Chapter 14

When I returned home in the evening, Ellie was asleep on the sofa.

Lately, she’s been sleeping longer, her expression dazed.

I have a premonition that Ellie is about to leave here.

I heard that Alexander Vance has taken on a big client and is busy, his enthusiasm for her has waned by half.

For him, money and power are still more tempting than love.

The rain twisted the neon lights, tinting her fair skin a shade of pink.

I approached her.

She slowly opened her eyes, a hint of redness at the corners.

Then she sat up and lazily stretched, revealing a smooth, flat waist–so different from mine.

With a sleepy voice, she asked, “When are you and Alexander Vance going to finalize the paperwork?”

“Tomorrow.”

She nodded, her sleek black hair cascading over her thin shoulders, “Today I had a fight with Alexander Vance.”

“He changed his secretary, she’s slim and pale, very young, and acts intimately. It made me very angry.”

In my youth, my love was pure, yet possessive.

I didn’t allow him excessive interactions with women beyond work and study.

The young Alexander Vance felt honored by this.

“Eleanor Vance, you finally love me desperately.”

“You have no idea how restless I get seeing those boys near you.”

Ellie turned her gaze to me, “He said he’s already bothered enough by his mom and son, I shouldn’t cause more trouble.”

“He even brushed my eye corner, saying why does my mole resemble Eleanor Vance’s, yet I can’t be as sensible as her? Why do I irritate him so much…”

Alexander Vance spoke a paradox.

How to love someone calmly?

Only by not loving.

Later, I simply stopped loving him, then I didn’t care, then I became sensible.

She furrowed her brows and asked me, “Someone who would lower his head shyly upon seeing me.”

“Someone who could love me so much he’d risk his life.”

“Someone who would still adore me fifteen years later.”

“How could he change?”

I laughed.

Because true feelings change.

Because life is vast, love and hate are trivial.

The next day, the civil affairs bureau procedures were swift.

When Alexander Vance received the divorce certificate, he seemed to realize something and took a couple of steps.

When we came out, the rain was heavy.

The world was a curtain of rain that wouldn’t open.

The stifling summer heat dissipated, and H City’s plum rain season finally arrived.

Alexander Vance spoke, “Let me drive you back.”

“The rain is so heavy, it’s hard to catch a cab here, and you’ll get soaked…”

The dynamics between people are truly fascinating.

All those years, regardless of storms or snow, he never once offered to drive me.

Seeing my silence, Alexander Vance suddenly said, “Eleanor Vance, without you, I only realized the lights would break, shirts would wrinkle, the kid would fuss.”

“Only realized the piercing pain of the steel pin in my left leg is so hard to endure.”

He pinched his brow, “Eleanor Vance, is life itself really this complicated?”

I glanced at him.

He sighed again, smiling at me, “You haven’t seen Theodore Vance for a month. Want to go back together and see him?”

I shook my head.

He grabbed me in a panic, “You don’t even love Theodore anymore?”

“Weren’t you thinking of your son to keep going when you were sick?”

I was stunned.

When I was hospitalized, I kept thinking I must recover, must get better soon.

My Theodore was only four.

He was still so young, so willful, he would say to me “I love you.”

How could I bear for him to be without a mother at such a young age?

But later, I could bear it.