After 999 Nights, He Said We Were Never Together Chapter 21

After 999 Nights, He Said We Were Never Together Chapter 21

Sophie hadn’t allowed herself to let loose in a long time, so she drank several glasses at the pajama party.

After an intense pillow fight, her excitement reached ridiculous heights. She was cheerful enough to greet

every stray cat she saw.

The mood lasted until the party ended.

After walking the final two heavily intoxicated neighbors home, Sophie hummed to herself on the way back.

From a distance, she saw a blurred figure standing by her front door with a box in his hands.

It was late, and her birthday was already over.

Who could still be visiting?

When she drew closer and recognized the face, her smile vanished. Her voice turned cold.

“What are you doing here?”

Ryan caught the change in her expression. A nearly invisible flash of pain crossed his eyes, and his voice came out hoarse.

“Happy birthday, Sophie.”

She didn’t answer.

Without looking at him, she walked to the door, unlocked it, and started inside.

Ryan assumed she hadn’t heard him and called her name again.

“Sophie, happy birthday. I brought you a gift.”

His voice carried into the house. Helen called from the living room.

“Who is it? Sophie, are you home?”

Sophie didn’t want her parents to know Ryan was there, so she answered quickly.

“It’s me. I’m getting some air. I’ll be inside in a minute.”

Only then did she turn back to him and state her position plainly.

“I don’t want it.”

The light in Ryan’s eyes slowly went out.

Still, he forced a smile and kept trying.

“I know you don’t want to see me. But I promised that I’d give you a present every year on your birthday. I

don’t want to break that promise. Please take it.”

As he spoke, he opened the box.

A brilliant gemstone necklace lay inside.

Sophie stared at it in silence for a long time.

On her sixteenth birthday, her parents had given her a necklace.

When Ryan saw it, he excitedly told her that his family owned a similar one, supposedly an heirloom.

Afraid she wouldn’t believe him, he had gone home, brought it back, and held it up with a smug grin.

“Mine is much prettier than yours, isn’t it? But don’t get any ideas. My mother is saving this for her future daughter-in-law. You can only look.”

At the time, Ryan talked about Isabelle constantly.

Sophie believed he was warning her that he didn’t like her and that they could never be together.

The feelings she hadn’t yet confessed disappeared into the deepest part of her heart.

Even later, when they shared a bed and he whispered endless intimate words, making her heart race over and over, she never dared tell him she had loved him for years.

She always remembered the careless smile on his face as he raised the necklace and the certainty in his

voice.

Seeing it again left her briefly dazed.

There was memory in the feeling, but no longing.

She stepped back, widening the distance between them. Her voice was soft but unwavering.

“Stop doing things that mean nothing, Ryan. We ended a long time ago. I won’t accept this necklace or

anything else you ever try to give me.”

Then she turned toward the house without slowing.

A bleak autumn wind swept past, and Ryan shivered.

He watched her retreating figure and felt as though something were being pulled out of his body.

All the frustration and pain he had suppressed finally collapsed and poured free.

“What do I have to do for you to forgive me? We’ve known each other for more than twenty years. Are you really going to cut me out of your life forever?”

“Sophie, no matter how many cruel things you say, I won’t give up. I’ll prove that you’re the only person in my

heart. You’re the only woman I’ll ever want.”

He shouted until his voice broke.

Sophie never looked back.