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“Lily, Rafael truly knows he was wrong. As his friend, I can’t bear to see him like this anymore.”
I knew he was trying to convince me to go
back to Rafael.
I shook my head, my voice calm but firm. “I don’t want to see him. You don’t
understand the kind of pain Rafael
inflicted on me. If you did, you’d think my life has been a tragedy because of him.”
“I will never forgive him—not in this lifetime.”
Seeing my resolute expression, Rafael’s friend stopped trying to persuade me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and sighed. “Lily, if you don’t want to see him, I won’t tell him you‘ re here. I just hope you find peace and happiness.”
After he left, I sat down and played the piece I had been playing when I first met
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Rafael.
I had already let go of him. Hearing about his so–called love now didn’t stir me–it only felt laughable.
Rafael punishing Jenna wasn’t about proving his love for me; it was his way of deflecting blame and guilt.
When I needed his love the most, he wasn’t there. Our biggest problem was never Jenna.
Even without her, there would have been other women. He would still have hurt me for their sake. Rafael never understood that I was his wife.
Now, seeing him act this way only made me feel disgusted.
One day, I received a call from my mentor. She told me she had been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to see me one last time.
I returned to the country, and the moment
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I stepped off the plane, a familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Lily… you’ve finally come back!”
I turned around and was taken aback by Rafael‘ s appearance.
He used to be meticulous, never allowing even a speck of dust on his clothes.
But now, his hair was streaked with gray, his face gaunt, his clothes stained with dirt.
Tears streamed down his face, and his eyes held a desperate love for me. “Lily, I’ve personally punished Jenna for the way she came between us. Come home with me. Let’s go back to how things were.”
I laughed coldly, and retorted, “Rafael, I will never go back with you. I returned only to visit my music teacher. Don’t bother me.”
He clung to the hem of my coat, his voice. filled with pain. “Lily, why are you always so stubborn?”
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back
“If you hadn’t been so headstrong, I wouldn’t have grown to resent you then. You wanted to shine with your piano, to become a star. But I was just a poor boy -how could I ever match someone like you?”
“People said I used a woman to climb to the top, but I had my own capabilities too! Did you ever think about how that made me feel?”
My mind went blank.
So this was what Rafael had been thinking all along.
It was true–I wasn‘ t wealthy, but his family was even poorer when we were
young.
When he told me about his dream of starting a business, he admitted he didn‘ t have the money. I believed in him and wanted to help him achieve his dream.
To earn money, I entered countless piano competitions. In the freezing winter, I
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performed in short dresses for the upper class.
When men tried to take advantage of me, I swallowed my humiliation and endured.
At the time, I was gaining recognition in the piano world, but whispers followed me. “She’ll do anything for money.”
The double entendre in their words made
my stomach churn.
But I managed to scrape together a million dollars and handed it over as seed money
for Rafael’s business. Back then, he promised me, “Lily, I’ll treat you well in the future.”
Yet I never expected that, deep down, he had always harbored resentment toward
- me.
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