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"Okay."
My response was so quick that, his excuses died in his throat.
He must have thought I was being difficult, because his tone sharpened with annoyance.
"Emma, don't be like this."
Then he hung up.
Ten minutes later, a series of texts came through.
[I'm so sorry, Emma. Lucas has been so clingy with his dad lately.]
[But honestly, he shouldn't have just abandoned you and Sophia the moment I called.]
[I'll have a word with him. Don't be mad.]
It was Isabella.
The texts weren't an apology， they were a declaration of war.
I had no interest in fighting her for a man.
I deleted the messages and blocked her number.
A moment later, my phone rang again.
It was Liam.
"Emma, what the hell is your problem? Isabella apologizes to you, and that's how you treat her?"
In the background, I could hear the faint sound of a woman and child crying.
I said nothing.
After a long silence, his voice came again, low and cold.
"I don't know who you've become, Emma. I'm so disappointed in you."
Isabella had started it, but the moment she cried, Liam always made me the villain.
Back home, I started packing.
While Liam had been on the phone, I'd been consulting with my lawyer.
Upon divorce, I was entitled to at least 30% of his company's shares.
And in a custody battle, with our circumstances being similar, the mother is typically favored.
There was nothing left to hold me back.
I packed my clothes, my bags, my jewelry, and all of Sophia's favorite toys.
As I sealed the last box, my hands trembled.
My gaze fell on a dusty, wax-sealed wooden case I hadn't touched in years.
It was full of love letters.
From the Liam who was seventeen, eighteen, all the way to twenty-two.
I broke the wax seal and opened the one on top.
It began: To 27-year-old Emma, from the 17-year-old Liam.
This is the first love letter I've ever written you.
As we agreed, we'll open this together in ten years.
By then, we'll definitely be married.
Maybe we'll even have a beautiful child.
...
My phone rang again.
It was the 27-year-old Liam.
"Emma! Isabella took Lucas and ran away! Do you have any idea what you've done? If anything happens to them, I will never forgive you."
My eyes fell to the bottom of the letter I was holding.
It was signed: Forever yours, Liam, who will always love his Emma.
A sharp, piercing pain shot through my chest, as if something delicate and precious inside me had just shattered.
I hung up the phone and tossed the entire box of letters into the fireplace.
