Goodbye to the Love I Lost Eight Years Ago Chapter 09
But even if he had asked, Claire probably would not have told him.
Claire had always seemed soft and gentle on the outside, but once she made up her mind, nothing could turn her back.
Just like the midterm exams in eleventh grade.
Back then, Claire’s stomach hurt so badly she could barely get out of bed. But she did not want Liam to miss his exam because of her, so she pretended she was fine and went to school anyway.
She even forced herself to walk him all the way to his classroom.
Only after she watched him go inside did she collapse outside the exam room.
The memory hit Liam like a blade twisting under his ribs.
Then came another one.
The restaurant.
The wheelchair.
The moment he had shoved Claire to the floor.
These past few days, he had not dared to think about that scene.
Because on the night he ran into Claire after coming home, Vanessa had cried and told him something.
She said that if Claire still loved him, she was willing to step aside. She would stop clinging to him. She would even end the pregnancy and let him go.
At the time, Liam had felt deeply guilty toward Vanessa.
So when he saw Claire supposedly insulting her, when he heard Vanessa sobbing that Claire had shoved her and that the baby might be gone, that guilt swallowed every rational thought he had left.
That was why he lost control.
That was why he attacked Claire.
But he had not actually struck her body.
He had only kicked the wheelchair a few times.
He had only shoved it hard.
The moment she fell, he had regretted it. He had wanted to help her up.
But then Vanessa cried that she thought she was bleeding.
So he chose Vanessa.
After all, Claire only had a bad leg.
One fall should not have done much.
But Vanessa was pregnant. A fall could be dangerous.
So he chose the person who seemed to need him more.
Now, standing there with the truth tearing through him, Liam looked down at his own hands.
His vision blurred.
So he had killed the love of his life with his own hands.
The girl he had once cherished more than anything.
The pain finally became unbearable.
Liam broke and ran.
He ran to the cemetery where Claire had been buried.
When he saw her photo on the headstone, still the same image of her at eighteen, the last piece of him shattered.
He dropped to his knees and sobbed.
After that, he stayed at the cemetery for fifteen days.
Every day, someone came for him.
Margaret.
Vanessa.
Old friends.
Everyone told him to go home.
Every time, Liam only reached out and stroked Claire’s photo with trembling fingers.
He truly could not understand.
Why?
Why had it been him?
Why had the person who killed Claire with his own hands been him?
He had loved her so much.
On the sixteenth day, Claire’s mother came.
She slapped him across the face.
“Get out.”
Her voice was hoarse, but her eyes were dry.
“My daughter doesn’t need you sitting here pretending to grieve.
“And you’re married now. You have a child on the way. What are you doing here? Do you want Claire to have no peace even after
death?”
His cheek burned from the slap.
But Liam could not say a single word in his own defense.
He only knelt before Claire’s mother like a sinner and lowered his head to the ground three times.
She was right.
He was married now.
What right did he have to stay by Claire’s grave?
What face did he have to come here at all?
So he left.
In panic.
In shame.
In agony.
After that, he went home.
But just as he reached the door, he heard voices inside.
“Mom, what do we do? What if Liam really never comes home again?”
“Don’t worry. He’ll come back.”
Margaret’s voice was calm, almost pleased.
“I already went to see Claire’s mother. She’s just like Claire. Too softhearted for her own good. I only had to mention a few lines from Claire’s last words, just like I did back then, and she agreed to help me get Liam to come home.”
