When I attended the wedding banquet with Fred, just because I mistakenly caught the bouquet thrown by the bride, he scolded me in front of everyone for being vicious and trying to force marriage in this way.
Then he chased the little assistant, who ran away sadly.
I chased him and wanted to explain, but he pushed me for more than ten meters.
In the end, passers-by took me to the hospital for emergency treatment.
After escaping death, I took the initiative to call my mother.
“Mom, I agree to the marriage you talked about last time.”
——
After staying in the hospital for a week, I took a taxi home alone.
Standing in front of the familiar door of my house, I couldn’t open the door with the key.
I had no choice but to call Fred.
As soon as the call was connected, Ellen’s sweet voice came. “Fred is taking a shower. Sabrina, are you back?”
Before I could speak, the door in front of me was opened from the inside.
As soon as Ellen saw me, she jumped in front of me like a little rabbit. “Sabrina, it’s my fault that I lost my key because I was too confused. Fred said he was afraid that it would be picked up by bad guys, so he changed the lock. Sabrina, you don’t have the key to the new lock yet, I’ll give you one later.”
What came into view was Ellen wearing a loose black shirt and Fred wearing only a bathrobe.
The two of them were covered in mist and looked extremely ambiguous.
After I responded lightly, I carried my luggage into the house.
Seeing that I didn’t make a fuss, Fred threw down the towel he was using to wipe his hair and explained, “Ellen’s water pipe burst and she stayed at our house for a few days. Don’t misunderstand.”
If I had seen this scene in the past, I would have felt uncomfortable.
But now I just felt very tired.
The wound on my back had not healed yet and I felt a slight tight pain.
Seeing Fred’s face, all that came to my mind was the day when he was busy looking for Ellen and completely ignored me, who was dragged behind him and bleeding.
At that moment, my love for him had completely dissipated with my sinking consciousness.
“I didn’t misunderstand.”
I didn’t even look back and dragged my suitcase straight to the bedroom.
“She is a girl and has no family around. It’s really not easy. I just want to help.”
I looked at him quietly.
He probably forgot that I was separated from my parents when I was young. No one felt this difficulty more deeply than me.
“I said, I didn’t misunderstand.”
Seeing that he blocked my way, I had to stop and reiterate it again.
“Sabrina, you have been looking at us since you came in. Can you listen to me carefully?”
He grabbed my suitcase and chattered.
I also completely lost my patience and let go directly, frowning and saying coldly, “I said, I really didn’t misunderstand!”
The box fell to the ground with a muffled bang.
I ignored Fred’s blank expression, walked around him and opened the bedroom door.
Following the halo of light projected from the living room.
I saw the black lace underwear scattered on the bed at a glance.
It was not until this time that Ellen hurriedly trotted over from behind us.
She was like a flustered little deer and she took three or two steps to grab the underwear in her hands, with two bags of tears in her innocent big eyes. “Sabrina, these are the clothes I wet before and I put them here to dry, don’t think too much.”
I glanced around the messy bedroom.
Chapter 2After saying “hmm”, I turned around and went into the guest bedroom without looking back.
After coming out of the shower, my mother just called.
“Sabrina, it’s good that you can figure it out. Your father and I are old and we only have you as a daughter. You have refused to come to reunite with us for the sake of that guy, Fred. You don’t know how much your father and I miss you. It would be fine if he was nice to you, but after ten years, he still wastes your lukewarm love, which shows that he is not sincere to you at all. Since you have made up your mind to come to us this time, how about setting the wedding date in ten days?”
Hearing my mother’s words, my hand wiping my hair paused.
In the past, when I heard my mother’s advice like this, I would always firmly refute her and tell her that Fred loved me.
But this time, there was only silence.
“Let’s postpone the wedding date to half a month later. I want to celebrate Aunt Mandy’s birthday before leaving. You can decide the rest.”
Just after hanging up the phone, the sound of the door closing came from the door.
Fred strode to my side, holding the “small seafood in sauce” he bought on the way.
