Chapter 3
622 Words
When Arthur's career finally began to take off, the first thing he did was give me the grand wedding he had once promised.
He said, "Violet, I promised you—I won't leave anything out."
He hired designers from Italy. My wedding dress was hand-stitched with 999 Swarovski crystals.
The ceremony was held on a private island, with helicopter filming and flowers flown in from abroad.
In front of all the guests, he knelt on one knee and placed a three-carat diamond ring on my finger.
He said, "Violet, thank you for choosing me when I had nothing. From now on, everything I have is yours."
Camera flashes exploded like stars, and I cried through my makeup.
Not long after marriage, I became pregnant with Leo.
Arthur was overjoyed, like a child, saying it was "the crystallization of our love," the greatest gift from fate.
If not for that day I went to his office with soup, I might have lived forever inside that flawless dream.
That day, he had a last-minute meeting, so I went to deliver his meal.
While waiting, I got bored and noticed an old photo album spread open on his desk.
Against my better judgment, I opened it.
The earlier pages were all old photos—until one page.
I froze.
In the photo, a much younger Arthur Vance had his arm around a girl.
She wore a white dress, her features bright and striking, smiling with unrestrained confidence.
Arthur looked at her with an intense, burning gaze.
"What are you doing?!"
A furious roar exploded behind me. I flinched, and the album nearly slipped from my hands.
Arthur rushed over in a single stride and snatched the album away.
With a loud bang, he snapped it shut.
"Who allowed you to go through my things?!"
His voice was cold and sharp.
I froze in place.
Ever since we got married, I had freely used his study, his phone, his computer.
He would only smile and tease me about checking up on him, never showing even the slightest displeasure.
But now, because of an old photo album, he had exploded at me like this.
"Who is she?"
Arthur clutched the album tightly against his chest, as if protecting something fragile.
He avoided my gaze.
Silence spread through the office, so heavy it felt suffocating.
After a long while, he finally spoke.
"Vivian Lane. She... was my university classmate."
More than just a classmate.
That night, under my tear-swollen questioning, he slowly pieced together a past I had never known.
He looked up, eyes red, grabbing my hand.
"Violet, when I met you, I had already decided to move on. You pulled me out of the mud and gave me a home... Believe me, it's all in the past between us!"
He spoke earnestly, tears glistening, over and over apologizing, promising that from now on his heart would only belong to me and our child.
I softened.
After all, who didn't have a past?
We had such a beautiful present, and Leo.
So I chose to believe him, and let that photo album—and Vivian—be locked away in the corner of memory.
Until a few days ago, at our wedding anniversary banquet.
The girl who had only ever appeared in old photographs walked in, holding a little boy, and crashed into everyone's view.
Arthur's smile froze instantly. His glass slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor with a piercing c***k.
He nearly rushed over recklessly and, in full view of everyone, pulled her and the child tightly into his arms.
At that moment, across the noisy crowd and five years of time, I suddenly understood everything.
The past had never been the past.
- Writer
