With no plans for the day, I wandered the streets for what felt like hours and somehow ended up near the school Zachary and I used to attend.

I was an abandoned child, taken in by my grandmother, who had also been cast aside by her family. I got into my dream university, but she passed away before I could share the good news with her. My earliest memories are of my grandmother; I couldn’t recall anything before that, except for the last name Reed.

Even though my grandmother never went to school, she remembered a poem she had learned as a child:

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;"

When she named me Madeline, it was the most cultured name she could think of, a name that she felt carried a sense of grace and beauty. I may not remember much from my early life, but her loving care filled in the gaps. She told me that when she found me, I was badly injured, lying by the roadside, barely alive. She always regretted that after all these years, she hadn’t been able to find any information about my birth family.

I was deeply sad when my grandmother passed away, but the grief seemed to be trapped inside me, and not a single tear came out. After taking care of her affairs, I went back to school. I avoided speaking and interacting with others, and life suddenly felt dull.

One time, while sitting in a coffee shop, I was dragged out by a group of people. They accused me of “pretending to be high-minded” and said I didn’t realize how “dirty” I was deep down. The leader of the group grabbed my collar and pulled me outside, saying, “You lost our love letters? That little bitch made me lose a bet with someone else.”

Probably, their discarded love letters were among the trash from yesterday. Their lives must be so empty if they intersect with someone like me, who’s on the fringes. At that moment, I didn’t say anything. I took a punch without flinching, and just as the second punch was about to land, a pair of big hands stopped it.

A few people who had been so aggressive suddenly lost their confidence and said, “Zachary, let’s get out of here.” They quickly ran off, looking defeated.

“It’s okay,” Zachary said, turning around with a gentle smile. His words felt like a warm breeze that melted away the sadness I’d been shielding.

So, standing by the roadside with a swollen face, I started crying loudly. Zachary, looking a bit flustered, quickly came over to comfort me, saying, “Don’t cry. I’ll go beat up those guys later.”

He took me to the hospital for a check-up, and I had a slight concussion, but my face still hurt badly. After the treatment, I saw three people with swollen, bruised faces, trying to avoid Zachary’s gaze.

“Madeline, your name sounds beautiful. I’m Zachary,” he said with warm, sincere eyes and a bright smile. That day, Zachary and I started to become close.

From then on, Zachary started being a bigger part of my life. Even though I didn’t have many friends, someone was finally willing to talk to me. Somehow, he found out about my birthday and invited me to watch the sunrise together.

The morning light was golden, spreading warmth beneath my eyelids.

“Madeline, let me protect you from now on,” Zachary said with a smile, pulling out a small, delicate box from his backpack. Inside was a necklace engraved with our initials. The sunlight made everything feel magical, and Zachary’s ears turned a little red. He hugged me, his eyes filled with affection, and gently brushed his lips against mine.

That day, Zachary and I officially became a couple.

“Madeline!”

I snapped back to reality and saw a young, cheerful face waving at me. It was someone I didn’t know.

“How did you know I’m Madeline?” I asked, a bit puzzled since I had graduated a year or two ago.

“Madeline, who at the design institute doesn’t know you? I actually met you in person!” the girl said excitedly, hugging me directly.

The hug was warm and comforting.

“My name is Lily Turner. I’m a big fan of yours,” she said with a bright smile.

She was a cute little schoolgirl. We wandered around the campus for a while, chatting about the changes and our design dreams.

When I got home, Zachary still wasn’t back. He usually doesn’t stay away all day. I made a simple dinner, leaving out his portion, thinking he wouldn’t return. Emma had just added me to her contacts and sent me photos of them hanging out, with Zachary passed out on the sofa.

“How about letting Zachary hang out with us for the night; you don’t mind, do you?”

That night, Zachary didn’t come home. The next day, when he finally did return, everything seemed normal, but he started going out more often.

By the third night of his absence, I couldn’t hold back any longer and asked him what was going on. Zachary looked taken aback and a bit annoyed. “Is it really a problem that I go out with friends? Can’t you stop clinging to me all the time? Don’t you have your own friends?”

He slammed the door behind him and left, leaving me standing there, stunned.

Over the years, I’d come to rely on Zachary as my everything, thinking that having him was enough. The promises he made—“Madeline, I’ll protect you and always be with you”—now seemed like distant echoes lost in the void of the future.

This week, Zachary hadn’t been home much. Maybe he’s just enjoying some long-overdue time with his friends. I can give him space, I suppose. From Emma’s Instagram, it looks like they’ve been traveling abroad lately. I sent him a few messages, but he didn’t reply.

Our relationship might be nearing its end, but it just hadn’t been officially confirmed yet. My birthday and our fifth anniversary are coming up soon. We used to have this tradition of watching the sunrise together every year. For the first four years, we managed to catch it, but this year, neither the sun nor Zachary showed up.

Emma sent me a few messages with photos of Zachary: him sleeping next to her in his bare arms, taking selfies at tourist spots, and even kissing under the aurora...

By the way, Zachary had said that after watching the sunrise on our anniversary this year, we would go see the aurora and let the whole world witness our love. At the time, I thought his words were a bit cliché, but I was still looking forward to it. Everything seemed fine before Emma came back, right?