Chapter 9

I seemed to be able to leave Lucas now.

After he had done everything, he took my ashes back to our former marital home.

He wanted to reminisce about the good times here, but when he looked up, he found the living room wall empty.

He searched the house like a madman, and finally, in the corner of the junk room, he saw our shattered wedding photo, realizing my face had been scratched by Zoe.

Everything had changed.

It was only at this moment that he realized he didn't have a single photo of me.

He collapsed on the ground, tightly hugging my ashes, tears sliding down the corners of his eyes.

He took out his phone and opened that cancer documentary.

Looking at my gaunt face on the screen, he couldn't help but break down in tears.

"I'm sorry, Ava. It's all my fault. I really regret it."

"Marrying you was always my dream. No one ever forced me."

If I had seen Lucas like this before, I don't know how heartbroken I would have been.

But now I just felt he was putting on an act, it made me sick.

Of course, everything was his fault. Just as Zoe said, all the pain inflicted on me came from his permission.

Now he kept mumbling "I'm sorry" over and over again, but what use was it?

Only after personally witnessing Zoe's betrayal did he remember my goodness.

I didn't want to see his disgusting face anymore.

I seemed to feel my mother's soul calling me from afar. I knew she was waiting for me.

My soul gradually disappeared, and I felt a lightness I had never experienced before.

There was nothing in this world worth lingering for anymore.

Ava Bennett completely disappeared.

...

Lucas Sinclair knelt before Ava Bennett's ashes. Suddenly, at some point, it felt like something important had left forever.

He was in a panic, looking around, suddenly understanding something.

"Ava must not have forgiven me yet."

It seemed only in a drunken stupor could he see the face he longed for day and night.

But he knew deeply that it was all an illusion.

Mr. Sinclair had completely given up on him.

He lived on in a daze like this. One day, who knows how many years later, he finally felt a churning in his stomach, and a mouthful of blood gushed out.

That was the first time he left this house. He begged his mother to take him to the hospital.

When the diagnosis of stomach cancer appeared on the table, Lucas showed a relieved expression.

Mrs. Sinclair covered her face and cried, perhaps already regretting her decision to arrange their marriage back then.

"I really gave birth to a cursed child."

That's all she could say in pain.

Lucas was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He experienced the pain of chemotherapy, experienced everything Ava had gone through.

At the end of his life, he lay on the hospital bed in despair.

"Ava, so this is how painful it is."

He dialed that long-sealed number, but again, no one answered.

Finally, in pain and despair, Lucas Sinclair closed his eyes forever.