He put the things on the table, frowned and came to look at my phone. “What wedding date? I told you many times that we are still young and I don’t want to get married so early.”
I turned off the phone screen, looked at his panic and said calmly, “It was a cousin from my dad’s side who notified me to attend the wedding.”
Hearing this, Fred stopped struggling.
He opened the food on the table and when he mentioned Ellen, he smiled unconsciously. “I have settled Ellen in the hotel. The little girl saw that you were unhappy, so she bought food and asked me to bring it back to apologize to you. She usually doesn’t buy it to eat. Try it.”
Looking at the shrimps and clams overflowing with red oil, I didn’t move my chopsticks.
Fred’s eyebrows flashed with displeasure. “Sabrina, stop it. It’s not good for everyone to continue like this.”
I smiled. “After ten years together, don’t you know that I am allergic to seafood?”
After that, I turned around and went back to the room.
Fred followed me and hesitated.
In the past, he would remember the date of my period, remember that I would have a headache on rainy days and remember every meaningful holiday for us.
Not to mention, when he first found out that I was allergic to seafood, he held my hand and cried silently in front of my bed all night out of guilt.
It was not that he had forgotten it now, but Ellen liked to eat seafood and it just happened to occupy his heart.
He just got confused.
I didn’t look at him, raised my hand and put the ointment prescribed by the doctor on the bedside table one by one.
When he saw the scar on my back, the guilt in his eyes became even worse.
He picked up the ointment I put on the table and was about to come over to apply the ointment to me.
I was about to refuse.
His phone rang at the right time.
I was so close that I could clearly hear Ellen’s panicked sobs.
“Fred, there’s been people knocking on the door. Could this hotel be a black shop? I’m so scared. I heard that some criminal gangs specifically target single girls like me. Can you come and stay with me?”
Hearing this, Fred clenched his phone tightly.
“Don’t be afraid. Turn on all the lights in the room first and then put chairs and other things in front of the door. Don’t open the door. I’ll come to you now.”
Chapter 3After hanging up the phone, he explained to me seriously, “Sabrina, Ellen may be in danger now. I have to go out. I swear, I really just treat Ellen as a sister. Don’t make trouble with me because of her.”
Without waiting for my answer, he hurried to the door.
The ointment was swept to the ground by his windbreaker and most of it was scattered.
I looked at the closed door and curled the corners of my lips.
In the past, every time he and Ellen had an out-of-line behavior, I couldn’t help but get jealous and angry. He always said that I was narrow-minded and unreasonable.
But Fred, don’t worry, from now on, I would never make trouble with you again.
Since that day, Fred had never come back
Ellen’s Instagram story had been updated frequently.
In and out of words, it was nothing more than showing off how much Fred loved her.
I silently put her on the blacklist.
Then I crossed out one date after another on the calendar on the wall.
Countdown to the thirteenth day.
I started to busy myself with writing a resignation report.
The team leader looked at the four characters “Go Home and Get Married” written on my reason for leaving.
She laughed and joked that she wanted to drink at my wedding with Fred and said that there was no need to resign if I got married.
Until I told her that I was not getting married to Fred.
She sighed and stopped asking me about my personal affairs.
I had been busy handing over work these days.
When the handover was almost done.
Suddenly I was free and I looked at the fifth day from the last on the calendar and was a little dazed.
I patted my cheeks and started to pack my luggage.
Fred and I had known each other for too long and there were photos of him and me everywhere in this house.
I tore off all the parts of the photos that belonged to me.
Then I took out a small wooden box from the innermost part of the closet.
There was a camera in it, which recorded several GB of videos and photos we took together over the years.
In addition to the camera, there were also the paper cranes he folded for me in high school.
The evening dress I wore when I performed on stage in college.
The hundreds of love letters he wrote to me...
Looking at these, I still felt depressed and a little uncomfortable.
After all, Fred really cared about me in the past.
He was reluctant to miss every minute and every second of my life.
