During that time, Serena really humbled herself to the extreme.
She cut her wrists. Banged her head against walls. Countless times, she looked at me with red-rimmed eyes and asked me why.
And I just kept telling her, cold as ice: "Because I don't love you anymore."
A woman who had never feared anything in her life cried for the first time. Like a child, she sobbed and begged me not to leave. She said she'd get proper treatment, work properly. She'd give me every cent she earned. She just begged me not to go.
"Alex, I won't live much longer. I won't live much longer!"
"Just think of it as charity—lie to me, okay?"
"I still have a little stash in the bank. The password is your birthday."
"I'll give you everything I have. Just stay with me two more days. Just two days—is that still too much to ask?"
Serena trampled her own dignity into the dirt. She humbled herself to nothing. She wasn't even asking me to come back to her. She only asked that in the final days of her life, I would look at her one more time.
I lied to her.
I pretended to agree to get back together. And the moment hope flickered back into her eyes, I stole all her money.
I remember exactly how much was in that account. $35,800.
It was what Serena had saved up for a bride price—for me.
She knew I had no parents, no relatives who could arrange these things. She didn't want me to lose face at our wedding. So she asked around everywhere, learned the customs of my hometown, and saved up every penny.
$35,800. I took it all. I didn't even leave her that beat-up motorcycle.
When she found out, Serena vomited blood in the hospital and collapsed on the spot.
Her boys went crazy searching for me, north and south. Someone even put out a bounty. They swore they'd cut me into a thousand pieces for what I did to her.
But neither Serena nor anyone else ever found me.
Because I was lying in a hospital bed. Preparing for heart surgery.
I broke Serena's heart completely. I sold myself. But I used the money to extend her life.
I never told her our match was perfect. Just like I never told her the real reason I left.
Fate finally showed mercy to that pitiful woman.
Serena's surgery went smoothly. She recovered fast—and through it, she found the family she'd been separated from for years. That's when everyone discovered the truth: the gifted little delinquent from the streets was actually the lost bloodline of the wealthy Harding family.
Serena returned to her roots. After all that bitterness, sweetness finally came. She moved out of Mongkok Tower and got the best medical care money could buy. She inherited the family business. Got engaged to some rich heir.
Her life kept getting better. Her name started appearing on financial news channels.
And me? I replaced my heart with the cheapest artificial one on the market. Curled up in the Underground, silently waiting to wither away.
Seven years passed in the blink of an eye.
Even I didn't expect that at the end of my life, I'd see Serena again.
……
The roar of the sports car cut through my memories.
When I looked up, her figure had already vanished into the dust.
I patted myself off, picked up the loose change from the ground, and walked back to that shabby little rental.
Maybe Serena had already forgotten. That we once lived here together, happy, for a very long time.
