Love That Came Too Late Is Empty

When I finally met Gerald, he ignored all the gossip and even turned against his own family to give me a home.

I gave him everything.

I gave him my time, my youth, and my love.

Years ago, when he faced bankruptcy, I was the one who accompanied him day and night to networking events. I drank until I vomited blood just to help save his company.

Yet despite everything, we still ended up unable to bear the sight of each other.

Perhaps the saying, “Some endings were simply unavoidable,” had truth in it, after all.

But I never imagined that after all these years, from childhood to girlhood to where I am now, someone would still cry over my suffering.

At this thought, Penny suddenly hugged me. Her sobs grew louder.

“Hailey, stop overthinking! You matter a great deal to me!

“After my parents died in that crash years ago, I stayed to take care of you. But really, you’ve taken care of me far more. You’ve always been like a sister to me.

“So even if it’s just for me, take care of yourself, okay?”

I nodded, stunned into silence.

When she first came to me, she was just a small child. I never expected her to do much work, but our similar backgrounds made me pity her.

I still remember those days after my miscarriage. The doctor told me I could never have children again.

Looking back, it did not seem so unbearable anymore.

If I could not grasp the future, I might as well hold onto the present.

“Alright, I promise. From now on, you’re my little sister!”

A mocking laugh came from the doorway. It sounded sharp and grating.

Gerald pushed the door open carelessly. He looked her over with judgment in his eyes.

“Hailey, oh Hailey. Have you really fallen this low? Are you so desperate that you’d call a maid your sister now?”

I frowned. “That’s enough!”

He sneered. “Hailey, I suggest you show some respect to me, especially when I’m your savior. If I hadn’t called the ambulance to bring you here, you would have died in that house.”

Penny, who had been wiping her tears nearby, retorted, “That’s a lie! You left with Aileen’s ambulance. If the medical staff hadn’t found Hailey, she would’ve—”

Gerald stepped forward and slapped her across the face. “Since when do you get a say?”

Seeing his relentless aggression, I pulled myself up from the hospital bed and shielded Penny.

“You killed my child. Was that not enough? Now, you want to kill my sister, too?”

...

Gerald froze momentarily before quickly composing himself.

“You lunatic, I don’t know what nonsense you’re spouting!

“Whether in the past, present, or future, there’s only ever been Ailey for me. And frankly, I’m annoyed. I don’t even know how you ended up becoming my wife after I returned from the hospital.

“Let me make this absolutely clear, I could never love someone like you. All you do is spew lies and poison Ailey. You’re despicable.”

Penny stepped forward to argue on my behalf, but I pulled her back.

Those words I had overheard haunted me. “If I don’t keep her weak, she’ll go to the hospital and check the hospital records and find out I was never drugged. Ailey’s been timid since childhood and even went undercover for me in a rival company. I can’t betray her.”

He knew the truth. He was just deceiving himself.

A single moment was all it took.

The brief hesitation in Gerald’s eyes when I mentioned the child remained vivid in my head. No one understood better than I how desperately he wanted a child.