Loved Him 15 Years, Then I Left

Everyone in high society knew Danica, the eldest daughter of the Sawyer family, was head over heels for Lucas, CEO of the Monroe Group. But no one knew that while Lucas had once promised to spend his whole life with her, he'd never once told her he loved her. In the seventh year of their marriage, it was Danica herself who'd pulled strings to get him the official status to be with his long-time first love. She'd watched with her own eyes as he walked into the wedding venue grinning from ear to ear, hand in hand with that other girl, ready to build a life together. Later, she would go to the quiet, hushed prayer hall of a church, bow three times deeply before the altar, and say goodbye for good to him and to this glitzy, hollow city. She left without a sound, not a single note of explanation behind. ***** "God, I've finally let go of this fifteen-year obsession. From now on, I just want to live alone, far away from all this messy love and heartache." Danica stood before the altar and bowed three times, slow and reverent. After dropping her donation in the wooden donation box with a soft clink, she walked slowly out of the church gates. The crisp mountain air hit her face the second she stepped outside, and a familiar voice called out to her. "Danica..." Lucas had been waiting outside this whole time. He strode quickly over to her and laced their fingers together like it was the most natural thing in the world. "What took you so long in there? What did you wish for this time?" Danica lifted her eyes to his soft, handsome features, her voice soft. "I did make a wish. First, I hope you have a long, safe life, and everything goes exactly the way you want. Second…" She paused, gently pulling her hand out of his grip. "I hope you meet someone you truly love, and get to grow old with her." Lucas blinked in confusion for a second, then smiled and pulled her into his arms. "We're already going to spend our whole lives together. The only person I'm growing old with is you." Danica didn't answer. She dropped her gaze, hiding the faint, fleeting ache in her eyes. As dusk fell, the two of them headed back to the Monroe family's standalone villa. They'd barely stepped through the front door when his personal assistant came sprinting over, face pale with panic. "Mr. Monroe, Ms. Spencer's cough has gotten worse. The family doctor is with her right now checking her out." Lucas' arm fell away from Danica's waist almost before the assistant finished speaking, his feet already turning toward the separate guesthouse where Yanna stayed. He'd only taken one step when he frowned and glanced back at Danica. Her face was perfectly calm, her tone even. "Go on." "Wait for me at home. I'll handle this quickly and come back to have dinner with you." With that, he spun on his heel and hurried off, footsteps thudding fast down the hall. She waited until his figure completely vanished around the end of the hallway before she turned and ambled slowly toward her bedroom in the main building. Carol, the personal maid trailing behind her, couldn't hold in her frustration any longer. "Ma'am, how much longer are you going to put up with this? Yeah, Yanna might be the CEO's childhood sweetheart, but her family went bankrupt and fell into debt years ago. They've got nothing left. "The CEO feels bad for her, so he brought her here to the villa to take care of her, for five whole years, no less. But you're the proper, legally married Mrs. Monroe. He drops everything for Yanna the second she needs anything. Where does that leave you, anyway?" The light dimmed in Danica's eyes. She said nothing. What good did being his legal wife even do? In Lucas's heart, the only person he actually cared for, the only one he thought of as his real lover, was always Yanna. Once they got to the bedroom, she asked Carol to light the heating fireplace, then dug out the thick stack of drawings she had made over the years, dropping them with a soft thud on the table. Her fingers brushed gently over the clear, familiar lines of Lucas' eyes and brows on the paper, and old memories drifted up one by one. As the eldest daughter of the Sawyer family, she'd been doted on by the Monroe family matriarch since she was small, and had spent most of her childhood growing up in the old Monroe family residence to keep the elderly woman company. The first time she saw Lucas, she was eight years old. From that day on, her whole heart was tied to him, completely and irreversibly. She could never really explain why she loved him so stubbornly, for so long. Maybe it was his wild, carefree charm back when they were teenagers. Or maybe it was that time she was hiding and crying because she missed her parents, and he handed her a soft, sweet jujube cake, ruffled her hair gently, and said softly, "Don't cry. I'll always be here with you." Back then, she had no idea how flimsy a promise of "forever" could be. All for that offhand, casual comfort, she turned down every suitor and blind date that came her way, clinging tight to her feelings for Lucas until she was nearly thirty before she finally got married. The old matriarch knew how deeply she cared, so she pressed Lucas again and again. Only then did he finally agree to get a marriage license with her. She still remembered their wedding night. Lucas lifted her veil and murmured a soft, romantic line to her. Back then, her heart had felt so full of joy she thought it might burst. She'd thought he was finally reciprocating all the years she'd poured into loving him. It wasn't until later that she realized with a dull, sinking heart: those words had been written for Yanna, for the longing he felt for her. Yanna had come from a wealthy, privileged family once, but when her family's business collapsed, they were swamped with debt. She'd turned into the disgraced rich kid everyone gossiped about behind her back. The second year after she married Lucas, he'd moved Yanna into the villa to take care of her personally, and that "care" had stretched on for five whole years. A sharp ache pricked the bridge of Danica's nose as all those old memories flooded in. She'd always thought Lucas was gentle and steady by nature, but she'd been dead wrong all along. If Yanna so much as shed a couple of tears, he'd spiral into a total panic. If Yanna got sick, he'd camp out by her bedside all night without moving an inch. If Yanna threw a fit and gave him the cold shoulder, he'd mope in the living room and drink alone through the entire night to drown his sorrows. When it came to her, by contrast, she was nothing more than a guest in this villa, kept around out of politeness, all because of her own one-sided devotion. "Madam, is the room too cold? I'll go get you a bowl of hot soup," Carol said, setting a charcoal brazier down beside her. Danica shook her head softly, then lifted her hand and dumped every last one of her sketches straight into the fireplace's crackling flames. Lucas had once promised he'd take her to travel every corner of the country when he had free time, to see all the most stunning sights the land had to offer. She'd drawn every single place she'd wanted to visit on those sheets of paper. Now? None of it mattered anymore. Staring at the dancing orange flames, she drew in a long, deep breath, then let it out slow and steady. The fifteen-year-long dream was finally over. All the mountains, rivers, lakes, and oceans that lay ahead? She'd go see every last one of them by herself. That was all she needed.