💔💔💔😭I have the best mother-in-law in the world, but a husband who doesn't love me. I thought having our daughter might win back his heart. Yet when I saw my husband and mistress celebrating our daughter's birthday together, I finally realized-after seven years of marriage, I'd gained neither his love nor our daughter's. They looked like the real family. My heart shattered completely. So I quit my job, sent him the divorce papers, vanished from their world. And never looked back... Chapter 1: The Family Of Three For seven years, Soraya poured her soul into her family. When her husband and daughter gave their love to the mistress, something inside her shattered. She walked away and never looked back. *** ~ Soraya ~ “No! I don’t want you! I want Aunt Rose!” Soraya’s daughter, Sage, screamed. “I want her to come to school with Daddy!” Those words were like multiple knives that stabbed through Soraya’s heart. Her daughter preferred her husband’s mistress to accompany her to school. “But, Sage, I’m your mom,” Soraya tried to reason, but her daughter only threw a tantrum, hurling the vase in the living room and screaming. “But I like Aunt Rose. She is pretty and talented, and Dad likes her very much!” Sage retorted, further tightening the feeling in Soraya’s chest. “If I go with you, Dad won’t come!” How could her daughter, the one she carried in her womb for nearly ten months and raised for six years, choose another woman over her? Soraya had already accepted that her husband would never love her, but what about her daughter? Why had she become so distant from her? Clenching her jaw, Soraya blamed it all on her husband, Calum Montclair. He was the one who introduced Sage to his “girlfriend.” He sent Soraya across the world under the guise of a business trip, allowing her daughter to bond with his mistress. Back then, he said, “I need you to close a deal in Singapore.” When she returned four months ago, Soraya learned about Rose and her growing relationship with her husband and daughter. 💕💕❤️❤️💖💖😍😍😘😘🥰🥰 He waited until the last guest had departed, until the house, which had been filled with the oppressive weight of mourning and the murmurs of condolences, had settled into a heavy, expectant silence. The scent of lilies, once a symbol of purity and resurrection, now hung in the air with a cloying sweetness that spoke of decay and finality. He stood by the window, looking out at the rain-soaked garden, his hands clasped behind his back, the posture of a man who had spent a lifetime waiting for this precise moment. When she entered the room, she did not look at him. She moved with a stiffness that was not merely the result of grief, but of a profound shock that had coursed through her veins since the moment she had laid eyes on him at the funeral. He had changed, yet he was the same. The years had etched lines into his face, silvered his hair, but his eyes—those intense, burning eyes—had not aged a day. They held the same fervor, the same desperate longing that had terrified her when she was a young woman. "Fermina," he said, his voice low, steady, yet trembling with an emotion he could no longer contain. "I have loved you for over half a century, in silence and in solitude, through countless nights and endless days. I have counted every minute, every second, since the last time I saw you happy." She turned to him then, her face pale, her eyes wide with a mixture of horror and disbelief. "How dare you?" she whispered, the words barely audible, yet sharp as a blade. "How dare you speak to me of love at a time like this? My husband is not even cold in his grave, and you come here with this... this profanity?" "It is not profanity," he insisted, taking a step forward, his hands outstretched in supplication. "It is the only truth I have ever known. My life has been a preparation for this moment, for the moment when I could finally tell you that my love has never wavered, that it has grown stronger with every passing year, with every obstacle placed in its path." She recoiled as if struck. "You are mad," she said, her voice rising, trembling with a fury that masked a deeper, more terrifying fear. "You are a ghost, a specter from a past I buried long ago. I do not know you. I never did. That young girl who wrote you letters was a fool, a dreamer who did not understand the world. I am a widow now, a woman of standing, and I will not have you tarnish my husband's memory with your delusions." "Delusions?" he echoed, a sad smile touching his lips. "Is it a delusion to remember the way your hand felt in mine? Is it a delusion to recall the scent of your hair, the sound of your laughter, the way your eyes lit up when you spoke of your dreams? I have carried those memories with me, Fermina, like a sacred relic. They have been my sustenance, my reason for living." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bundle of letters, tied with a faded ribbon. "I have kept every letter you ever wrote to me," he said softly. "And I have written thousands more that I never sent. Letters filled with my joys, my sorrows, my fears, my hopes. Letters that chronicle a life lived for you, though you were not there to witness it." Fermina stared at the bundle of letters, her breath catching in her throat. The sight of them, the tangible evidence of a love so obsessive, so enduring, was overwhelming. She felt a strange, unwelcome pang of guilt, a flicker of the connection that had once bound them. But she pushed it aside, clutching at her grief like a shield. "You speak of love," she said, her voice trembling, "but what do you know of love? Love is not a sentiment, it is an act. It is the daily choice to be there, to care, to sacrifice. My husband loved me. He built a life with me, raised children with me, stood by me through sickness and health. What have you done? You have hidden behind words, behind fantasies, while I lived a real life." "I know," he said, his head bowed. "I know I failed you then. I was young, I was foolish, I let you go. But I have spent every day since trying to become the man I thought you deserved. I have made myself worthy, Fermina. Not in wealth or status, though I have acquired those things, but in my constancy, in my unwavering devotion." He