Chapter 21
Snow was falling on the day Melanie received an award for her novel.
She stood in front of the window, watching the dancing snowflakes. Jeremy suddenly appeared behind her and draped a cashmere coat around her shoulders.
“I’ve booked a table at the revolving restaurant. Let’s have a celebration tonight.”
When the two arrived at the restaurant, the waiter led them into a private room with a view.
There were floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides of the room. They could enjoy the night view of the
entire city from here.
The table in the center was covered with a red velvet tablecloth. On top of it were crystal candleholders
and red roses.
Jeremy raised his wine glass and made a toast to Melanie.
Then, he pulled out a stack of letters tied with a worn red string, then pushed them toward Melanie.
“This is a surprise for you. Open it.”
Melanie removed the red string.
The handwriting on the envelopes had faded, but she held her breath when she saw the letter “M” at the
corner of every envelope. “These are…”
“These are the letters you wrote to your pen pal, J, when you were in high school. There’s a total of 43
letters, and I kept every single one of them.” Jeremy’s voice was calm.
Melanie opened up the letter at the very top.
When the familiar handwriting came into sight, her pupils contracted. She couldn’t help clutching the edge of the paper.
She had written that letter when she was 16.
Melanie had started writing novels in high school, but her works had always been rejected by publishers.
Unwilling to accept her fate, she had found a pen pal named “J”, and she would send him her draft
regularly to ask for his feedback.
Although the internet had been commonly used at that time, Melanie favored this kind of method-a
slower form of communication.
Fortunately, she had clicked well with J, and they had become best friends who could talk about anything.
J would carefully read through every draft she sent and drop his feedback on the side.
With J’s help, Melanie’s writing skills improved tremendously, and she became more confident in her
writing.
The year she graduated from high school, J had suddenly told her in a letter that his family would be sending him for closed-door lessons. As such, he couldn’t write her letters anymore.
Just like that, he had vanished completely from her world.
At that time, Charles and Susan had given Yasmin great support to pursue art-but they refused to let both of their daughters choose a path that wasn’t seen as a proper career. As such, they had burned all of Melanie’s handwritten drafts.
Melanie had lost all her motivation since then, and she never thought of writing novels again.
But now, she was utterly shocked to see Jeremy with all the letters she had sent.
She immediately looked up at Jeremy, her mind working overtime as questions and disbelief flooded in
at that moment.
“After I read your draft on the ship back then, I found your writing style familiar.”
Jeremy explained how he had found out that Melanie had been his pen pal all along. “The way you described how the female lead first met the male lead was the same as you did in the past.
“I wasn’t too sure then, so I took two days to compare the details. I finally confirmed that my speculation
was right.”
Melanie suddenly thought of Jeremy’s expression when they were on the deck that day. He had
mentioned that her writing style was unique.
It turned out he had suspected something since then.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were J?” Melanie couldn’t help asking.
“Initially, I was worried that after you discovered my identity, you would think I invested in publishing your
novel because of our past relationship.”
After a momentary pause, Jeremy continued, “After that, I thought our reunion should happen on the day you achieve your dream.
“I remember you telling me in a letter that I’d be the first person you told if you became a best-selling
author.”
Tears streamed down Melanie’s face when she heard his words.
She had written that on the night of her 18th birthday. That was the last letter she had ever written to J.
In her letter, she had thanked him for motivating her all this time. She had even mentioned that he would be the person she would first inform when she became famous.
Through her tears, she saw Jeremy take out a glimmering bracelet from the inner pocket of his suit. Then, he slowly walked up to her.
“After I received the final letter back then, I couldn’t get the chance to reply to you. When I finally got to do that, I found out that you had moved.”
The silver bracelet dangled in his palm, glistening with a soft glow. “Now, I want to say what was left
unsaid back then.”
Jeremy gently slipped the bracelet around her trembling wrist. “Melanie, I’ve always believed that you’d become an outstanding writer. From now on, please allow me to be your first reader. Would that be okay
with you?”
Melanie looked Jeremy in the eyes and gave him a firm nod. “Okay, sure.”
