### Chapter 3
I didn't say no. I'd let him have this one—a last goodbye.
By evening we were at the planetarium. Dick had booked the entire place.
He pointed to the star named after me, grinning like a boy：“Emily, the day this star was discovered was the exact day we met. My love for you is just like it. Until the end of time.”
I used to believe our love would bear fruit too. But seven years in, it burned out like a meteor streaking across the sky.
He was eighteen when he showed up, bloody from a fight, scrambling over our garden wall. Ethan thought he was some thug and beat him senseless.
He stayed a whole week, milking his injuries.
I was picking flowers in the garden when he drifted over, staring at me：“Emily, you're so pretty. Go out with me.”
I thought he was joking, so I said yes. When his wounds healed and a convoy of cars pulled up to collect him, I finally learned he was the Simmons heir.
Seven years, gone in a blink.
Fireworks erupted outside the planetarium, flooding the sky.
“Happy birthday, babe.”
Dick leaned down to kiss me. His phone rang.
One glance at the screen, and he killed it instantly.
“Useless bastards, screwing things up again!”
“Sorry, babe. I need to run back to the office. Two hours, I promise.”
He moved to kiss my forehead.
I pushed him away：“It's fine. I can look around on my own.”
After he left, I wandered with no direction. Without meaning to, I drifted into a hidden room. Inside was a single display case, lavishly lit.
Beneath the star model sat a high-definition photograph: a man's hand and a woman's, fingers tightly laced.
I'd know that hand anywhere—every knuckle, every ridge. I could pick it out of ashes.
Pain tore through me so fast my vision went black.
“For Tania alone. Forever and always”.
The inscription underneath cut even deeper.
I stumbled out, half-blind, then stopped dead.
On the open-air observation deck not far away, Dick and Tania were tangled together on a couch.
“I told you, tonight's about making up Emily's birthday. I'm supposed to be with her right now.”
Tania hung from his neck, pouting.
“You're so sweet to her, buying her a star and setting off fireworks. Can't a girl get a little jealous?”
Dick pinched her chin, all helpless indulgence.
“Come on, I already gave you the better one—your own star. What are you jealous about?”
Tania let out a soft hum, her fingers slipping slyly under his shirt.
“I don't care. Would you rather stay up there watching stars with her, or try out a new position with me under them?”
“You little minx……Make it quick. Don't let Emily get suspicious.”
Dick's voice went hoarse. The next second, he tore her clothes off.
The fireworks in the sky burned out.
I was shaking so hard I could barely stand.
I'd already seen them together on that dashcam footage. But watching it happen right in front of me—it still gutted me.
I gripped my phone and recorded everything, tears dropping one by one onto the screen.
This observation deck was something Dick had donated in my name. He'd personally designed every detail.
The day it was unveiled, he'd knelt on one knee：“With the stars as my witness, I will love Emily for the rest of my life.”
I'd asked him, half-joking: what if you betray me?
“Then let me lose you forever. That would be worse than death.”
Now the stars had witnessed his betrayal.
And everything would be exactly as he wished.
I turned back toward the exhibition hall. A new message from Tania was already waiting.
“You saw all of that, right? He said doing it here is extra thrilling. Like doing it right in front of you.”
I wanted to block her, but my hands were shaking too badly to hit the right spot on the screen.
I slid down the wall and sat crumpled at its base, crying until I couldn't feel anything anymore.
Dick finally came back.
My swollen, red-rimmed eyes startled him.
“What happened? Who made my Emily cry? I'll deal with them!”
He pulled me in tight, arms wrapped around me the way they always used to be.
Back then, when a bunch of punks cornered me, he'd thrown himself in bare-fisted—outnumbered ten to one and still wouldn't give an inch.
Broke his hand and still grinned at me through the pain：“Hey. I'm right here.”
The boy who would have died to protect me was now the one twisting the knife in my chest.
I choked on the words for a long time before I managed to speak.
“It's nothing. I just really, really love the gift you gave me.”
“And in return……I've prepared a surprise for you too. You'll have it in five days.”
