Chapter 373
“What did you just say?!”
Edna’s face turned an ominous shade of gray.
She didn’t care in the slightest about whether Marina was heartbroken or not; she grabbed her daughter’s shoulders so hard that red marks appeared, not even noticing.
“Explain yourself! What do you mean–if you weren’t his first love?”
Edna’s eyes blazed with fury, like she might devour Marina whole.
Between sobs, Marina tried to explain, her voice trembling:
“The truth is… I don’t actually know who Jonathan’s real first love was. He made a mistake from the beginning–he thought I was his first love, and I just… I just went along with it…”
The more Marina spoke, the quieter her voice became.
Marina had grown up in a well–off family. Galloway Thornton and Edna had always hoped for a son to inherit the family fortune, but ended up with a daughter.
Still, to Edna, a daughter had her own advantages. If Marina blossomed into a beauty, she could marry well and help expand the family’s influence.
So from an early age, they groomed Marina to be the perfect young lady–piano lessons, etiquette classes, social graces–preparing her for high society.
But Marina was no prodigy. She was just an ordinary girl.
Yet, desperate to meet her parents‘ expectations, she threw herself into her studies and training.
The summer before her junior year of high school, Marina entered a national piano competition and made it to the finals.
Her parents pinned all their hopes on her, convinced she could bring home the national title.
But in the end, a truly exceptional talent appeared at the competition–someone whose piano skills simply outclassed everyone else.
Marina finished in second place.
She knew all too well that, in the eyes of others, anything less than first was as
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good as last.
She was still nursing her disappointment when, unexpectedly, the winner turned down the award. Marina was bumped up by default, and just like that, she became the national champion.
She was ecstatic–she saw it as fate’s reward for all her years of hard work.
But she never could have imagined that the prize falling into her lap would be more than just the empty glory of a piano trophy-
It would be Jonathan.
“It was Jonathan who approached me,” Marina told Edna truthfully. “The first time he saw me, he called me Rina. I had no idea what he was talking about…”
She remembered clutching the trophy, ready to leave the venue, when a young man suddenly blocked her path.
He was strikingly handsome–more so than any pop star or actor she’d ever seen.
For a moment, she was stunned. All she could hear was her own pounding heartbeat.
He greeted her as “Rina.”
b
No one had ever called her that before–her friends and family always used her full name, Marina.
Seeing her confusion, the boy checked again:
“You’re the champion of this year’s piano competition, right?”
Marina nodded.
She was.
“Then you’re the one, Rina. It’s me, Jonathan. Don’t you remember me?”
His eyes sparkled like stars in the night sky.
It was obvious he was in love with this girl named Rina.
“You look so different now. Back then, your hair was a silvery gray, all curled, and you wore braces…. We were both at the youth center together…”
He spoke with such excitement, recalling precious memories, but Marina knew, deep down-
He had mistaken her for someone else.
”
で
NO
”
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Her name was Marina, but she wasn’t the Rina he was looking for.
“I finally found you…”
His voice broke, eyes glistening with unshed tears.
And in that moment, a little voice inside Marina whispered:
If you just say you’re Rina, this incredibly handsome boy will give you all his love.
“I’m sorry…”
Marina’s eyes filled with tears.
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