Back to Love: A New Beginning
Chapter 26

Chapter 26:.

“What do you think you’re doing here? I said I wouldn’t divorce you.”

I didn’t even want to give him a glance. I walked past him and into the alley.

“I’m just here to get back what belongs to me,” Shane said from behind me.

Truthfully, I thought he was here to talk about the divorce.

When I heard what he said, I stopped dead in my tracks, turned around and looked at him amused.

“What belongs to you?”

“Before we got married, I remember I bought you a new pot and an electric fan.”

Shane looked rather embarrassed as he spoke. Maybe now he realized how cheeky he was being.

At that moment, he had finally realized that two years wasn’t nearly enough time to know someone well.

It was all so ridiculous!

“Good. You bought a thermos too. Take them all if you want. Seeing them just annoys me.” That said, I opened the door for him to come in, to take what he said belonged to him.

He was so brazen that he didn’t even let go of a measly umbrella.

I pointed to the bathroom faucet and said, “You bought that one too, didn’t you, do you want to take it down and take it with you?”.

Shane didn’t respond to that. It took him two trips to get all his stuff out. Before he left, he asked me, “When are you going to go through divorce proceedings with me?”.

I scoffed, “Don’t you understand human language, haven’t I already said I’m not divorcing you?”.

Shane scowled at me.

“Eveline, delaying it any longer won’t do you or me any good.”

After that day, he called me almost every day. I was so angry that I turned off the phone.

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A week later, one of my colleagues from the hospital came to see me and gave me some bad news that finally broke my spirit.

My mother had died.

I bolted out of the alley and ran to the hospital as fast as my legs could carry me. Not far away, I saw a car pull up in front of me. It was Derek.

He drove me to the hospital.

When I arrived, the doctor told me that my mother had died at six o’clock in the morning,

Her condition took a sudden turn for the worse last night, but the hospital staff couldn’t reach me. This morning they spoke to Shane and found out my current address:

During that time, my mother’s corpse was covered with a thin white cloth, separating her from the world of the living, and by extension, from me.

I fell to my knees, crawling hopelessly into bed. The pain made me lose my mind. I repeatedly banged my head against the bed, crying my eyes out.

“Mom! I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, Mom! I failed you.”

The doctors and nurses who knew me pretended to comfort me, but in reality they were enjoying the show.

Suddenly, a firm hand tugged on my shoulder, preventing me from hitting my head again.

He said nothing, but clung to me as tightly as he could.

The day my mother was buried, I knelt at her headstone for what seemed like an eternity, and refused to leave, even when it started to rain. All the while, Derek stood behind me silently, holding an umbrella for me. “How long are you going to keep kneeling there?” he asked. I could barely hear the sound of his voice because of how loud the rain was.

I didn’t answer him. The truth is, I didn’t know how long I was going to keep kneeling. All I knew was that even if I knelt until my legs went limp, I would never stop feeling guilty about my mother’s death.

Soon dusk approached and the rain became heavier. Suddenly, Derek threw down the umbrella and picked me up. It wasn’t until my face was against his chest that I realized I was soaked.

Then he got me into his car and buckled my seatbelt.

As he drove, neither of us spoke. I clung to my mother’s portrait for the entire trip, as if I were clinging to the whole world. The sound of the rain falling on the car window was so loud that, to me, it felt like it could destroy the world.

I told him I wanted to go home.

My voice was hoarse and lifeless; probably because it had been so long since I had spoken. Hearing me, Derek frowned. He turned the steering wheel with one hand and took out a cigarette with the other. But, for some reason, he put it back.

By the time we reached the entrance to the alley, it was raining even harder. Derek had thrown away the only umbrella we had earlier, so we had to stay in the car for a while.

My eyes peered through the rain-filled car window and focused on the depths of the alley.

Perhaps because of the atmosphere and the scenery, I suddenly remembered many things that happened in my past.

Back then, I walked in and out of this same alley every day. My mother would send me out every morning, and she would open the door for me and take my backpack out every night. Although we weren’t rich back then, we lived a full and happy life.

But those happy days didn’t last long. Maybe because of that, they stayed in my heart and became an unforgettable memory that could never be recovered again.

Some said that parents were the only ones who asked for nothing in return for their love and devotion. And, unfortunately for me, I would never experience this kind of love again.

Derek must have noticed that I was shaking violently, so he unbuckled his seat belt and then leaned over to unbuckle mine. Then he locked me into his embrace .

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