It was the fifth year since I broke up with Calliope, and the third since I fully let her fade away.
The hurt and sadness had long healed like the marks across my palms, thinning like dust in the breeze.
Returning home, I arranged the scattered sketches on the table.
Just as Arden said, I never went to university, nor touched that higher circle again.
Placing the drafts back into the drawer, I suddenly spotted a long-stored letter.
On it, in neat handwriting. “Rayne Zimmerman, personally.”
At the last line of that letter, she wrote she would leave everything to me, yet in the end, it was I who lost it all because of her.
My mind drifted back to the past.
Calliope and I were childhood sweethearts, growing up side by side.
We lived in nearby houses; in those days, she still had a warm family.
Later on, her dad’s company expanded, and he returned less.
She often slipped over to my place, saying that mine felt like home, and hers did not.
When she turned six, her dad cheated.
Her mom broke things across the house overnight and stopped caring for her.
During the divorce, her parents tossed her back and forth like a toy; neither wanted her.
The once cozy family of three soon became nothing more than a quiet shell.
Later, my parents felt sorry for her and treated her like their own daughter.
From that point, Calliope and I stayed close, almost never separating.
Calliope was always remarkable with outstanding grades and a pretty face.
And I was just a normal boy, plain looks, average grades, the only thing I did well was drawing.
But during those days, I never thought I didn’t match her.
She told me we gave her all the warmth a family should hold, that we were her real home.
She also told me I was the ray of brightness in her dark life.
In our first high school year, after night study, I walked back with Calliope as always.
Along a quiet path, we met her dad.
He was drunk, swaying, acting wild.
He had gone bankrupt, the lover who cheated with him had left, and now he came to take Calliope again.
She refused to follow, and he suddenly rushed forward, trying to drag her away.
At that second, I couldn’t think of anything else and moved in front of her without pause.
My knees shook from fear, yet I feared more that she might be harmed.
That night, Calliope held me firmly and promised that in her whole life she would only care for me.