Divorce Day Reset: My Wife Back at Seventeen Chapter 07
Simon turned off his phone to escape the harsh, grating ringing, hoping for a moment of quiet. But from Liliana’s point of view, that was the firmest and clearest answer.
She could no longer fool herself into believing that he loved her so blindly and irrationally that he would tolerate every low and ugly thing she did. Honestly, if Simon’s love were like that, how would it be any different from her cheap, disposable feelings?
A sharp pang hit her heart. She knew perfectly well what it meant when a man said something and didn’t take it back. Someone who swore one moment and betrayed the next would never have a good ending.
She’d spent the whole night rushing around the hospital, yet she still drove home without a second thought. Her car sped down the asphalt, the scenery before her twisting more and more out of focus.
Cold air poured in through the open window, stabbing straight into her lungs. The biting chill made her face twist in pain, but it never occurred to her to roll the window up. She didn’t ease off the gas for even a second.
Even though she raced home as fast as she could, all that greeted her when she pushed open the front door was endless silence.
Liliana’s mind spun out of control. She kept thinking that their separation was just fate pulling a cruel joke. If only she’d gotten back a little earlier, maybe they could’ve still seen each other one last time.
But for someone who’d chosen to betray, being one step too late was probably the exact outcome fate had intended.
Her thoughts raced as panic washed over her. If Simon had left home, where could he have gone?
Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. Moments of their past together flashed rapidly through her mind, finally freezing on a scene beneath the shade of a thick canopy of leaves.
In a quiet patch of woods, a slender little plane tree sapling stood, hidden among tall, full-grown trees. That was where, ten years ago, she and Simon had buried their time capsule. They’d promised to go back there together in ten years and see whether the beautiful dreams they’d had back then had come true.
Now, those deep, lush woods became Liliana’s last faint clue for finding Simon. As for the wishes they’d buried under that tree, they were nothing more than a childish joke they’d left behind when they were too young to know better.
Liliana drove to that plane tree. In her eyes, the scene overlapped with who she and Simon were ten years ago. Their young faces still carried the shy blush that belonged only to teenagers. Back then, promising to return in ten years felt like the biggest deal in the world. They’d never even considered what betrayal might look like.
Now, looking at herself, she realized betrayal had become as common and casual as breathing. It had turned into a habit.
Ten years was a long time. Soaked in a filthy world like this, it was all too easy to be corroded if one didn’t hold on to a heart that never changed. That was exactly what had happened to Liliana.
She clutched at this last shred of hope and rushed to the plane tree as fast as she could. It was still there, green and full of life. Compared to back then, its roots now seemed to hide even more secrets beneath the soil.
When she reached the base of the tree, she saw that the patch of earth where the time capsule had been buried had already been disturbed. The things they’d buried there still lay quietly in the loosened dirt. That was the purest, most unblemished memory the two of them ever shared.
Liliana dug into the soft soil, but what lay inside was no longer just her awkwardly worded, innocent letter. On top of it now were a ring and divorce papers.
She understood then that Simon had already handed down the death sentence for their relationship.
When she’d written that letter at 17, her feelings had been so simple and fierce, burning with a kind of sincerity that now felt impossibly out of reach.
Liliana broke down in tears as every single one of her betrayals against Simon rose up and wrapped around her memories. She could’ve turned back. She’d had several chances.
