Sierra's POV

“It looked like he still has feelings for you,” the driver said. “With the way things are for you now, having someone around to take care of you might not be a bad thing.”

I gave a small laugh and replied softly, “There wasn’t any dramatic reason. He just cheated on me with my best friend.”

This year marks twenty years since I first met Liam. For twenty years, our small hometown hadn’t changed, but the people had.

I still remember that year clearly. My parents had just moved us from North America to the city. Right after I stepped off the bus, I brushed shoulders with Liam as he walked by.

We were teenagers then—young, bright, and full of possibilities. In that brief moment, when our shoulders bumped, something sparked in my heart.

The town was small, so it didn’t take long before we fell for each other. We spent the most carefree, beautiful years of our youth together.

Later, trouble hit his family. They had no money left, and he couldn’t afford school anymore. Before he left, he gave me an oil painting and told me he was heading south to work.

I stood there in silence for a moment, then turned around and ran home. Through tears, I told my parents I didn’t want to be apart from him.

My dad lit a cigarette, thought for a long time, and asked me just one question, “Are you sure? Is Liam the person you want for the rest of your life?”

I nodded.

Because from the very first moment I met him, long before we fell in love, I had already decided that no matter what happened in this life, I would only love him.

My dad didn’t say anything else, yet he stayed up the whole night thinking.

The next morning, he sold ten of our cattle, took a stack of cash, and went straight to find Liam. He patted him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry about the tuition. Just study well and grow into someone worthy.”

Liam froze for a long time before falling to his knees, bowing again and again. He said that once he graduated, he would repay this kindness a thousand times over.

But my dad only helped him up and said with a meaningful tone, “I’m not asking for repayment. If fate brings you and Sierra together, just treat her right.”

Liam agreed. He raised his hand toward the majestic snow-capped mountains and swore he would never fail me in this lifetime.

From that day forward, we officially started dating.

And he didn’t disappoint my father. He got accepted into a top art academy, quickly gained fame with his paintings, and after graduation, became a faculty member at the school. For a time, he was the rising star everyone talked about.

Also, he didn’t disappoint me. After years of being together, his love for me never wavered.

On our wedding night, he tattooed the little doodle I once drew for him right over his heart.

He held my hand, letting me feel the beating beneath the ink, and said, “Sierra, remember this feeling. My heart will only ever beat for you.”

That year, our love was at its brightest—so intense that we couldn’t stand being apart even for a day. Whenever he traveled for work, we were on the phone nonstop.

Once, I had a fever. I took some medicine and accidentally fell asleep in the middle of our call. When I woke up, my phone was covered with hundreds of messages.

Panicked, I video-called him to let him know I was okay.

The moment the screen lit up, I saw him sitting in the driver’s seat, crying. “Sierra, why didn’t you answer my call? I called you several times, but you didn’t answer any of them. I even had the delivery guy knock on your door, but no one answered. I was terrified something happened to you. If anything ever happened to you, what would I do?”

He said he had been scared out of his mind. He said he was just worried. He admitted he was probably overthinking, but he didn’t dare take that chance.

Over a thousand kilometers away, in temperatures below freezing, he completely lost reason. He pushed aside all his work and started driving straight toward me.

By the time I rushed downstairs to meet him, it was already the middle of the night.

Sierra's POV

At three in the morning, snow was falling hard across the empty streets. Liam’s face was streaked with tears that had frozen into tiny crystals.

When we fell into each other’s arms and cried, the snowflakes on his eyelashes melted into clear drops, and in that moment, they slipped straight into my heart.

Right then, I truly believed that nothing in this world could ever separate us. Our love had crossed a thousand kilometers, so it could survive anything. Hardships, distance, time—none of it mattered. We would, without a doubt, spend our lives together in happiness.

But the cruelest thing was that very night, I discovered he had been cheating.

The taxi driver watched me through the rearview mirror, waiting for the rest.

I gave a small, resigned smile and said calmly, “He drove too long that night. After making sure I was okay, he passed out immediately. He forgot to lock his phone and didn’t switch chat accounts. The very first pinned message was a nude photo from my best friend.”

The driver let out a long sigh and handed me tissues kindly.

But I didn’t need them. I had run out of tears long ago.

All I remember was that, in that moment, it felt like the blood in my body flowed backward. It was like a massive stone had dropped into a peaceful lake, shattering every beautiful illusion I’d ever held.

Back then, I kept scrolling. I saw years of messages between them, uninterrupted.

The very first one was from the day Veronica returned to the country after her divorce, the day I threw her a welcome-back dinner.

While I was drunk, Liam confessed to her.

