Love Fades In Time

“Which research center would that be?”

As I did not want to give in, I persisted in asking.

I heard a male voice saying, “Luna, please don’t be angry. Something urgent must’ve happened with Declan for him to look for you.

“We’re going on our trip tomorrow. You should settle everything by today.”

Luna finally suppressed her anger.

She said in a slightly irritated tone, “Declan, I know it’s my fault for not keeping my promise, but my project is really urgent.

“After this project ends, I’ll submit my time-off report again to go back home to spend some time with you.”

“Luna.”

My voice was very soft.

“I called your supervisor, and he said that they never even had an overseas assignment.

“So where have you been in the past three years? Who are you living with?”

I had spoken every single word through gritted teeth.

Luna suddenly sounded a little frantic.

She stayed quiet for a really long time. At one point, I even thought she would just end the call.

Finally, in seemingly reckless abandon, she answered with a hoarse voice, “That’s right, I’m still here in the same city for the past three years. I never went overseas. But I do have a strong reason for doing this.

“Don’t worry, Declan. I remember that I’m still your wife.

“Give me two more weeks. I’ll come back and explain it to you in person.”

I immediately rejected her.

“I want to listen to your explanation now.”

“Declan!”

Luna raised her voice. She sounded angry that I had exposed her lie.

“Can you stop being this difficult?

“I told you I just need another two weeks. What else do you want from me?”

She was the one who lied to me, but she made it seem like I was being unreasonable.

I felt sad for myself. I found the whole thing ridiculous.

The woman that I had loved for ten years had lied to me for three years.

She had treated me like a complete idiot as she abused my trust.

“Luna—”

I just spoke when Luna interrupted me fiercely, “That’s all. If you have anything else to say, you can say it in two weeks.”

After that, she hung up on me.

When I called again, the call no longer got through.

She had blocked me.

I boiled with rage.

Just as I was about to get out of the car, my phone buzzed.

It was a text message from an unknown number.

[Declan, I’m Julian. Luna has been with me for the past three years. I hope you don’t misunderstand her.]

Before I could reply to him, he sent another two text messages.

[I’m sorry, Declan. I never meant to want Luna’s company for this long. It’s just that I have leukemia, and I might die soon. I just wanted to make up for lost time before I die.]

[If you’re angry, lash it out at me. Luna’s innocent. She was just too kind.]

Even though he seemed to be explaining their situation to me in these text messages, it was concrete evidence that Luna had been cheating on me.

Apparently, Julian was afraid that I would not believe him, so he sent a medical diagnosis report and a photo to me.

In the photo, he was lying on the hospital bed in his hospital gown. Luna was carefully shelling pistachios for him

Was Luna not allergic to tree nuts?

One time, I had accidentally touched her cup after shelling pistachios, and she had yelled at me.