Chapter 9
Ethan fell silent.
His lip was bruised and swollen.
That guy definitely knew how to throw a punch.
He heard Lily calling Chase from upstairs.
Her voice was soft and sweet:
“Are you hurt?”
He finally realized that Lily no longer cared about him.
Once, after fighting with someone, he’d been afraid of his mother’s nagging, so he’d gone to Lily’s house instead.
Back then, Lily had carefully tended to his wounds with cotton swabs:
“Does it still hurt?”
He had always believed that if he looked back, Lily would be there behind him.
He had been so confident in this certainty.
But in the end, after leaving West High, Lily had completely moved on.
She had a new boyfriend.
He remembered Lily’s stubborn posture as she left West High, her ear bruised purple from the basketball.
His friend had sighed:
“Aren’t you afraid she won’t come back?”
He had inwardly scoffed.
Lily’s father worked at his family’s company.
Her family lived near his.
Everything in Lily’s life was connected to him.
Chapter 9
It was just a school transfer. How could she not return to his side?
In the sunset that day, his friend had said:
“Ethan, your
childhood sweetheart might become someone else’s destined love.”
He hadn’t listened.
Looking back now, it was so ironic.
When he proudly declared that childhood sweethearts couldn’t compete with love at first sight, his childhood sweetheart had
become someone else’s destined love.
Chase and I got engaged during the summer before our junior year of college.
On our engagement day, Chase’s parents came.
Since getting together with Chase, this was my first time meeting his parents.
He had only told me he grew up with his grandparents in their old home.
As for his parents, he’d mentioned they divorced when he was seven, nothing more.
Chase’s mother had returned from abroad, dressed elegantly.
His father hadn’t taken his eyes off her since she arrived.
Until my mom approached her, surprised:
“Aren’t you… Sophia from the apartment upstairs years ago?”
I finally learned that Chase’s family had once lived in the apartment above ours.
After his parents divorced, Chase moved away.
Then that apartment was put up for sale.
Gradually, I forgot about the little boy.
Until Ethan’s family moved in.
I often habitually went upstairs to find him.
I recalled that there had been a little boy upstairs who would buy me candy with his allowance.
“Eat my candy, and you’ll have to be my wife when you grow up.”
The little boy’s childish voice echoed in my memory.
I looked at Chase in surprise.
I remembered what he’d said when fighting with Ethan:
“When it comes to childhood connections, Lily and I were first.”
“We knew each other before you even existed.”
So he’d been telling the truth.
And I recalled the day I transferred, when he said to me: “Thanks, wifey.”
With that confident smile.
After the reception ended, I received an anonymous gift–a property transfer agreement.
At the bottom, Ethan had already signed his name.
After I started at Harvard, Ethan had tried to find me several times.
But with Chase standing guard, plus my refusal to see him, Ethan could only wait outside my dorm night after night.
Later, I heard he went abroad and was injured in a shooting incident, hurting his leg.
Vanessa often asked about Ethan in group chats. Her test scores hadn’t been great, and she’d ended up at a southern arts school on a dance scholarship.
She quickly cycled through several wealthy boyfriends.
But each relationship ended in failure.
She tried to contact Ethan abroad through mutual friends, but he never responded.
Chase emerged from the bathroom with just a towel around his waist.
Seeing the agreement with the signature, he snorted:
“Never gives up, does he?”
This gift felt awkward to keep–what was Ethan thinking?
tossed it in the trash and wrapped my arms around Chase’s waist.
He looked down, his eyes darkening:
“Ready for more, babe?”
