Reevaluating for True Love

My mother slipped and hit her head in the bathroom. The snow made the roads too slippery for an ambulance to come.

I called Lindsay Vasquez, hoping she could help save my mother.

She answered impatiently, "What's wrong now?"

With my mother covered in blood, I tried to ask for help. But all I heard from her end was her childhood friend's cry. "Nick needs me. Handle your own problems."

I knelt on the ground, watching helplessly as my mother bled.

When I woke up, I was lying in the hospital. The doctor told me my mother didn't make it.

I had carried my mother through the snowy fields for an hour until I collapsed from exhaustion.

A white sheet covered my mother's face. Just two hours ago, she was chatting lively with me, talking about how she looked forward to Lindsay coming over and cooking her favorite dishes. Now, my mother was gone.

——

I loved Lindsay for five years, from secret admiration to chasing after her relentlessly. Finally, we got married.

On our wedding day, I was joyful, thinking I had finally moved her with my love, believing she married me out of love.

But then, I overheard her friend saying, "You're too impulsive. Just because Nick got married and had a child, you gave up and married a man you don't love. Does Santos deserve to be your husband?"

I stood there, waiting for Lindsay to deny it. But after a long wait, all I heard was her impatient voice.

"We're already married. Why bring this up now?"

Inside, they laughed heartily. They lamented Nick Baldwin's married state and mocked me for being a lapdog, sacrificing my dignity to chase after someone.

At that moment, I thought, maybe it was because I wasn't persistent enough and I met Lindsay too late. As long as we stick to each other, I could surely move her and make her love me.

But later, I realized that some people's hearts are as hard as stone, impossible to warm.

I took out my phone and stared at the chat with Lindsay.

[Why didn't you answer the phone?]

[Santos? Can't you speak? Didn't I ask you to bring something over today?]

I stared at the chat, unable to stop myself from thinking. If Lindsay had listened to me last night and brought the car back home, my mother would have survived.

But she hadn't come back. She had been with her childhood friend.

I typed slowly. [Lindsay, let's get a divorce.]

After sending the message, I deleted Lindsay from my contacts, preparing to bring my mother back home.

Along the way, nurses looked at me with pity in their eyes. I heard them whispering behind my back, discussing my deceased mother. This hospital was where I often brought my mother for check-ups. Her health was poor, and apart from the time when she was diagnosed with cancer, Lindsay never accompanied me to the hospital.

For every check-up, I was alone with my mother.

Lindsay always said she was busy with work, that her company was just stabilizing and she couldn't spare the time. I didn't blame her. It was my mother, after all.

I tried to be a responsible husband, always telling her, "It's okay, I can manage. You go ahead and focus on your work."

"Lindsay, thanks to you this time," a deep voice said. I looked up and locked eyes with the speaker.

Lindsay was holding a four-year-old child in her arms. Standing next to her was none other than Nick.

They stood together, looking like a family of three.