Her First Love’s Ashes Were in My House

Or maybe I misread that glass jar?

What on earth was going on?

I couldn’t make sense of it. After pulling myself together, I headed to the dental clinic to take a look.

To my shock, by the time I arrived, Ryan had already had eight teeth extracted and eight “perfect” implants placed.

With blood still at the corners of his mouth, he grinned at me and said it didn’t hurt at all.

I don’t know much about dentistry, but even I knew pulling eight teeth at once was painful and risky. I rushed to ask Claire about it.

“Claire, isn’t this way too fast? Eight teeth all at once? And you placed eight implants immediately afterward? Won’t his gums swell so much he can’t eat? Couldn’t that cause an oral infection—or worse, something intracranial…?”

“It won’t. Don’t worry,” Claire said with a calming smile, offering me her personal guarantee.

“This is a new implant system I’ve developed—fast, safe, convenient, and rock-solid. I’m using premium materials, and the crowns are precision-crafted porcelain. As long as he takes his antibiotics on schedule, he’ll be fine. Within a month, we can complete a full set of perfect teeth.”

“That’s awfully fast. Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Of course. Don’t you trust me? I trained abroad and specialize in this. I know what I’m doing—it’ll work.”

Her confidence left me with nothing else to say—and besides, Ryan didn’t seem uncomfortable.

On the contrary, he was suddenly polite—maybe it was the implants, but even his voice sounded softer, more courteous, more mature.

“Don’t worry, bro. Claire’s technique is great. I didn’t feel a thing. I’m fine.”

“That’s the anesthetic talking. I’m worried when it wears off you won’t be able to eat.”

“It’s fine—call it a cut. I’m about to be an influencer. Gotta manage my physique.”

Hearing that, I stopped hovering. The next day they continued, and in just three days they’d worked through his entire mouth.

Maybe it was the extractions, but in those three days Ryan seemed to transform—sweeter-tongued, almost like a different person entirely.

Over the next month he stopped messing around and threw himself into everything with total focus. He not only unlocked his potential, he suddenly “discovered” other talents—after just a few art classes he could compose and paint oil pieces on his own.

Ryan was thrilled, convinced his natural gifts were finally shining through. I, however, found it strange—how had I never seen such dazzling talent before?

His whole style changed. He spent more and more time with Claire. She not only bought him a car, she gave him a studio, and on his birthday she hosted a banquet—calling in every connection she had and introducing him to everyone.

I attended too, but standing in the crowd, I barely recognized the polished, radiant man as my once-hopeless little brother.

Only when Ryan walked over and greeted me did it click.

“Bro, you look great tonight. Thanks for all these years. Soon you won’t have to worry about me at all. Once I finish promoting Claire’s ‘perfect teeth,’ I’m heading to Paris, France for further study.”

“What? That far? You never mentioned this. So sudden—will Mom be okay with it?”

Ryan’s expression looked pained, but his voice stayed unnaturally cheerful. As soon as he heard his own words, he clapped a hand over his mouth—then bit down hard on his own lip!