looked up at her, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I do not ask you to forget him. I do not ask you to dishonor his memory. I only ask that you consider the possibility that love can endure beyond time, beyond death, beyond the grave. That the heart, though it may break, can heal, and love again." She was silent for a long time, the only sound the rhythmic ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece, marking the passage of time that had separated them for so long. She looked at him, really looked at him, perhaps for the first time. She saw not the ghost of her youth, but a man, weathered by time and sorrow, yet burning with a love that refused to die. "I need time," she said finally, her voice barely a whisper. "I need to grieve, to sort through the wreckage of my life. I cannot think of this now. I cannot think of you now." "I will wait," he said, his voice firm, resolute. "I have waited this long. I can wait a little longer. But know this, Fermina: my love is not a fleeting fancy. It is a force of nature, as inevitable as the changing of the seasons. It will be here, waiting for you, when you are ready." He placed the bundle of letters on the table, a testament to a lifetime of longing, and bowed his head. "Goodnight, Fermina." He turned and walked out of the room, leaving her standing alone in the silence, the scent of lilies heavy in the air, and the weight of his words settling upon her heart like a shroud. She waited until she heard the front door close, a soft, definitive click that severed the connection between them, at least for the moment. Then, slowly, tremblingly, she reached out and touched the bundle of letters. The faded ribbon felt rough beneath her fingers. She did not untie it. She did not read the letters. But she held them, feeling the weight of them, the weight of his love, and for the first time since her husband's death, she felt not just the crushing grief of loss, but the terrifying, exhilarating possibility of a future she had never imagined. The rain outside intensified, drumming against the windowpanes, a rhythm that mirrored the beating of her own heart. She stood there, clutching the letters, caught between the past and the future, between duty and desire, between the memory of the man she had loved and the man who claimed to have loved her all along. And in that moment, the long, uncertain journey of her heart began anew. In the Northern Ocean there is a fish, its name is Kun. Kun is so large that no one knows how many thousands of miles it spans. It transforms into a bird, its name is Peng. Peng's back is also of unknown length; when it flies in anger, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. This bird, when the sea is in motion, will migrate to the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean is the Heavenly Pool. The *Qi Xie* is a record of strange tales. The *Xie* says: "When Peng migrates to the Southern Ocean, it stirs up the water for three thousand miles, rises on a whirlwind for ninety thousand miles, and departs after six months of rest." Wild horses, dust, and all living things are blown about by the breath of life. Is the azure of the sky its true color? Is it so far away that it has no end? When it looks down, it sees only this. Furthermore, if the water is not deep enough, it cannot support a large boat. If you pour a cup of water onto a shallow pond, a mustard seed can float on it; but if you place the cup there, it will stick, because the water is shallow and the boat is large. If the wind is not strong enough, it cannot support large wings. Therefore, at a distance of ninety thousand li, the wind is below, and only then can it gather strength; bearing the blue sky on its back, nothing can hinder it, and only then can it set out to fly south. The cicada and the turtledove laughed at it, saying, "We can take flight and land on an elm or a oak tree; sometimes we don't even reach that, we just fall to the ground. Why bother flying ninety thousand li south?" Those who travel to the wilderness return after three meals, their bellies still full; those who travel a hundred li need provisions for an overnight stay; those who travel a thousand li need provisions for three months. What do these two insects know? Small knowledge cannot compare to great knowledge, a short lifespan cannot compare to a long lifespan. How do we know this? The ephemeral mushroom does not know the difference between dawn and dusk, the cicada does not know spring and autumn—these are examples of short lifespans. In the south of Chu, there is a creature called Mingling, whose spring lasts five hundred years and whose autumn lasts five hundred years; in ancient times, there was a great tree called Chun, whose spring lasted eight thousand years and whose autumn lasted eight thousand years. Yet Peng Zu is now known for his longevity, and people compare themselves to him—is this not lamentable? Tang asked Ji, "This is indeed true. North of the desolate land lies the Dark Sea, the Heavenly Pool. There is a fish there, thousands of miles wide, its length unknown, named Kun. There is a bird there, named Peng, its back like Mount Tai, its wings like clouds hanging from the sky. It soars upwards on a whirlwind, rising ninety thousand miles, piercing the clouds, carrying the blue sky on its back, then heads south, towards the Southern Ocean. A quail laughs at it, saying, 'Where is it going? I leap up, no more than a few feet, then descend, soaring among the weeds; this is the ultimate in flying. Where is it going?' This is the debate between small and large." Therefore, those who are capable of holding an official position, whose conduct is exemplary in a village, whose virtue matches that of a ruler, and who govern a state, see themselves in the same light. Yet Song Rongzi still laughs at him. Moreover, he is neither encouraged by universal praise nor discouraged by universal condemnation; he is firm in distinguishing between internal and external affairs, and clear about the boundaries of honor and disgrace—that is all. He is not concerned with worldly matters. Although, there are still things that have not been established.
Not enough history yet to show a trend.