“Then there’s you, Charles, and your whole family.”
I could not stop the tears from falling, but I did not know why I was crying. Maybe it was from all the recent frustrations, or maybe it was the fact that a decade–long relationship had finally come to an end. I could not stay as calm as I wanted to be.
“Charles, your family is the biggest problem. To have you, your parents gave up on your sister. I’m an only child and can’t imagine what life would be like if I married into a family that valued sons over daughters.
“We’ve been together since high school. It’s been a whole decade, but I see no resistance in you. Otherwise, I don’t even think your family would be a problem because you’d take me and leave. But you don’t have any of that.
“Staying with you would only pull me deeper into this pit, and I wouldn’t have a good ending.
“When we were 16, we secretly liked each other. When you finally worked up the courage to ask me out, I thought you were the bravest boy in the world. Charles, can you go back to being that 16–year–old?”
After breaking up with him completely, I returned his family’s heirloom and started living my own life.
As for the rest of the story, I only heard it from others. I heard Charles was in a slump for a long time, but he eventually listened to his parents again and went on a blind date. The woman he met really liked him, but she was not someone easy to mess with.
After being provoked the same way I was, she almost got into a fight with Selene.
Selene got so upset that she was hospitalized and went into premature labor, giving birth to a boy.
The pressure of supporting two children and an adult started to stretch out Charles‘ salary. Realizing he was not interested in her, the woman from the blind date stopped making an effort and just left.
