Part 3After Five Years Abroad, Everyone Believed I’d Perished

After the administrator left, I stood before my own grave.

Liam was behind me, the rose now crushed on the ground. His voice was laced with the fury of a man who'd been deceived.

"Quite the act you've been pulling, huh, Cathy? Was it fun? Watching me drown in guilt every single day for five years?"

"You couldn't even leave a single message."

I answered with a casual shrug. "Wasn't it you who told me to never bother you again?"

Five years ago, when I got the news he was marrying Mia, I’d raced to the venue.

I crashed on the way. The airbag pinned me to the driver's seat, my breath coming in ragged gasps.

I called him, begging him to come save me.

But he was busy placing the veil on Mia's head. The phone rang and rang.

He only picked up on the final call.

"Mia's had a hard enough life as it is," he'd said, his voice cold. "Can't you even let her have one wedding?"

"I don't care if you're in a car crash. Even if you died, don't bother me. I am marrying Mia today!"

I met Liam when I was seven. We started dating at eighteen and were engaged at twenty-three.

At twenty-six, he told me to die so he could marry my father's illegitimate daughter.

In that moment, I made a vow. I would never bother him again for the rest of my life.

Now, hearing my words, he tugged uncomfortably at his collar. "C'mon, it was just a figure of speech. You actually took it seriously?"

He straightened up, his eyes scanning me from head to toe. "How did you know I'd be at the cemetery today? You even wore that green coat I always liked…"

A humorless smirk played on his lips. "You don't actually think that after tricking me for five years, all you have to do is play dumb, play a little hard-to-get, and I'll come crawling back, do you?"

"Let me tell you, Mia has been wonderful to me while you were gone. Unless you get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness, I will never—"

"You're overthinking things," I cut him off, my patience gone.

"I'm here to move my mother's grave. Once that's done, I'm leaving."

"And one more thing…"

I paused, then started walking towards the cemetery gates.

"Since you're married, you should probably stop wearing our engagement ring."

"It's faded."