Once Married, We Met Again as Strangers

He talked about postpartum care.

He said he would do everything possible to protect the child.

Those words, carried by the cold winter wind,

slowly, slowly tore at my heart.

At last, Seb took Lily’s hand.

He hung the Love locket I had prayed for step by step around Lily’s neck.

“I’ve named our child Evie Blackwood.”

“Reunion, happiness, fulfillment.”

Evie… Evie…

That was the name I gave my first child.

The deepest pain of my life.

Back then, guilt from the miscarriage left me unable to eat or sleep.

To help me move on, Seb prayed with me at St. Cecilia Chapel for this name.

I hoped the child would ascend peacefully.

I hoped he would remember he was born of our love.

I hoped he would remember that Seb and I once truly loved each other.

But now, Seb gave that name to another woman.

He repaid the debt he owed me and our child by raising a mistress’s child.

How absurd. How pitiful.

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to look indifferent.

But Lily’s sharp eyes caught me.

“Seb, your auntie is here to check on you again.”

“Some people really shouldn’t be trying to get attention here, don’t you think?”

She toyed with the love locket, speaking with disdain.

“That useless child of yours—does it even deserve to be compared to the baby in my belly?”

“Instead of crying and making a scene, you should go home and rest.”

“At your age, even if you conceive again, there’s no guarantee you’ll deliver.”

“If you lose this child, Seb won’t even look at you again!”

She was provoking me.

Hoping I would miscarry again and lose the child.

But what she didn’t know was…

The child was already gone.

I no longer needed Seb’s love.

After dawn, I would leave the city.

Then Seb and I would return to our original paths.

He would become that penniless hoodlum again.

I gave Seb one last look, without a trace of regret.

“Seb, you’ll regret this.”

“Because you’ve forgotten who you owe everything to.”

Seb wanted to speak, but Lily stopped him.

He looked again and again, but in the end, didn’t follow.

Moonlight spilled like water, casting a silver-gray sheen over the ground.

I dragged my exhausted body alone to the harbor mouth.

In the final hours,

I settled the nanny’s wages and had her dispose of my and Seb’s old belongings.

Then I waited alone at the harbor for dawn.

As the sun rose, a private jet landed before me.

“Miss, I’ve come to take you home.”

The plane flew over the city, freezing all past memories into nothing.

From that moment on, Seb and I were separated by opposite sides of the strait, never to meet again.

…Seb jolted awake from a nightmare.

He remembered the sorrow in her eyes last night, unease flooding his heart.

He grabbed his phone, intending to call.

But his gaze froze on the trending headlines—

“Gambling King’s Daughter Marries Shipping Tycoon.”

“New York Business Leaders Withdraw Investment, Blackwood Group Faces Heavy Losses.”