Loved Him 7 Years, I Found My Path

Chapter 1

The moment our eyes locked, I saw a smile on Jason's face that he didn't have time to wipe away. And then, when the smile froze, panic seeped through.

But the woman had already rushed toward him with the child in her arms.

"Honey, you're home just in time! I just borrowed ginger. We can have soup tonight!"

Jason Miller wrapped his arms around her stiffly, but his eyes were still glued to me.

"Baby, say hi to Daddy."

The woman lifted the little boy in her arms and held him out toward him. The child giggled and reached out his little hands.

"Daddy! Daddy!"

The child's clear, bright call felt like one tiny needle after another piercing my heart.

"Oh, right," the woman said, as if suddenly remembering something. She turned around and greeted me warmly.

"She's the neighbor who lent me the ginger. She's so nice! Why don't you stay for dinner with us?"

"No need!" Before I could even open my mouth, Jason blurted out almost immediately, "She must have other things to do."

The woman gave him a confused look, then turned her eyes to me again.

"How do you know that? Is something going on?"

I should have said I had things to do. I should have said I had soup simmering at home, that I had to work a night shift at the hospital, anything that would let me leave with my dignity intact.

But instead I heard myself say, almost possessed, "No, I'm free. I hope I'm not imposing."

Jason's face darkened instantly.

When he stepped aside to let me in, he opened his mouth to speak several times, but in the end, he only gave me a warning glare.

I pretended not to see it and just walked in with my head down.

The light in the entryway was warm yellow, and a family photo of the three of them sat on the shoe cabinet.

A pair of matching couple mugs sat on the coffee table, and tiny baby clothes hung outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Honey, go cook quickly, baby's already hungry."

The woman pushed Jason toward the kitchen. "I'll chat with the lady here."

Jason glanced at me, still said nothing, tied on his apron, and walked into the kitchen.

Not long after, the sound of chopping on the cutting board drifted out from inside.

The woman pulled me down to sit on the sofa. "I'm Clara Scott. What's your name?"

I tore my gaze away from the kitchen. "Serena Walker."

"Serena, you've really saved me! Honestly, Jason is wonderful in every way, just so busy. I feel terrible asking him to run out for something like ginger."

As she spoke, she glanced toward the kitchen, and her voice unconsciously softened and turned sweeter.

"Actually, we were classmates back in high school. We were each other's first love. But I went abroad for university. Then later... I married another man, but it turned out he was a terrible husband."

She lowered her head, twisting the gold chain on her wrist, but a blissful smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"I came back home two years ago, and we ran into each other again at a reunion party. After that, he walked me home, and that's when I found out he'd never gotten over me all those years, either. After all these years, I ended up back by his side. Don't you think that's just fate?"

I listened with my head down and didn't notice that my fingertips had already dug into the palm of my hand.

"He's so good to me." Clara's voice could not hide her pride. "He says he loves me, he loves everything that comes with me, and he treats this kid as his own. When the baby fusses at night, he's always the one who gets up to calm him down."

Every word she spoke made my heart sink a little deeper.

Not long ago, Jason was always out early and back late, not getting home until midnight.

My heart ached at how tired he was from all his business dinners, so I made him a bowl of hangover soup every day and waited for him until the early hours of the morning.

When our water pipe broke, I was the one who hurried to fix it right after getting home from my night shift.

"Serena, what's wrong? You look so pale." Clara leaned closer to look at me.

"I'm fine." I forced a smile. "I'm just a little tired."

I swallowed the burning ache in my eyes and turned to the window.

The sky had fully darkened, and the streetlights had come on.

A couple walked hand in hand through the garden, and the boy leaned down to kiss her.

Jason and I used to be just like that.

During our four years in college, he waited for me downstairs in my dorm every single morning.

He always brought a bouquet, never the same bouquet two days in a row.

So after I graduated, I turned down the offer from the hospital in the big city and moved to his city to take a job at a small hospital.

All because he said, "Serena, once my startup succeeds, I will give you the best life possible."

I believed him, and I waited seven years.

I thought we were both suffering for our shared future. But in the end, I was the only one who had to swallow all that bitterness.

He had already built his own future a long time ago. It just never had a place for me in it.

The streetlight outside the window glowed so harshly it made my eyes burn.

I lowered my gaze, my nails digging little by little into the palm of my hand.

This love, I realized, had rotted all the way through a long, long time ago.