He told her, [My feelings for Sierra aren’t love. They’re responsibility. You’re the unattainable love of my youth.]

The latest message was from last night.

She had said to him, [You already undressed me, and now you say you’re leaving?]

[Liam, what exactly do you take me for?]

[If you can’t let go of Sierra, then we should cut this off.]

[Sierra is my best friend. She helped me find a place to live and a job when I came back. Without her, I would’ve been on the streets. I don’t want to hurt her.]

By then, Liam was already asleep, so he hadn’t replied yet. He hadn’t even had the chance to choose before I saw everything.

That snowflake that had become a tear now turned into an icicle stabbing straight into my chest.

All the little things I’d ignored, all the strange details I’d brushed aside, they suddenly connected.

The faint perfume smell I thought I imagined turned out not to be my imagination. It was the scent of betrayal.

That uneasy feeling I kept dismissing as paranoia turned out to be not paranoia. It was instinct.

In an instant, my world collapsed.

I yanked him out of bed like someone possessed, sobbing as I asked him why? Why stay with me if he didn’t love me? Why brave the storm just to confess to me? Why cheat with my best friend when I loved him the most?

Watching me break down in front of him, Liam panicked and looked away. He didn’t know what to do.

“Sierra, it’s not that I don’t like you,” he said softly. “I just don’t like you as much anymore.”

Ten years. Youth faded and passion quieted. What used to be fierce love had turned into a debt that could never be repaid.

That time, I refused to accept it. I couldn’t believe it.

We had been together for ten years. Ten whole years. Three thousand six hundred fifty days and nights. A thousand kilometers between us. And he wanted me to believe that all of that had been nothing more than repayment?

Sierra's POV

Was I really just the thief standing between him and Veronica, stealing the happiness that should’ve been theirs?

I broke down. I screamed, I lost control, I completely fell apart.

Refusing to accept any of it, I smashed everything in the house. I clawed at Liam’s face until it bled.

Yet he didn’t move. He just stood there and let me unleash all of my rage.

But before my anger had even burned out, his phone buzzed again.

It was a new message.

A 5 a.m. plane ticket and pregnancy report.

Then came Veronica’s shaky and miserable voice, echoing through the dead-silent night again and again.

“Liam, I don’t want to pressure you, but I’m pregnant. I’m right next door. I need you to choose between us. I’m not like Sierra. I have nothing. If you don’t come talk to me when the sun comes up, I’ll die with this baby in front of you.”

The man who was always calm panicked.

The same Liam, who never wavered at my questions, who showed no reaction to my tears, suddenly lost all reason when it came to Veronica.

And just like that, he rushed to her.

I slumped against the wall, exhausted and hollow, and whispered, “Liam, if you walk out that door today, there will never be a way back for us.”

There, he stopped, but only for a second. Then he walked out without even looking back.

The driver grimaced, lit a cigarette, then, remembering my condition, quickly put it out. He sighed helplessly and remarked, “You can never predict people’s hearts.”

He was right. People were unpredictable, and fate was even more so.

If the story had ended there, then at worst, it would’ve been a breakup. Painful, yes, but after some crying, after enough time, I would’ve healed.

But that night, fate played the cruelest joke on me.

I called my dad and told him Liam had hurt me, that I couldn’t stay anymore, that I wanted to come back home, back to them.

My dad panicked. He got in the car immediately, driving through the night to pick me up.

But the snowstorm was too heavy. The mountain roads were too dangerous.

And on the way to me, he crashed.

The car was destroyed, and my dad died on the spot.

Just how unfair this world was.

A man as cold and faithless as Liam got to live, yet the person who loved me the most was taken away.

By the time I got the call and rushed to the scene, all that was left was a body covered in a white sheet, waiting to be pushed into the cremation chamber.

They told me his injuries were too horrible, so they didn’t want me to see him. They simply advised me to stay strong.

But he was my father. The man who loved me, protected me, and put me first for my entire life.

How could I ever be afraid of him?

Ignoring their advice, I tore away the sheet.

But what I saw wasn’t even a face, just blood and ruined flesh. No features left. Even the skull was shattered beyond recognition.

I couldn't describe what I felt then. It was like my mind slipped out of my body as if I drifted into a world far, far away, a world where there was no pain, no death, no betrayal, no tears.

Later, I went to see a psychologist. He told me I was experiencing dissociation, a severe psychological condition. He suggested I get treatment as soon as possible.

But my mother fell apart before I could even take care of myself.

My father’s death broke her completely. She became unrecognizable— confused, unstable.

The gentle, graceful woman she used to be had lost control whenever she saw me now. She hit me. She cursed me. She spat on my face.

Once, she cried and screamed at me.