My Love Died in Spring

Without a word, Emily stepped right in front of Ryan, shielding him with her body.

When she looked at me, her eyes were ice.

"You hit him?"

She protected him like instinct. Like I was the enemy. Like we were at war.

My chest tightened so hard I could barely breathe. I pointed at the marriage licenses on the table.

"You said the license didn't matter. You said you didn't care about the formalities. Then why did you give him everything that was mine?"

"Every excuse you made for canceling—they were all lies, weren't they? It was always because of him."

Her expression didn't change. Her lips barely moved.

"We have a child. I needed to give him a legal father."

But we already had a child back then.

When our first business failed and I couldn't pay my medical bills, she sold her own blood. Her arm, once smooth and pampered, was still dotted with needle marks. She had lost our first child because her body was too depleted.

She held me and sobbed. Her tears soaked my shoulder.

"Daniel, I'm so sad. We wanted this baby so much."

Later, I went to a church and prayed for hours each week. Five years later, we finally had a second child.

That child stopped breathing in my arms because she was too busy marrying Ryan.

"Mommy, he's a bad guy! He said Daddy is the other man!"

The little boy tugged at Emily's shirt. Ryan stood to the side, head bowed, saying nothing.

Emily's frown deepened.

I laughed bitterly. "Am I wrong? You betrayed me for a massage therapist?"

"Daniel!"

Her voice cut like a whip. She pulled Ryan into her arms, soothing him.

"Emily, he's right," Ryan said, voice wet with tears. "I'm just a therapist. I'm not good enough for you..."

The little boy cried along with him. Emily gently wiped Ryan's tears away. Neither of us would back down.

Finally, she said, "Let it go. Today is done. And you will not come after them again."

I set my jaw. "The house is mine. Make them move out."

She started to argue, but I grabbed my bag and walked out before she could refuse.

The moment I was outside the gate, I couldn't hold it back anymore. The tears just came.

Ryan was wearing the wedding band I had wanted. The little boy had the locket around his neck—the one I had bought for our son.

She had given him everything that was meant to be mine.

…

I took a day off to recover. Then I went back to the office.

The second I walked in, Ryan slammed into me. Coffee splashed all over my shirt.

"What are you doing here?"

Leo Peterson, my subordinate, rushed over to smooth things over. "Mr. Kirkwood, the new guy didn't know. Please don't be too hard on him."

Then he lowered his voice. "That's the CEO's husband. She brought him in yesterday herself. Very publicly."

My chest ached.

Emily always said our relationship would complicate company management, so she never acknowledged we were married. She kept work and personal separate. I earned my manager position on my own merit.

But Ryan—a high school dropout—walked in and became a team lead on day one.

"Get HR in here. Fire him."

I had built this company with Emily. No way was I letting someone like him sneak in.

"Daniel, please don't do this to me," Ryan said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Just let me and my kid live."

HR stood there frozen, caught in the middle.

"Um, Mr. Kirkwood—"

"Fire him. I'll take full responsibility."

The words were barely out when Ryan lunged at me, grabbing my sleeve. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

He was saying all kinds of ambiguous things, twisting everything. I lost my temper and pulled away.

He fell backward. His head hit the corner of the desk.

Chaos exploded. People shouting. And suddenly Emily was there.

"Babe..." Ryan looked up at her. "Daniel hates me..."

She helped him up immediately. When she turned to me, her face was stone.

"Daniel. You are disgusting."

She said it cold and flat. "What right do you have to be in my company? Don't come back tomorrow."

Around us, employees whispered and stared. Every pair of eyes felt like a knife.

I stood there and realized how absurd it all was.

The woman in front of me wasn't the Emily I knew.