What I Lost and Found

Morris jerked his head up. His lips were pressed tight, his eyes dark as a black hole.

I knew him well. He had grown up poor, and when it came to money, he was deeply insecure.

During our college years, every time he ran into relatives or neighbors who had lent him money, he shrank himself down to nothing.

And for all these years, he and Judy had lived mostly on my support.

"Olivia, I spent your money. I'm sorry. How do you want me to make it up to you? Is it enough if I pay you with my life?"

After saying that, he pulled a folding fruit knife out of his backpack.

Without hesitation, he stabbed it into his own lower abdomen.

Blood burst out in a terrifying rush. Courtney screamed and cried out for an ambulance.

People around us panicked. Everything fell into chaos.

I stood there in a daze, my vision flooded with red.

The man I had loved through my entire youth held his wound with one hand, while gently touching another woman's cheek with the other, softly comforting her.

"Don't be scared. I'll give this life back to her. From now on, she'll have no reason to hate you."

Courtney cried hysterically, staring at me with burning eyes.

"Olivia, we really love each other. Why can't you stand to see us happy? We already apologized! Why won't you let us go?"

The alarm clock suddenly rang. I jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat.

It had been a long time since I had dreamed about that day.

At school, while the other teachers were in class, Maggie cornered me and made me tell her what happened afterward.

When she heard that he had responded to his betrayal with a suicide attempt, she narrowed her eyes in disgust again.

"He made it look like you forced him to die, when it was clearly his own guilty conscience."

Yes, it was clearly his guilt.

But I was treated as the culprit and sent to prison in Merinthia.

Aside from Morris and Courtney, I didn't know a single person there. I didn't have money for bail, either. All I could do was hope Morris would think of what we once had and help withdraw the charges.

But he didn't.

I went through hell in there before the police finally proved my innocence.

By the time I was released, two years had already passed.

I was deported back home, only to learn that the school had expelled me, and the small apartment I had rented had been taken back.

Judy had been moved away. Everything in the house was thrown out, without a trace left behind.

I refused to give up and asked around everywhere for news of Morris.

Until a former classmate told me that after the day I was arrested, the two of them came back to the country and got married.

Everyone praised them as a perfect match, saying that they were meant for each other.

One was praised for his devotion. Even after returning from studying abroad, he never lost his sense of duty. The first thing he did after his startup succeeded was hire a full-time caregiver for his mother.

The other opened an art gallery. Hanging in the very center was a painting she had done herself of a family of four.

Morris, Courtney, Judy, and a two-year-old boy.

"So while you were rotting in jail, they went and had a baby! They didn't help you get the charges dropped. They used you as a stepping stone and jumped straight into wealth!"

Maggie was so angry that she jumped to her feet, slammed her ruler onto the desk, and cursed nonstop.

I felt a little helpless. I wanted to say that I truly didn't care anymore, that she didn't need to ruin her mood over it.

But suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

Morris stood in the office doorway, looking at me awkwardly.