Love's Fallen Petal, Drifting In the Wind of Despair

I pushed away from his embrace.

"Kaden, five years isn't exactly a short time, is it?"

"Five years isn't exactly long, either," Kaden said, reaching out to pull me back.

"Kaden, the whole of Oakland knows I'm your legally wedded wife."

"Rachel, the whole of Oakland also knows that my first love wasn't you."

Kaden's words were the final straw that broke the camel's back. It felt as though a sharp blade had sliced through my heart, cutting deep with every word.

"So, after all these years, you're still thinking about her, aren't you?"

"Rachel, you can't control who I think about. I don't want to argue with you or hear you say these things…" Kaden looked at me with an unmistakable trace of irritation.

"Then what do you want to hear?" I said, throwing my hands up in despair. "Do you want to hear from Madelynn? Where is she now? She's dead."

Yes.

Kaden's first love, Madelynn Hartley, was dead and gone. He would never see her again.

Madelynn was Kaden's first love when he was 18. I watched their relationship evolve from strangers to lovers, but they broke up in her sophomore year. It was a messy split—filled with arguments and hurtful words, ending with neither of them looking back.

Ironically, Kaden once hated Madelynn for abandoning him and betraying him. Yet lately, he seemed to be lost in thought, staring at her photos.

Perhaps the dead hold a more profound allure than the living.

But Kaden seemed to have forgotten that it was he who begged me to stay with him, never to leave.

"Kaden, when Madelynn was alive, you said you hated her and loved me more than anything; but now that she's gone, you constantly compare me to her, saying she was better in every way. Kaden, aren't you just pathetic? Now that Madelynn is dead, you start reminiscing about her. What about all those times you insisted I was different from others…"

I huddled in the corner, feeling the chill of betrayal.

Kaden crouched down in front of me. "Rachel, if loving me is this painful, maybe we should just end it. Let's get a divorce."

My heart ached with a sharp pang.

"Kaden, I'm pregnant."

"Have an abortion."

"Alright." I answered numbly.

Kaden's reaction was surprising as if he had expected something more dramatic.

"Kaden, don't you dare regret this," I said, my voice hollow and ghostly.

"Rachel, I never regret anything," he replied.

I chuckled bitterly—my own foolishness on display.

"Kaden, you've been hurt by other women, so now you're taking that pain out on me, right?"

Kaden didn't respond.

Exhausted both physically and emotionally, I left the operating room.

I was supposed to gain a family member, but now that wasn't going to happen.

It wasn't my choice. Whether I loved or hated Kaden, I wanted a child.

I wanted to be with him and to remind myself repeatedly that I wasn't alone.

But in the past six months, I had been taking medication for heart pain and asthma complications, making it impossible to guarantee the health of the baby.

So, the child would never come into this world.

I called Kaden. "Kaden, take me home. This is the last time. After this, we're done."

"Where are you?" Kaden's voice was tinged with annoyance.

"Rachel, I'm in the middle of signing a contract…"

I closed my eyes, realizing that my call was poorly timed.

"Rachel, go home by yourself. As for the divorce…"

I took a deep breath.

Kaden, our relationship will end up like Margaret and Armand's.

The more you torment me, the more you'll owe me when you finally understand the truth.