Five Years Later, We Are No Longer in Love

Three nights ago, I was walking Billy in the park with Chris when Chloe suddenly called.

She said someone seemed to be following her on her way home and asked Chris for help.

The news had been filled with reports of women being followed and harassed by men in black as they walked home alone after work.

Chris panicked and rushed to help her, but I pleaded with him to take me home first since I had a foot injury.

It was only a hundred meters away, but he didn't take me.

Later, all I can remember was being dragged into the bushes like driftwood and pinned down in the mud.

The man pressed his knee hard against my thigh, and I bit down on the palm of his hand, crying and begging him to let me go.

I couldn't see his face; only his eyes were visible.

When he looked at me, his eyes carried a cruel malice from hell.

.....

When the usually timid Billy rushed to my rescue, the man pulled a gleaming silver knife from his coat.

I knew I couldn't waste the precious moments Billy had bought for me with his life; I ran as fast as I could.

By the time I managed to find help and returned, the man was in a frenzy, stabbing Billy repeatedly.

The police arrived just in time to subdue him.

Billy clung to his pant leg until the end, and I knelt on the ground, crying until I almost fainted.

After leaving the police station, I accidentally saw Chloe's new post on social media.

[The one who loves you will come to your side, even if they know you've lied to them.]

My heart turned cold in that instant.

Chris didn't question why I hadn't told him.

That night, the dozens of missed calls on his phone silently spoke volumes.

His expression was awkward as he spoke.

"It should be gone; Billy was old, and this way, it finds some relief early."

I never knew such cold words could come from his warm mouth.

I held my paintbrush, and my fingers trembled uncontrollably. I fought the urge to slap him.

"Chris, I had misjudged you."

After two years of friendship and three years of love, despite countless disagreements and arguments, I had always given in because I loved him.

I moved past him and walked away, deciding not to demean myself any longer.

Chris sat in the chair I had just vacated, toying with my paintbrush, convinced I would come back.

Half an hour passed...

One hour passed...

I did not appear.

Finally, in a panic, he searched from room to room, but in the vast house, my figure was nowhere to be found.

By the time he uttered those words, there was already no turning back for us.

He forgot that from the moment we met to the time we fell in love. It was all because of Billy.

Chris and I were each other's first love.

Nobody would have guessed that a little princess raised in an ivory tower would end up with a streetwise orphan.

The first time I met Chris, it was a windy day; he and Billy were squatting in an alley, sharing an eight-dollar meal box.

He even gave Billy the last two ribs, making me wonder how someone could be so kind.

But Chris, with a puzzled look, stared at me for a long while before coldly saying,

"Is this your dog? It stole my lunch. The meal cost eight dollars, and it ate half. The meat was licked; I can't eat it now. Six dollars will do."

That day, blinded by the wind, this princess, who knew nothing of hardships, began to notice Chris.

He was doing hard labor at a construction site, dripping with sweat. I brought him chilled watermelon and a big bucket of coffee, only to see him give it all to his coworkers.

On his birthday, I spent a whole day baking him a cake, which he shared with the stray cats and dogs nearby.

When he fell ill and collapsed at home, I paid for his hospitalization. After he was discharged, he insisted on repaying me with the savings he had painstakingly accumulated.

.....

I chased him for two whole years, during which the phrase he said to me the most was,

"Ashley, give it up! We're not from the same world, and we're never meant to be together."

Everyone urged me to give up, calling me lovesick.

But later, when my family went bankrupt, my parents died in a car accident, and I was driven out of the house by my predatory relatives.

It was he who sheltered me under the pounding rain.

I sat down in the pouring rain, watching Billy and Chris rush towards me, a moment that felt like Snow White finally being reunited with her prince.

He took me back to his place. It was the first time he ever took the initiative to bring me home.

After a hot shower, I sat on the fold-out bed, sipping the warm ginger tea he had made himself.

He stood in front of me, drying my damp hair with a towel. Neither of us spoke.

It wasn't until my cup of ginger tea was nearly empty that I looked up at him with tear-reddened eyes, a hot tear dropping into the tea.

Choking up, I said, "Chris, I won't bother you anymore."

He paused, his handsome eyes staring at me unblinkingly, and after a long sigh, he admitted, "I've always been reluctant to admit it... but it's too late, Ashley."

He slowly knelt, burying his head in my lap and wrapping his arms around my waist.

Speaking softly, he reassured, "Ashley, don't be afraid, wherever I am will be your home."

Once, he promised me a home, but now, he was the same one threatening to destroy it.