Chapter 3

03.

Cyrus and I were college sweethearts.

We both grew up in small towns and had rough beginnings.

The year we graduated, I couldn’t find a job. Cyrus spent every penny of his savings to rent a decent apartment so I could focus entirely on studying for my certification exams.

Back then, he barely made two thousand dollars a month. Half of it went toward our rent, and the other half went toward buying nutritious food for me.

Meanwhile, he survived on cheap instant ramen and free tap water day in and day out.

The day I landed a solid job, I wept with joy and pulled his hand, asking him to marry me. But he refused.

He told me he wanted to give me a better future and would never allow me to marry him in a cramped, shabby rental.

And he delivered on that promise.

Working day and night to pull in clients, he was promoted within a couple of years and eventually founded his own startup, rising to become a prominent CEO in the city.

On our seventh anniversary, Cyrus set off a breathtaking fireworks display and dropped to one knee to propose.

With tears in my eyes, I said yes.

For the three years after that, we stood by each other through thick and thin.

Even when I fell ill with leukemia, Cyrus never gave up on me.

He didn’t hesitate to put his own body on the line to donate stem cells to save my life.

I genuinely believed our love was meant to be, that not even death could tear us apart.

Yet fate played a cruel, mocking joke on me.

The man who was willing to risk his life for me had another woman by his side.

Silent tears trailed down my cheeks, and the overwhelming grief triggered another severe wave of transplant rejection.

When I was wheeled into the emergency room for the third time, Cyrus collapsed on the floor.

My heart seized with agonizing pain.

I even found myself thinking: after ten whole years together, could a momentary straying be forgiven?