On the day of her funeral, the sky was dark and heavy, as if mourning her.
She had no family.
Everett and Claire came. Evangeline cried her heart out.
How could someone so vibrant in memory end up like this?
Before long, Edward arrived, holding Christmas.
Evan stood there in all black, his bruised face expressionless, staring blankly at her portrait for a long time.
In the portrait, she was smiling beautifully, radiantly.
But the urn next to it was glaringly harsh.
Edward lit a cigarette.
"She said to bury her in A Cemetery. She had already bought the plot."
His tone was calm.
But who knew how many cigarettes he had smoked, how many tears he had shed in these past days?
Evan turned his head stiffly, his lips trembling.
How disappointed she must have been in him, to have prepared her own grave.
She was laid to rest, and it began to drizzle.
Evan knelt before her grave. No matter how Claire tried to persuade him, he refused to get up. It wasn't until nightfall that he finally staggered to his feet.
Soaking wet, he dragged his exhausted body back home.
Back to their home.
The house had been cleaned up, leaving no trace of her.
None of her belongings were missing.
Only she was gone.
Evan looked at the empty, lifeless house, his heart aching as if it were being ripped out, shattered on the ground.
He curled up on their bed, the bed they had shared, and cried out in pain.
"I was wrong... I really know I was wrong..."
He choked and sobbed, repeating "I was wrong" countless times until he fell asleep from exhaustion.
Belated affection is as useless as a fan in winter, or a heater in summer.
He had caused her death with his own hands, hadn't he?
Yes, he had brought this upon himself.
He developed a fever but refused to go to the hospital or take any medicine. He stayed in their home, going nowhere.
Evan slowly grew panicked, his heart feeling empty, as if it no longer existed. Was she really gone?
On countless nights, he couldn't sleep.
Whenever he closed his eyes, he would dream of her sitting by the bed, crying her heart out, looking at him with tearful eyes.
He was terrified, wanting to get up and hold her, only to realize it was just a dream.
At 29, his hair was already tinged with gray. In a matter of days, he had aged significantly, his eyes losing their light.
He hadn't gone to the company for a long time. Without his oversight, things were in chaos.
Many employees had resigned.
The secretary came to persuade him, but it was as if he didn't hear.
Sterling Group was facing bankruptcy.
Evan woke up again in the middle of the night, grabbed that thick notebook, and drove straight to the cemetery.
He dug up Zoe's grave, clutching her urn tightly to his chest.
"We mustn't be apart... we mustn't... we promised to be together forever, forever..."
He murmured, driving off to an unknown destination.
Some said he followed his wife, others said he started a new life.
No one ever found him again.
Edward went abroad to study, specializing in psychology.
Two years later, when he returned to the city where he had lived for so long, the air felt much fresher.
He wanted to visit her grave but found it empty.
Edward was shocked and asked what had happened. The cemetery manager said her husband had taken her away.
After some inquiries, he learned that Sterling had gone bankrupt two years ago, and Evan had disappeared without a trace.
He smiled, thinking he could no longer see her.
"See you in the next life, Zoe," he said.
