Chapter 9
Antonio fell silent.
After a long while, he finally said, “Do you remember when you were pregnant before? That’s when I realized having a kid might not be the worst idea.”
“Liar!” I stared him straight in the eyes.
He looked guilty, like he wanted to say something but didn’t, know how.
We both knew some things didn’t change slowly. They flippe‹ around and became something totally different.
Six years ago, Antonio’s parents suddenly started investing ir baby companies under his name.
Was it because I was pregnant?
No, it was because Anna was pregnant.
Antonio said he didn’t want me to go through the pain of pregnancy, but behind my back, he was raising a kid with someone else. How could he be so hypocritical?
I couldn’t take Antonio’s constant pestering anymore, so I decided to sell the flower shop and move to another city wit Lizzie.
As the movers were packing up everything in the shop, Antonio suddenly started crying, out of nowhere.
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He knew he was about to lose me again.
And maybe this time, it would be for good.
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With tears brimming in his eyes, Antonio blurted out, “Grace, have I hurt you too much? Please, give me a chance to make it right.
“I’ll open a new flower shop for you, filled with sunflowers. How about that?”
I laughed bitterly.
“Antonio, don’t you get it?
“My shop never had sunflowers. I don’t even like those flowers. You’re the one who loves them.
“And I don’t like drinking coffee in the yard on a sunny day. The sun hurts my eyes. It’s you who love all that stuff.”
I had been going along with it all this time.
Antonio froze for a moment, then he started crying his heart
out.
“Go back. We both need to move on.”
Antonio shook his head, saying he’d be there with me and wouldn’t let me leave him again.
But his parents showed up and dragged him out the door without even a word. As a dozen bodyguards pulled him away, he looked back at me, reluctant to go. “I’m r t leaving I’ll wait for you here!
“Whenever you want to come back, I’ll be here.”
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Chapter 9
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But Antonio left that very afternoon. Carlo had caused trouble at his parents‘ house, gulped down a bottle of the old folks‘ sleeping pills, and never woke up.
When Anna found out, she made a big fuss with Antonio and even exposed their relationship back in school.
The school kicked Antonio out for misconduct.
But he didn’t seem to care. He bought back the flower shop I had sold and stayed in my hometown, waiting for me to come
back.
I heard about it from someone else.
By then, Lizzie and I had moved to another city.
We opened a new flower shop, still without sunflowers, and we were living happily together.
On Lizzie’s 18th birthday, we got a big inheritance.
It turned out that Antonio had taken his own life in the third year after I left.
He couldn’t find me, so he left a will saying all his money should go to Lizzie and me.
The lawyer tracked us down and brought a letter Antonio wrote for me.
He said he regretted all the stupid things he did. If he had another chance, he wanted to be with me and be happy.
He didn’t care about having kids or carrying on his family name. He just wanted me.
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Through my reading glasses, I finished his letter with a faint smile and then threw it into the fireplace.
Lizzie had come of age, and I was well into my later years.
The past felt like a distant memory now.
Let bygones be bygones.
