Loved Him 15 Years, Then I Left

Chapter 5

The two of them drove straight south for two straight weeks, until they finally pulled into Danica's hometown.

The first thing Danica did after getting out of the car was head to the cemetery to pay her respects to her late parents.

Kneeling in front of the tombstones, she fed joss paper into the small flame in silence, the paper crackling and hissing softly as it curled into ash.

The sharp, heavy grief and hurt she had buried deep for months came surging up all at once, and she spoke in a quiet, wavering voice, "Dad, Mom, I'm here to see you."

She had been suffocating in Lucas' gilded billionaire mansion for ages, and every last scrap of pent-up hurt she had stuffed down for months came spilling out of her all at once.

"Mom, I still remember when I snuck off to the horse ranch to ride when I was little. You caught me, and chewed me out for not acting like a proper noble lady, said no man would ever dare marry me. I even talked back then, told you I'd never get married, that I just wanted to cruise around on my bike every day, going wherever I felt like. But look at me now, I did get married, to the man I held dearest in my whole heart. But ever since that day, I haven't touched a horse again."

When she got to that part, Danica lifted her eyes to look at the man walking slowly toward her, a tangled, heavy mix of emotions swirling in her gaze.

"Mom, you told me on my wedding day that no matter how much I loved Lucas, I should never make love my whole life. It's just one part of the journey, you said, and I had to learn to let go to live easy. I had no clue what you meant back then, but now it all makes sense..."

Lucas walked up beside her, shrugged off his suit jacket and draped it gently over her shoulders. "It gets real cold once the sun goes down down here in the south. You don't want to get sick."

He reached out and pulled Danica to her feet, then turned to the two headstones and spoke in a soft, solemn promise, "Mom, Dad, rest easy. I'll take good care of Danica, I swear I'll never let her feel even the tiniest bit hurt."

Danica stared at him quietly, and her heart gave a soft, quiet jolt.

He'd said the exact same thing, word for word, right in front of a photo of her parents the day they'd picked up their marriage license.

But she knew better now.

To Lucas, the only thing that counted as hurt was anything that messed with his relationship with Yanna. Every other grievance she felt? It didn't even register.

The sky dimmed slowly, and the two of them headed into the city's night market together.

The entire street was blazingly lit up, and the overlapping, loud hawking of street vendors hummed through every corner of the street.

Lucas paused in front of a small accessory stall, picked up a silver hairpin carved into the shape of a pear blossom, and turned to Danica with a smile. "I remember pear blossoms are your favorite." Right after he said that, he lifted his hand and tucked the hairpin gently into her hair.

"Looks really good on you." His dark eyes were flooded with such soft, tender warmth that anyone could get lost in it in a heartbeat.

Their gazes locked. Danica's face stayed perfectly calm, but a hollow, helpless resignation spread slowly through her chest.

She'd never actually liked pear blossoms all that much. She'd only picked up the preference because Lucas loved them; she'd gone along with it for years, letting his tastes overwrite her own.

For all those years, her entire life, every last one of her likes and dislikes, had revolved around him. She'd lost track of her real, original self ages ago.

All of a sudden, Lucas's tone shifted. He frowned at her. "Danica, where's that pearl pendant of yours?"

When he leaned in closer, he spotted that Danica's neck was totally bare, the pearl pendant was nowhere to be seen.

That pendant was the token he'd given her with his own hands the day they first met. She'd never taken it off for so many years. Why would it suddenly be gone? Did she lose it?

Danica's voice was cool, laced with a faint edge of distance. "I left it in the villa safe. It's too valuable. I didn't want to chip or break it while we're out."

Her deliberate, standoffish attitude made Lucas's frown deepen. He just assumed she was still upset about him moving Yanna into the house.

He wrapped his hand firmly around hers and said, "As long as it's something you want, cost doesn't matter. I'll pick out a couple even better pieces for you once we're home."

His words made Danica zone out for a second.

Maybe it was exactly this kind of false, warm illusion that he cared for her just as deeply as she cared for him that had made her cling on for so many years, too stubborn to let go.

Danica was just about to say something when Lucas suddenly let go of her hand and walked straight over to a stall selling couple's destiny cord bracelets.

The vendor greeted him cheerfully. "Sir, you write your sweetheart's name on this destiny cord bracelet, wear it, and you two will stay together forever."

Danica watched as Lucas's eyes lit up instantly, picked up the marker from the table and hunched over to write.

In the glow of the street lamp, she could make out the two names he'd jotted on the bracelet perfectly clear: Lucas, Yanna.

Danica didn't say a word. She reached up, pulled the pear blossom silver hairpin out of her hair, handed it back to the vendor, turned on her heel with a sharp huff, and headed straight for the car shop down the block.

The car shop owner strode over, calling out a warm hello as he greeted her with a wide grin.

She reached out to run her fingers over the cool, glossy body of a sleek white car on display, a rare, hearty grin tugging at the corner of her lips, the first unforced, happy expression she'd worn in ages.

"Sir, hook me up with the highest-performance, longest-range car you've got."