On Graduation Day, I Received a Cry for Help from Ten Years Ahead Chapter 09

On Graduation Day, I Received a Cry for Help from Ten Years Ahead Chapter 09

Ethan’s words came out in a mess, as if they had been trapped inside him for too long and were

finally spilling out. I listened without much expression.

“Now the baby has been born.”

He looked at me with pleading eyes.

“It’s a girl. I can finally come find you. Liv, can you forgive me?”

The hallway was very quiet. I looked at him for a long time before speaking.

“Are you done?”

He froze.

I did not raise my voice.

“You said all of that just to tell me how miserable your year has been. Ethan, you’re still blaming everyone else. Why can’t you look even once at what you did?”

The redness in his eyes spread slowly from his lower lids.

He whispered, “If you can forgive Sophia, why can’t you forgive me?”

I looked at him and found it absurd.

“When did I ever say I forgave her?”

After that, I ignored Ethan completely and shut the door.

In the days that followed, Ethan kept secretly following me. He saw me speak in class. He saw me negotiate terms with absolute composure at a conference table. He also saw me walking side by side with Alexander on campus. At those times, my smile was natural and relaxed. It was a version

of me he had never seen.

One day, he sat on a bench across the street and remembered the dream he had on the flight to

New York.

In the dream, I married him after graduation. I stayed at home, handling bills, meals, and every trivial chore. He managed the company outside. Sophia lived next door.

Sophia was afraid my children would take her child’s place and resources in the Walker family. So

she pretended to be sick again and again. She falsified medical records again and again. She dragged me into hospitals and late–night drives again and again. I lost child after child. In the

dream, Ethan chose to look away.

After all, I was still alive.

Later, I became gravely ill and had only one month left.

That night, I pulled out my IV and took the fire stairs to the hospital roof. By the time he arrived, the

police had already put up a cordon. He never saw me alive again.

Not long after, a financial scandal erupted at the company. Sophia swept every movable dollar out

of the accounts and fled to Vancouver. All she left him was a child and a mountain of debt.

When he woke from the dream, the plane was shaking. Cold sweat soaked him.

Now, the lifeless figure standing by the stove in his dream and the clear–eyed, bright, steady

woman before him overlapped in his mind.

He finally stood up and turned away. This time, he understood.

He was not worthy of me.

After returning to Los Angeles, the first thing Ethan did was file for divorce from Sophia.

Sophia cried and screamed. She threatened him with the child and the company. But this time,

Ethan did not give in.

After the divorce entered property division and custody hearings, Sophia reported several accounting problems at the company. The IRS and state tax authorities quickly got involved. The companies under the Walker family name took a sudden turn for the worse.

Before the divorce hearing, Sophia held the child and threatened to vanish with the baby. Court security called the police. Officers and a crisis intervention team arrived at once. She was placed on a 72–hour psychiatric hold. Ethan then had his lawyer file for an emergency custody order. The court temporarily barred Sophia from contacting the child and froze her access to company

accounts.

As for my mother, she spent those years searching for me almost like a madwoman. When she could not reach me by phone, she asked people everywhere. Later, she even asked Sophia for help. Sophia lost patience and snapped at her.

“You’re the one who drove her away. Why are you pretending to be a good mother now?”

My mother said she had only done it to help her.

Sophia threw one sentence back at her.

“I never asked you to. You volunteered.”