She didn't believe the person before her wasn't me. She drained the wine glass in her hand, then walked toward me.
I'd just had a few sips of wine. My face felt slightly warm. I went looking for a quiet place to get some air.
Right in front of me appeared Sophia.
The slight buzz in my head completely cleared. I straightened up.
Sophia today was much more put together than a few days ago. She must have prepared to come here. She stepped forward, politely speaking. "Mr. Morgan."
I nodded politely.
Sophia's gaze stayed fixed on me. "Mr. Morgan resembles someone I know very well."
The evening breeze cleared my head. I asked her, "Who?"
"My husband."
I smiled faintly. Before, Sophia hadn't liked acknowledging in front of others that I was her husband, because in her heart, the white moonlight was Ethan Rivers. The only person she wanted to marry was also Ethan. Now she stood before me, admitting her husband was me.
Too bad it was too late.
"Then you must be mistaken," I said politely.
Sophia didn't respond to this, but spoke of how much he loved me. "In this world, I can't think of a second person who could love me like he did. Unfortunately, at first, I didn't like him, only because he resembled the person I liked. Did I marry him?"
The wind made my eyes sting. I didn't understand why Sophia was now before me, saying these things, reminiscing about the past.
"But later, I truly fell in love with him." Sophia looked straight at me. "At first, I used him as a substitute, but I truly fell in love with him. I could tell him apart from others. When I looked at him, I'd long stopped seeing him as someone else."
My voice came out hoarse, trying to hide the emotion. "So what?"
Everything Sophia was saying now, I'd never felt once in those eight years. Had she ever truly valued me?
Sophia's eyes reddened, her voice trembling. "So I regret it. I regret not recognizing my own heart sooner. Regret why I kept hurting him before. Regret doing something irreparable. Jackson, I regret it. Can you forgive me? Let's start over. I'll make it up to you bit by bit. Can we forget the past?"
Sophia grabbed my hand as she spoke, her eyes red with pleading. I felt her trembling, but my heart was already full of wounds.
Unable to bear this love that came too late, I slowly pushed her away, my eyes brimming with tears, revealing the ring on my finger. "Miss, I don't know what you mean. I've told you, my name is Morgan. I'm not your husband. Besides, I already have a fiancee."
Sophia's eyes widened. She looked at that ring, instinctively objecting. "Impossible."
I asked back, "Why impossible?"
Sophia suppressed her emotions. "Because the person you like is me. You clearly like me. How could you get engaged to someone else? This is fake, isn't it? You're deliberately provoking me. Now I know I was wrong. I won't hurt you anymore. Can you take off the ring?"
By the end, Sophia was almost humbly begging me.
I suddenly felt my eyes sting. She knew everything. Knew how much I'd loved her before and how much pain I'd endured. She just never cared. When I loved Sophia most, all I received was endless hurt. Now Sophia stood before me saying these words. What did it mean?
I spoke softly. "The husband you speak of loved you so much. So where is he now?"
Sophia froze in place.
Jackson is dead. No one knew better than her. Jackson died on her operating table. Died in her hands. This heavy truth made her suffer, made her unable to face the person before her. She even felt she had no right to beg anything before me.
But she refused to accept it. "I hurt him. Now I regret it. I just want his forgiveness. Tell me, what must I do to earn his forgiveness?"
Sophia spoke as if her whole being was about to shatter.
The lounge door opened again. Grace Chung walked in, seeing the strange atmosphere. "What's going on?"
Seeing her, I immediately showed a light smile. I embraced Grace in front of Sophia. "This woman mistook me for her husband. She's asking me if, after harming her husband, she can still receive forgiveness. Grace, do you think her husband should forgive her?"
Grace looked at me deeply. "If a woman truly loves a man, she couldn't bear to hurt him. Having already hurt him, she has no right to speak of forgiveness, because the damage has been done. Time cannot turn back to before it happened. Someone who hurts the person they love is destined to be incapable of love and unworthy of being loved."
Every word was exactly what I wanted to say.
I looked at Sophia. "Do you understand now, Miss Caldwell? Spilled water is hard to gather. A broken mirror hard to mend. If you truly can't let him go, then you should take good care of your child together. That would be an answer to him."
If there was one thing that still troubled me, it was only Quinn. After all, she was the child I'd raised. But I wouldn't, because of this, return to that painful past. I wanted to start a new life, completely severing the chains of the past.
After speaking, I took Grace's hand and left.
Walking to the dessert table, I looked at Grace, hesitating before finally speaking. "You really don't want to ask me anything?"
Grace's expression was calm, adding a small piece of cake for me. "When you want to say it, you naturally will. If you don't want to, my pressing won't help. Besides, I trust you."
The cake was brought before my eyes. Grace's expression was incredibly earnest. "Whenever you want to tell me, I'll slowly listen to your story."
I looked at her, taking the cake, suddenly saying, "Then let's get married."
The wedding date was quickly set. My step toward a new life drew closer.
Meanwhile, the Rivers family sank into darkness. Ethan had been discharged, but wasn't happy at all. The house was shrouded in a suffocating atmosphere all day. Mrs. Rivers would occasionally hold my photo in a daze.
Today, Mrs. Rivers came to my old room again, beginning to wipe down what few old belongings of mine remained. My possessions in this house were very few. When the Rivers family kicked me out before, I'd packed and taken most things with me. The rest, Mrs. Rivers had told people to throw away. Some had been put in the storage room.
Learning I was dead, Mrs. Rivers dug them out from storage, arranging them back in my old room. She even had people custom-make bedding and decorations I'd once used, arranging the room as it was before, as if I still lived there.