Chapter 2

I could still hear the curses directed at Harper behind the door, and her sharp screams. It seemed Roger didn't love her that much after all. Once outside the hospital entrance, Roger set me down. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I slapped him hard across the face. My palm stung with pain, but it was mostly satisfaction. "Roger, don't touch me with your dirty hands. I find you disgusting." I tried hard to suppress my trembling body. The thought of the man I'd shared a bed with for years entangled with another woman in some office made me want to vomit. Roger and I met in university; he was my senior. On my first day, he helped carry my luggage. You could say we fell for each other at first sight. A very cliché beginning, but I'd thought we'd have an un-clichéd ending. He was the basketball club captain, I was the cheerleading squad captain. Every time he played basketball for the school's glory, I would cheer him on. The whole school knew when he pursued me. From school uniforms to wedding gowns, I always thought I'd loved the right person. "Nora, it's not what you think." "Don't tell me you did this all for me?" I sneered. Roger was silent for a moment. "The Moore family holds most of the investment now. I have to seize this opportunity. Nora, I won't marry her. The one I love has always been you." "Stop disgusting me. You say you love me while doing things that sicken me." I hit him hard with my purse, drawing blood on his forehead. "Your love became worthless the moment you betrayed me." Back then, we were about to graduate. Many couples broke up after graduation. But we broke that curse; he proposed to me. He knelt on one knee before me. The moment he opened the ring box, I felt I could defy all the world's slander for him. Initially, his parents didn't agree. My family was just ordinary. Later, my mother fell seriously ill, my father sold off our assets, and our family became increasingly impoverished. In the end, my mother didn't make it, and my father died in a car accident. When Roger brought me before his parents, his mother looked at me with utter disgust. As if I wasn't his son's beloved, but a demon stealing her son away. "How dare you dream of having my son? Know your place." "Thinking you can rise above your station with a bit of beauty? Do you think entering high society is that easy?" "I've seen plenty of girls like you. Don't covet what isn't yours. If you want to climb into the Caspar family, see if you have the capability first." Before going to the Caspar home, I had prepared myself for the humiliation. "Mom, don't talk about the person I love like that. I will marry no one but Nora in this life. If you don't agree, then consider me no longer your son." "You'd sever ties with the family for a woman?" "I love her. I swore before her parents' graves that I would never wrong Nora in this lifetime." We were thrown out of the Caspar house. Starting that day, for the next three days, it poured torrential rain. Roger secretly knelt in the rain for three days and three nights. When he tried to stand up, his legs were numb, and he tumbled headfirst down the steps. I rushed over and knelt, begging his mother to send him to the hospital. Later, his mother really agreed to let us be together, on the condition that Roger would no longer be considered part of the Caspar family. We started from scratch. Roger had a good head for business, and our life wasn't bad. Only now did I understand that what I considered "not bad" was worlds apart from Roger's former life. The so-called vows of eternal love had long been forgotten amidst the daily grind.