakness. That’s never changed. And I never treated you as anyone else’s substitute.”
A year ago, words like these might have stirred my heart.
But now, they couldn’t move me at all.
I shook my head and turned to leave. “There’s no point in saying this now. I’ll arrange for someone to send you off the island. There’s no need for you to come back.“”
His eyes reddened, and he called out to me softly.
“Andrea, I just want to ask you one thing… Can you forgive me?”
“I forgave you long ago,” I interrupted without hesitation.
For a moment, a faint glimmer of hope appeared in Ronnie’s eyes, only to be extinguished the next second.
I met his gaze calmly.
“Ronnie, I forgive you. If hearing that brings you peace, then I’ll say it because it doesn’t matter to me anymore. But the love you’re hoping for, it will never come back in this lifetime.”
Ronnie stood there in a daze, crying and laughing at the same time.
Eventually, he left, defeated, boarding the plane that would take him away.
The very next day, news broke that Ronnie had jumped to his death.
The Douglas family, ashamed of him, refused to bury his ashes in the family plot, instead holding a brief, unceremonious burial elsewhere.
Meanwhile, my father, who had been a chronic smoker and drinker, spiraled further out of control without my mother’s restraint. By the time his lung cancer was discovered, it was already terminal.
Hearing all this, I felt an unexpected calm.
The sound of the ocean wind whistled in my ears. The long winter and spring were drawing to a close.
The island’s vibrant summer was just around the corner.
The air carried a familiar scent, something my mother and I had always yearned for our entire lives, freedom.
D
་་0},
mmer was just around the corner.
The air carried a familiar scent, something my mother and I had always yearned for our entire lives, freedom.
The End
