Chapter 38: Single Dog
1418 Words
This time, Adrian slept for a very long time. He hadn't slept this deeply in ages, and he had a long, long dream...
He dreamed of the first time he met Willow. Back then, he was still young. Grandpa said he was taking him to meet a little sister.
A sister? Didn't he already have a sister? Why did they need another one?
Thinking of Sophie, that mischievous little troublemaker, Adrian was thoroughly opposed to the idea from the start.
But when he finally saw Willow, he changed his mind.
She was just a tiny little thing, clutching her toy teddy bear, small and soft and sweet, her eyes red and frightened as she looked at him and Grandpa. At that moment, Adrian's heart melted. She was like the little rabbit he'd had in first grade. He thought—if a sister could be like this, maybe he could accept one.
She looked so timid and pitiful. He wanted to protect her, so Adrian stepped forward and reached out his hand to Willow.
"Do you like playing with toy cars?" That was the first thing Adrian ever said to Willow.
The little girl stared at him blankly, until his own face turned red from her gaze. Then she took his hand—soft and tiny.
Later, Willow gradually became his little shadow. They became inseparable. Adrian got used to having Willow follow him around.
Everyone knew Willow adored her big brother.
Because Willow always looked at him with admiration. "Brother, I love you the most!" "Brother, can I follow you?" "Brother, you're so handsome!"
Then they grew up.
Or rather, Adrian gradually realized, Willow had grown up.
Even though she still had that same dazed, blushing look, gradually her school uniform couldn't hide her graceful figure anymore. Whenever Willow came to his room in the evenings for tutoring after her baths, the scent of her hair always disturbed Adrian's peace of mind. Thinking back now, maybe that was when he first fell for her—because he started looking forward to their evening tutoring sessions after dinner.
At school, boys started noticing Willow. She began receiving love letters in her schoolbag.
What did Adrian do? He threw all the love letters away. He went to the boy's school, found him, and warned him—Willow would not date anyone. Of course, Willow never knew any of this.
And so, word spread through the school: Willow had a very fierce brother, and no one was allowed to touch her. Willow sailed through her three years of high school safely.
Except for that incident. That fair-faced boy, that's right.
When he saw Willow giving someone else a love letter, Adrian admitted it was the first time in his life he'd tasted jealousy. So she liked that kind of pale, pretty-faced pretty boy? Hadn't she said she loved Brother the most? Viciously, he crushed Willow's "first love" in its cradle. And for the first time, he subjectively realized his possessiveness over Willow—it turned out he did like Willow, not the way a brother likes a sister, but the way a man likes a woman. That night, he had his first-ever risqué dream... and in it, it was Willow and him.
Then, eventually, Grandpa Arthur fell ill. Everyone couldn't find Willow.
Only he did. When he rushed breathlessly back to the hospital room and opened the door, finding Willow curled up tiny on the bed, Adrian finally exhaled. He'd found her. He always could. This time was no exception.
When he demanded to know why she'd disappeared, Willow stared at him with wide, startled eyes—like a frightened rabbit. She cried and apologized, saying she had no family left, that she was all alone.
Was a family what she needed? That's what Adrian wondered.
She cried her heart out, crying until his own heart ached. So he pulled Willow into his chest and told her he would marry her, that he would become her family.
In that moment, Adrian's heart was pounding so fast he thought it might burst.
Then, naturally, they got married.
Because of Grandpa Arthur's funeral, they didn't hold a wedding ceremony. And because Adrian later took over the company and was impossibly busy, they never had a honeymoon. They simply registered their marriage quietly. Willow gave him a matching ring she'd made herself. She said she'd made it herself, and the size was perfect. He loved it.
For a while after the wedding, they were as sweet as any newlywed couple in the world. They spent endless days and nights tangled together. He would hold her in his arms and kiss her ears, and she, in the throes of passion, would throw her arms around him and call him "Adrian."
Then what happened?
Then came endless overtime, endless work. The words Ashford Group weighed on him so heavily he could barely breathe. He started neglecting Willow, missing the occasional Valentine's Day. And then his own birthday—oh, and their wedding anniversary. Every time Willow said it was fine, so he actually believed it was fine.
But was it really fine? Obviously not.
So in the third year of their marriage, he forgot their wedding anniversary. That day at the dinner table, Willow didn't give him any chance. She said she wanted a divorce.
A divorce—those two words had never once crossed Adrian's mind. He never thought they'd happen to them.
He thought maybe she'd gotten angry because he'd forgotten their anniversary, that a little coaxing would fix it, or that maybe he just hadn't spent enough time with her lately, so he'd make more time.
But that wasn't it.
That pale-faced doctor appeared. He started to feel a sense of crisis.
He'd forgotten—his girl had always been a beautiful white swan, not an ugly duckling. It was only because Willow's eyes were always only on him that he'd ignored the threat.
That guy was clearly Willow's type—the same type as that boy from high school. What was worse, he was gentler and more attentive, and had more time!
Later, he learned Willow was sick.
How could she be sick? He'd barely noticed anything at all.
It turned out Willow's divorce request was a form of self-rescue. Only by leaving him could she survive. That's what the man told him.
A feeling of powerlessness overwhelmed Adrian. He agreed to the divorce. He had to let Willow live.
You never know what you've got until it's gone.
So on the day they received their divorce certificate, Willow walked away without looking back, as carefree as ever.
And he couldn't.
He regretted it more than he could say. He could have kicked himself.
Where would she go? Would she run straight into that man's arms?
Would she kiss him like she'd kissed Adrian? Would her whole heart and eyes be filled with that man?
What was this? Adrian wondered. Was he dead? Was this the near-death montage people talked about? Everything was so vivid. Willow's youth was filled with Adrian, and hadn't Adrian's been filled with her too?
If this really was a final montage before death, did that mean the last part would be without Willow?
Faintly, a blinding light appeared before Adrian's eyes. Willow was running toward him, faster and faster. Willow, where are you going? Come to me! Come into my arms!
But no. Willow was running in the opposite direction. There was another man standing there, arms open wide, smiling as he waited for Willow to throw herself into his embrace.
Who was it?
It was Lucas!
No, don't! Willow, come back, don't go!
"Don't!" Adrian shouted as he woke up with a start.
"Brother! You're awake! Lucas, come quickly, my brother is awake!" Sophie cried as she ran to find Lucas.
My head hurts so much.
Where am I? He remembered he'd collapsed and lost consciousness.
Was he not dead? Had Grandpa Arthur let him go?
Then the doctor walked in and gave Adrian a simple checkup.
"Just rest well and you'll be fine. It's nothing serious," the doctor reassured Sophie.
"You can stop worrying now," Lucas patted Sophie's head.
Adrian furrowed his brows and closed his eyes.
So annoying. He didn't want to see it. He was a single dog now—did he have to watch them be all lovey-dovey the moment he woke up? Maybe it would've been better if he'd just stayed unconscious. Maybe he should've just died. That's what Adrian thought.
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