Roy agreed to the divorce.
All the paperwork was completed.
Soon, the one-month cooling-off period was over.
We walked out of the civil affairs office, his expression like that of a mourner.
He wasn't ready to give up, begging me for another chance.
Saying he wanted to atone.
Saying he loved me.
His tall figure was hunched over, nearly breaking his back.
From pleading at first, to stubborn, relentless entanglement in the end.
During the struggle, neither of us noticed that we had stepped onto the road.
Even less did we notice the red BMW speeding straight toward me...
"Bang—"
Everything happened so fast.
By the time I reacted, Roy had already been hit and flung into the air right in front of me.
It was like a slow-motion scene in a movie.
Before he was thrown into the air, the last thing he said to me was:
"I'm sorry."
In that moment, my heart stopped.
It wasn't until the heavy thud of his body hitting the ground that I snapped out of it...
I rushed over.
At that moment, Liana burst out of the passenger seat, seeing that it was Roy who had been hit, and she began to scream hysterically.
She yelled that I should die, and then she charged at me with a knife.
But she was quickly subdued by a patrolling police officer, who pressed her against the car hood and took the knife from her...
"Mina, why won't you just die! If it weren't for you, they wouldn't have all cut ties with me!"
"It's all your fault! You bitch!"
"I'll kill you!"
Liana had lost her mind.
On the day of my surgery, my in-laws found Roy and the rest of their group at Liana's place. Furious, they, along with several other families, blacklisted the Bender Family.
To appease the anger, the Bender Family decided to sacrifice Liana, sending her abroad with orders never to return.
And the young masters who once treated her as a mascot immediately distanced themselves from her when their own interests were at stake.
For Liana, this was her darkest hour.
And she believed that I was the root cause of it all.
If I were dead, everything would go back to the way it was.
As I listened, I couldn't help but feel it was all absurd.
Roy survived.
But he was left paralyzed on one side.
Liana wasn't sentenced to death, but she was convicted of intentional injury and sentenced to life imprisonment.
I heard that in prison, for some unknown reason, her face was slashed, leaving her disfigured.
After Roy's accident, a lot of people came to see me.
His parents, his friends, my parents...
His parents begged me not to abandon Roy at a time like this, for the sake of our past marriage.
His friends hoped I would stay by his side out of gratitude for saving my life, to help him through this difficult time.
My parents, on the other hand, wanted me to come home as soon as possible, not to stay here and get myself into more trouble.
In the end, I went to see Roy.
The once proud man,
was now lying in a hospital bed, needing help with everything from eating to using the bathroom.
He didn't speak.
But when he looked at me, his eyes were full of regret.
I thanked him.
After all, he did save my life:
"I know, I have no right to ask you to stay,"
Roy choked out, his voice hoarse with pain: "All of this is my own doing; it's my punishment..."
"The doctors haven't given you a death sentence. If you actively cooperate with the treatment, you still have a chance to walk again," I said.
Roy looked at me with excitement, hope, and nervous caution: "So, you're willing to..."
"I've already decided to go back to my hometown."
"You know, I'm an only child. If it weren't for you, I should have gone back home after graduation to build my career there."
My tone was calm and measured.
In that moment, I saw Roy's face fall, like a sunflower losing its vitality. His eyes rimmed red, and his smile turned bitter and self-mocking.
"I knew it, someone like me deserves to rot in the mud for the rest of my life..."
"Roy, we each have our own lives... You can no longer affect mine, and I shouldn't affect yours."
I cut off his self-pity.
Maybe my gaze was too sharp, striking him right in the heart.
The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Sunlight streamed through the window, casting a golden glow over me.
I returned to my hometown.
Over time, I heard bits and pieces about Roy from there.
Roy took two years to walk again, but his illness had delayed his company's progress, forcing it to close down.
Another Thanksgiving arrived.
Drew sent me a message:
"Happy Thanksgiving!."
Having received a text message, I was helping my parents prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, wiping the flour off my hands, when I saw his selfie sitting alone on the balcony. I couldn't resist teasing him: ["Spending Thanksgiving alone again? You should really come over to my parents' place. We can take you in for a few days."]
He quickly replied: "No, my significant other wouldn't be happy with that."
He was referring to his long-deceased first love.
I raised an eyebrow and replied:
"Not bad, still upholding manly virtues after all these years."
"Of course, even friends need boundaries."
I laughed.
I looked up at the window.
It was snowing, and the scenery was beautiful...
