"Mom, can we go home by this Mister's car?"
Karin stands at the front gate of the hospital, trying to stop a taxi, and Esme cautiously asks. From not
far behind, Troy is staring at the mother and daughter deeply, with unspeakable sadness on his face.
After hearing what her daughter says, she lowers her head and glances at her sharply, and Esme
becomes silent...
After getting back home, Esme consciously stretches out her hand, waiting to be punished.
But this time, her mother doesn't punish her, but cries unscrupulously in front of her. Esme feels sad
when she sees her mother crying. She hugs her mother's neck and says, "Mom, beat me. I didn't
behave well again..."
"Will you not talk to that uncle again next time you see him if I beat you?"
As expected, her daughter doesn't say anything.
"Do you like him?"
"Yes..." Esme meekly nods.
"Why do you like him? Didn't you say that he is a bad person before?"
"He is like my father. When I was eating, he looked at me the same way as you looked at me. I have
tried very hard not to talk to him, but when he took the initiative to talk to me, I couldn't ignore him."
The air is deadly silent, and after a long while, she says, "I see." Then she says nothing, turns and
goes into the bathroom.
Squatting on the floor of the bathroom, tears sliding straight down her cheeks, she wonders, is this
what people called "blood is thicker than water"? William has been with Esme for five years. She just
likes him, but never says that he is like her father. Troy has only shown up for a single month, and
Esme feels that he is like her father, because of him, she even didn't listen to her, which makes Karin
very heartbroken and helpless. She suddenly doesn't know what to do...
The phone in her pocket rings, she glances at the number, hesitates for a few seconds, presses the
answer button, but doesn't speak, only waiting for the other end to speak first.
"Come to my place, let's talk."
She hangs up the phone right away, closes her eyes, puts one hand on her forehead, and drowns into
painful feelings. She knows exactly what Troy is going to talk to her even without thinking about it. Now
they have nothing to talk about except about the child.
Troy waits for a long time and doesn't see her coming, so he calls again, "Do you want me to go to your
place?"
Karin knows that she can't escape tonight. She takes a towel and washes her face. She walks out of
the bathroom and says to her daughter who is watching cartoons, "Esme, The Mister has something to
talk with mommy. I'll go over. Don't run around."
"Okay, I won't let mommy worry again."
Esme nods sensibly, with guilt in her eyes.
She takes the elevator to the ninth floor, and his door is open. She walks in, stands behind him and
asks, "What are you talking about?"
Troy slowly turns around, "You knew that Esme is allergic to salad dressing, so you lied to her that
British food is the most nutritious, right?"
Karin's heart skips a beat, "That's my own business, and it has nothing to do with you."
"Does it really have nothing to do with me? You know better than anyone else, I am also allergic to
salad dressing."
"That's your business, and it has nothing to do with me. There are many people in this world who are
allergic to salad dressing. Don't take one coincidence as a meant-to-be."
"Is it?"
Troy approaches her, "Where is the Heart-Lock necklace? The Heart-Lock necklace I gave you is worn
on your daughter's neck. How do you explain it?"
"I don't need to explain anything. The things given to me are already mine. It's my own business
whether to throw them away or give them to others. If you regret it now, it's not impossible to take it
back. I will take it down and return it to you tomorrow."
"Karin!"
He is very distressed since she misinterprets him like this, "You know I didn't mean that."
"Don't call me Karin." She lifts her chin coldly, "I won't call you Troie again."
Just as you are no longer you, I am no longer me.
"Esme is my daughter, right?"
Troy holds her shoulders, with his eyes were full of sadness.
Karin only feels a chill in her spine. In the past few days, he just asked who the father of the child is, but
tonight, it's the first time he asked whether Esme is his daughter. She closes her eyes and doesn't
reply...
"Don't tell me that she's not, because I don't want to hurt you. I didn't take that child to do DNA,
because I just hope that, you can tell me personally, so, can you tell me the truth?"
His tone is unusually humble, and Karin smiles coldly, "Who do you think you are to ask who the father
of the child is? Even if it is yours, are you qualified to ask that? Did you forget that I asked you back
then if you wanted this child, and how did you answer me? You said it very clearly, you didn't want this
child. Over the years, whenever I think of your words, my heart bleeds, but I never show it, because
you told me that if I want to be strong, I can't let others know how painful I am. And it would be the best
if I could even fool myself!"
Karin's sorrowful words pierce Troy's heart like a sharp knife. He pulls her into his arms, leans over her
neck, chokes and says, "Do you think if I know that the child is mine, I will be happy? You are wrong,
knowing that the child is mine, I feel more painful. I am not such a shameless person. About what I said
back then, it is not only you can't forget it, nor can I. Knowing that the child is mine, I can clearly feel
the pain of slapping myself. Compared with the intense pain I feel right now, I would rather you are
living as well as what you have said that night. After you left, I didn't say anything, but I am not
reconciled, as always. I am not reconciled to God's tricks, not to the arrangements of fate, and not to
accept you leaving like this, but what difference could it make? You are still gone; you won't know how I
have lived after you left. I couldn't stop drinking even if I suffered alcoholism, until later I couldn't even
get drunk. Then I couldn't sleep. I started to take sleeping pills, from two pills at first to ten, until one
time I took fifty pills and finally fell asleep but almost never woke up. Later, I could fall asleep without
taking sleeping pills, but I didn't dare to turn off the light, because once the light was off, I would fall into
boundless darkness, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find you…"
She feels a cold stream slipping down from her neck. He cries, and his tears flow down her shoulders
to her heart.
"I never think about how long five years are, as long as you can meet me one day. All the wisteria
flowers in Ziteng Garden were rooted out by me. Now it is full of purple dandelions, which has been
your wish. After you left, it has become my wish. Although I know that you will never come back, I still
hold a trace of hope, that one day you will suddenly return to the place where we lived together, and
won't leave again because of the dandelion in that garden. The flower language of dandelion is
"unstoppable love". Just like my feelings for you, no matter how deep I hide it, it will not fade along with
the passage of time. Every year on the anniversary of my parents' deaths, I still go back to Ziteng
Garden, and then sit alone until dawn, watch the sunrise alone, think of someone, and ask myself if I
have forgotten her? The answer is no. Year after year, everything changes, except for the answer to
this question. In the winter of the fifth year, I went to Ziteng Garden for the last time. When the sun
rose, I asked myself if I had forgotten you. I also asked myself, if we could meet again, what do I want
to say to you the most? Thousands of words can be reduced to this, I want to be with you until the end
of my life. This is the only thing I want to say to you in this life."
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