I recognized Grace at once from behind the dark figure.
Three years had gone by.
She was thinner and quieter.
Her movements were calmer, more practiced.
She was directing her team as they carefully searched the mountains.
While on the phone, she dialed my number and continued to complain.
“Samuel, that’s enough. There’s a limit to being childish.”
“You made such a huge scene just to see me.”
“Do you have any idea how many people won’t sleep tonight because of you?”
“It’s been so many years, yet your temper hasn’t changed at all. You’re still so willful and unreasonable.”
In Grace’s eyes, I was always that spoiled young master.
Making a big fuss over the smallest things.
Doing whatever I pleased because she liked me.
She had no idea I was already dead.
She didn’t know I died protecting her.
She only thought I was still resentful about what happened back then.
The moonlight was faint, casting a pale light over the ground.
Suddenly, I felt a trace of curiosity.
I wondered how Grace would react when she saw my remains.
Would she be shocked that the boy who once hid behind her had grown up?
Or would she be angry that I had caused her trouble yet again?
I couldn’t imagine the answer.
I could only hover above the city, quietly watching my former lover.
When the call wouldn’t connect, Grace sent four or five voice messages.
None of them received a reply.
After being ignored again and again, she grew irritated.
Just as she was about to pack up and head home,
a phone rang, breaking the stillness of the night.
I leaned closer to look.
The caller ID read: “My beloved Zachary, my husband.”
Soon after, Zachary’s gentle voice came through.
“Grace, it’s so late. Why aren’t you home yet?”
“The baby and I miss you so much.”
His warm, deep voice softened her expression.
Tenderness slipped into her tone.
“I miss you too. I’ll be home once I finish this case.”
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Zachary let out a quiet sigh.
“I saw the post. You think it was Samuel, too, don’t you?”
“Sigh, Samuel’s always been like this. Don’t be mad at him.”
“After all… what happened back then was partly our fault.”
The words “back then” stirred something deep in Grace.
She hesitated, deleted her earlier accusations, and sent me another message.
“Samuel, if you really can’t let go of what happened back then, I can apologize.”
“After all, you’ll always be my…”
My what?
Grace stopped typing.
She fell silent.
And I sank into memory as well.
In truth, Grace and I shouldn’t have ended up like this.
According to how our lives were supposed to go,
we childhood sweethearts should have married at twenty, had children, and lived happily.
My mother and Aunt Margaret were close friends.
After my parents died in an accident, Aunt Margaret took me in.
She was busy with work.
Three years older than me, Grace took on the role of caring for me.
She was kind to me in every possible way.
When I was eighteen, just because I casually said,
“Women in police uniforms are the coolest.”
Grace firmly gave up her dream major.
