Even though Sophia tried to stay calm, her hands were shaking at her sides.
She forced a smile.
“Good marriage, stable job, healthy parents. What’s there for me to regret?”
Lucas let out a cold laugh.
“Good marriage? But how come I keep hearing that your husband is out playing the field every night while you’re lying awake alone?”
His warm breath hit her ear, make her mind drifted back to five years ago–their last night together.
They’d been wrapped up in each other, completely lost in the moment.
Lucas had kissed her forehead over and over, whispering in her ear.
“Sophie, I love you. Just wait for me–I’ll give you the home you deserve.”
But she couldn’t wait anymore. That was the last time they’d been together like that.
One minute they were holding each other, the next she was telling him it was over.
“We’re done. Lucas, are you crazy? I’m a Williams–You really think I’d marry a bastard like you?”
“We were just killing time. That’s all.”
Sophia had thrown on her clothes and said the cruelest things she could think of, anything to make him hate her enough to walk away.
After that night, silence for whole five years.
Now, standing here five years later, everything felt like it was happening all over again.
After Lucas left, Sophie sat in the pediatric office completely out of it.
When she tried to write prescriptions, her hands shook so bad she could barely hold the pen. She knew she couldn’t do this job anymore.
After work, she took a deep breath, headed to the chief’s office.
“Director, I want to quit.”
Dr. Martinez looked shocked. “You’re our youngest department head. Do you have any idea what you’re throwing
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Ride of De vi i ated Encounter? Ni Solo This Love Game!
Chapter 2
away?”
Sophia’s heart squeezed painfully as she unlocked her phone. She showed him her medical report.
“I never told you I’ve been sick, and I’m no longer fit to practice medicine.”
He stared at the report, shaking his head. “Jesus, Sophie. You’re at your prime-”
She looked away. “Runs in the family, I guess.”
After a sigh, the director asked. “Where will you go?”
‘Take my dad home, to live a quieter life.”
Dr. Martinez signed her resignation papers and handed them back. “Sophia, Pediatrics will hold your position indefinitely. Once you’re well again, promise me you’ll return.”
“Thanks, sir. I’ll get everything sorted out as soon.”
she knew clearly, never get better, and never come back.
Walking out of Dr. Martinez’s office, Sophia spotted Lily waiting by the hospital entrance.
The once timid girl who used to trail behind her in college was now impeccably dressed, almost unrecognizable.
Before Sophia could ask how Lily ended up with her ex, Lily spoke first.
‘Sophia, it’s been a while.”
‘Lucas told me you haven’t been doing great these years. But since he’s marrying me, do us all a favor and back off.”
Lucas…
Hearing Lily say his name so casually made Sophia’s heart skip.
‘Why are you with him?”
Lily looked at her with pure disgust.
“You should know better than anyone. If you hadn’t dumped him for money, I never would’ve had my chance.”
“Do you know what happened after you left? His mom died. I was the one who stayed up with him, holding him while he fell apart. Of course he’s with me now.”
Each word hit Sophia like a knife.
She couldn’t say anything back.
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Chapter 2
Before Lily left, she dropped one last line.
“Don’t look him up. Don’t show up where he is. Dead things should stay buried.”
Sitting in the car on her way home, Lily’s poison tipped words still echoed on repeat:
Dead things should stay buried!
She was right. If you walk away, you don’t get to come back.
After she came back home, the house was dead silent–Nathan wasn’t there. Typical.
Sophia dragged herself to the kitchen and heated up some leftover pasta. The warm broth going down her throat was the only thing that made her feel real.
After eating, she thought about how her memory kept getting worse, so she pulled out her phone and opened her private blog to write down what happened.
‘December 5th, 2024. Cloudy. It’s been five years since Lucas and I broke up–1,868 days. Saw him today. He has new girlfriend now. That’s Lily, also my old friend…*
After finished typing, she put her phone away.
That night, Sophia tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
When sleep finally dragged her, here comes a dream. She and Lucas were married with a sweet little girl. The three of them were happy together…
Tears slipped down her cheeks. Through the haze, she felt someone’s fingers on her face. Her eyes fluttered open to ind Nathan looming over her, his expression dark and unreadable.
hat are you doing in here?”
is fingers brushed her lips: “Can’t a husband visit his wife’s room? So how was your little reunion today? Feel good eeing him again?”
Before she could respond, his slipped his hand under her skirt.
‘Disgusting, Sophia. One look at your ex and you’re already wet.”
With that, he ripped off her clothes with a loud rip and pressed himself against her-
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