Occasionally I would tease him, “Don’t you think it’s a waste of time to remember so much?”
But he smiled and scratched my nose and said, of course not, he said he would record all of these and when we were old, we could sit in a rocking chair and read them slowly.
After flipping through them for a while, I took all these things to the yard and burned all the past without hesitation.
Time flew.
Fred had never come back.
I had been cleaning the house these days.
I stopped only after I made sure that there was no trace of me in this house.
Looking at the big “3” on the calendar.
I started to choose a birthday gift for Aunt Mandy.
In the end, I chose a jade pendant.
I hoped that when I was not around in the future, Aunt Mandy could be healthy and safe.
After everything was done, it was Aunt Mandy’s birthday, which was also the day before the wedding.
In the meantime, Fred sent me a message to explain that the company needed to go on a business trip, but I didn’t reply.
Later, he called me again to ask me why I sent a text message to abuse Ellen.
He asked me to apologize to Ellen and said that as long as I admitted my mistake, Ellen was simple and kind and would not care about me.
Chapter 4I found it ridiculous. We had known each other for so many years, but in his mind, I was actually someone who would do such a mean thing.
I hung up the phone directly.
His text messages came one after another: [Sabrina, how dare you!]
After a few minutes, he sent me another message asking me: [Sabrina, I really can’t figure out why you have become like this now?!]
***
Aunt Mandy was my mother’s best friend and Fred’s aunt.
When my parents went to other places to develop their careers, they entrusted me to Aunt Mandy.
Later, Fred’s family moved next door to Aunt Mandy’s house.
He and I were in the same class, went to school and went home together every day and gradually became familiar with each other. Until graduation from college, he confessed to me and we naturally established a relationship.
After work, he said he was worried that it would be unsafe for a girl like me to rent a house outside.
He bought a house near my company and asked me to live with him.
Everything between him and me seemed to be a natural outcome.
The 18-year-old Sabrina probably never thought that she would have this day with Fred, right?
After suppressing the chaotic thoughts that suddenly popped up in my mind.
I knocked on Aunt Mandy’s door with a cake and carefully prepared gifts.
As soon as she saw me, Aunt Mandy pulled me in warmly.
After I confessed that I was going to arrange a marriage,she was shocked beyond words. “But you and Fred, you…”
Yes, everyone who knew us knew that we were a couple.
This was also the reason why I wanted to leave quietly.
I didn’t want to hear their regrets again and again.
“We are not suitable.”
I didn’t explain too much.
Aunt Mandy held my hand and sighed distressedly. “Sabrina, I know you are kind-hearted. If there are things you can’t say, but I know it in her heart. I have heard about the wedding and Ellen and Fred’s affairs. You are a good child. Fred is sorry for you. I also invited him to this birthday. I originally planned to let him apologize to you in front of you and give him a good beating, but since you have made up your mind, it is Fred, the bastard, who is unlucky. You go to your parents to enjoy your life, but I really can’t bear to let you go.”
“But you and Fred have been together for so many years. Does Fred know about this?”
In these years, my parents were not around and I had developed a forbearing character. I didn’t cry when I was lying on the hospital bed and couldn’t find a friend or relative to accompany me. I didn’t cry when I was blamed by Fred and saw him and Ellen in pairs. I didn’t cry when I decided to give up Fred. Now my tears were rolling up uncontrollably. It seemed that the grievances and sadness of these days had suddenly found an outlet. “I’ll tell him later.”
I slowly lowered my head, letting my tears fall on the back of my hand.
As for Fred...
He never thought of marrying me, so it didn’t matter whether he told me or not.
Aunt Mandy hugged me again and again with heartache. “How could this happen? Fred is such a fool, he obviously liked you so much before.”
I didn’t want to continue this topic, so after comforting Aunt Mandy, I wanted to leave first.
Who knew that as soon as I opened the door, I ran into Fred and Ellen.
Ellen took his arm and before she could calm down the excitement on her little face, she kissed Fred on the face.