Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I didn't go to the new apartment Harrison arranged for me. Instead, I returned to the rundown studio in the old district where I lived before getting married.

Stepping into the familiar, dusty hallway, memories of the old Harrison flooded my mind.

I grew up as an orphan, supported through school by a generous stranger who sponsored me from afar.

Once she learned that I had settled into the old apartment she bought for me and passed my college entrance exams, she cut off all contact.

That winter, Harrison's family happened to move into the unit downstairs.

Back then, he loved running upstairs to visit me.

Knowing how much I loved warm roasted chestnuts, he would bring a steaming bag to my rusty iron door every single night.

He would knock until the door rattled loudly.

When I opened it, I would see his bright, radiant smile emerging through the faint vapor in the cold air.

He would squeeze past me into the room, peel a warm chestnut, blow on it gently, and hold it to my lips.

"Here, eat up. Careful, it's hot."

My mind was spinning, and I took a bite right from his fingers.

A moment later, the intimacy of the gesture hit him, and his face instantly turned bright red.

Later, I went to college on the East Coast while he went down South.

Even though thousands of miles separated us, on the first freezing day of every winter, he would always wait outside my dorm with a bag of warm roasted chestnuts.

Tirelessly, he would peel each one and blow on it until it was cool enough for me to eat.

Falling in love and marrying him felt like the most natural thing in the world.

After we got married, his startup took off, and he moved me into a multi-million-dollar luxury penthouse.

Yet, he never bought me a bag of warm roasted chestnuts in the winter again. In fact, he once scoffed at me when I brought it up.

"It's been so many years. Haven't you gotten sick of that peasant snack yet?"

I knew his love back then had been real, but the human heart is a fickle thing.

A chime from my phone pulled me out of my thoughts.

It was a photo from Tinsley.

Her silk robe slipped off one shoulder, and she held Harrison's head against the crook of her neck. Her pale hand dug into his back, her eyes glazed with hazy pleasure.

It wasn't hard to guess what they were doing.

I rushed to the bathroom and dry-heaved over the sink for minutes.

As soon as I caught my breath, I blocked and deleted her number.

Just then, my screen lit up with a puppy wagging its tail sticker from Kieran Drake.

"What are you up to?"

"I miss you."

Kieran had been my desk mate back in high school.

I had barely scraped through the admissions cutoff for that prestigious prep school. During our freshman year, the teachers paired top students with struggling ones for one-on-one tutoring.

I was assigned to Kieran.

He had sharp features and a piercing gaze. Whenever he glanced my way with his cold, unreadable expression, my heart would skip a beat, and I would instinctively shrink into the corner of my seat.

For a long time, I never dared to speak to him.

One afternoon during lunch break while he was napping, I was so desperate to get water without waking him that I tried to climb out through the window.

Because it was my first time climbing a window sill, I lost my balance and fell flat on my butt outside.

"Pfft."

A low chuckle sounded from above. I looked up to find Kieran leaning against the window frame, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

Embarrassed and angry, I found sudden courage.

"When did you wake up?!"

"Right when you were struggling to climb onto the ledge."

"I was wondering if you'd take a tumble. Didn't think you actually would."

His grin widened as his shoulders shook with silent laughter.

I froze, suddenly realizing that this intimidating desk mate wasn't as unapproachable as he seemed.

After that, I began asking him homework questions. He would patiently explain the logic step-by-step. On days when I was completely hopeless, he would even drop a thick stack of practice exams onto my desk.

I stared at him in disbelief. "What's this?"

He replied calmly.

"Finish all of them. Come back to me when you get stuck."

Whenever I felt he was exhausted from tutoring me, I would buy him an iced caramel latte to show my gratitude.

That dynamic lasted until our junior year when the classes were reshuffled. Naturally, he was transferred to the elite honors track.

Before moving his desk, he asked for my number.

Yet after adding me, he never sent a single message. That was, until a week ago, when he suddenly reached out.

He simply asked.

"How have you been lately?"

Right after signing the divorce papers, I had been crying so hard my vision blurred, and I accidentally hit the voice call button without noticing.

He stayed on the other end of the line, listening quietly to my sobs for half an hour, piecing together from my broken words that I had just gotten divorced.

Later, when Tinsley came to cause another scene, he sent me that text.

"Will you marry me?"

Listening to the mocking laughter of Harrison's friends in the other room, I looked at the man lounging on the couch, wearing an unfamiliar, callous smirk.

"Yes."