I still remember my second year with Dominic. A severe flu epidemic swept through Westbrook with a three percent mortality rate.

I caught it immediately due to my weak immune system. Then, at my request and to protect others from infection, the school doctor had placed me in isolation.

My eyes burned from the fever, making everything blurry. So I thought I was dreaming when I saw Dominic's face hovering above me.

I clutched his hand and called to him with my raspy voice. "Dominic, I've missed you so much. Am I going to die without seeing you again?"

I could only stay conscious for a few minutes each day. Dominic had never cried in front of me before. That day, though, he sobbed uncontrollably.

This troublemaker had somehow found connections to get hired as a security guard at the school. He'd worked his way from Building A to Building C before finally finding me.

I called Dominic an idiot for risking his life to care for someone as contagious as me. Even so, he wouldn't listen and slipped a silver bracelet onto my wrist.

He said, "Happy birthday, Violet."

We were both dirt poor back then. We'd stare longingly at even a simple silver ring in a shop window, unable to afford it.

I thought I wouldn't live to see another spring. But on the day Dominic wished me happy birthday, dogwood blossoms drifted past my isolation room window.

Later, I learned that the silver bracelet had been made by melting down Dominic's childhood lucky charm—a silver medallion his grandmother had given him for protection.

Dominic had said, "Violet, I'm tough, so I can take whatever life throws at me. Your only job is to live safely and happily."

That bracelet had dangled from my wrist for nine years. It was young Dominic's mark of ownership.

Back then, I truly believed Dominic and I would last forever. Now, he had become to me like this ill-fitting bracelet.

I bit down hard on my lip, tugging forcefully at the bracelet until my wrist turned angry red.

Dominic anxiously crushed his cigarette. His eyes turned bloodshot as he shouted, "Violet, what the hell are you doing?"

I frowned, my eyes brimming with tears I refused to shed.

Wasn't it Dominic who had asked me to name the price for my ten years? I'd named it, but now he couldn't bear the cost.

"Dominic, let's just pretend we…"

"Don't say it!"

He lunged forward to silence me, but Lily accidentally tripped him.

I finished with a faint smile and a single tear rolling down my cheek, "Never met."

As I said this, I tossed the broken bracelet into the ornamental fish pond outside the door. The surface erupted with ripples for a moment as startled fish darted through the green water.

Dominic rushed to the pond. He fell to his knees on the wet ground, frantically searching but finding nothing.

Watching his desperation, I struggled to suppress the urge to plunge into the pond after the bracelet, my chest tight with conflicting emotions.

What even was this? Did some part of his heart still belong to me?

The ten years with Dominic flashed before my eyes like scenes from a spinning carousel. My heart ached so deeply that I felt numb, and even breathing became difficult.

Perhaps it was barely worth it if this pain was the price for that "happy birthday" from so long ago. But Dominic and I, no matter how hard it was to let go of our past, would have no future together.

A light drizzle fell from the sky. Walking into the rain, I felt like half my soul had been torn away.

Dominic carried an umbrella when he came after me. The smell of cigarettes clung to him, and his hand gripping my shoulder couldn't be pushed away.

"Violet, let me take you home."

I didn't turn around, but Lily splashed through a shallow puddle toward us. Her bangs were wet and clinging to her pale, fragile face. She looked utterly pitiful.

"Dominic, are you going to leave me here all alone?"