Some envied her, saying Maeve was lucky, that Zion was mature, wealthy, gentle, and even willing to publicly appear with her.
But not every comment was a blind cheer.
Clear voices showed up soon after.
[Isn’t this basically cheating?]
[Wow, cheat long enough and it becomes ‘real love’?]
[When Zion chased Mrs. Payne back then, wasn’t he giving her anything she asked for, practically offering his life?]
[Let’s be real. He’s just fooling around.]
When I saw these comments late at night, I suddenly thought of many years ago.
In university, I was the top student in our department.
Scholarships, contests, professor recommendations, everything came to me easily.
My whole life back then was made up of the library, the lab, and stacks of heavy textbooks.
But Zion was the opposite.
He skipped class, showed up late, had no interest in lessons, and was often called out by instructors, a walking warning sign in my academic world.
If it weren’t for Grandma Ravenna, I would never have crossed paths with him.
That year, with Ravenna’s financial help, I was able to finish school smoothly.
She treated me kindly, and she was very straightforward.
She said, “Zion has a wild streak. You steady him.”
I agreed.
So I began dragging Zion to class, pushing him to hand in assignments, pulling him to review, even sorting his notes for him.
I used every simple method I could think of to make him “act like a student.”
Later, he slowly changed.
He started arriving for class on time, started avoiding those messy circles, and started putting his energy into studying and real work.
And later, Zion fell for me, openly and loudly.
He ended all unclear relationships, wanted everyone to know he was chasing me, and even began seriously taking over work duties just to make me happy.
People in our circle all said I was the rope that held Zion down.
Back then, I believed it too.
I thought I was special.
I thought I was the one who pulled him out of trouble, the one who shaped who he became.
But now, thinking back, I suddenly saw it clearly.
I wasn’t a rope.
Maybe I had just shown up earlier than the others.
There were only three days left before the divorce.
And today was the livestream for the 5th anniversary of ‘Knowing Me.’
We had prepared for an entire year for this day.
I had always assumed that even if our marriage was full of cracks, at least in business, Zion would keep basic logic.