I Said “I Do”… Then Woke Up at My Divorce Chapter 15

I Said “I Do”… Then Woke Up at My Divorce Chapter 15

Ethan Langford returned that afternoon.

He stood in the doorway.

He did not move closer.

“Ms. Mercer.”

Vivian’s fingers tightened.

Her breathing changed.

Ethan noticed.

He stopped at once.

“You don’t have to be afraid.”

“The doctor told me what happened.”

“If you don’t want me near you, I will stay here.”

Vivian studied his face.

It was almost exactly the same as Grayson’s.

But his eyes were different.

Grayson’s eyes were cold and narrow.

He always looked as if he were judging people.

Ethan’s eyes were warm and clear.

There was no anger inside them.

Vivian slowly relaxed.

“I’m sorry.”

“I thought you were someone else.”

Ethan did not ask questions.

He smiled.

“No harm done.”

“But you did break a flowerpot I had just planted.”

“When you feel better, you owe me a new one

Vivian blinked.

Then a small smile touched her mouth.

After that day, Ethan visited more often.

He never asked Vivian to explain her past.

On warm days, he sat with her in the garden.

Sometimes he brought books.

Sometimes he brought fresh flowers.

One day, Vivian asked him a question.

“Why do you keep coming?”

Ethan was cutting the end of a flower stem.

He paused.

“Because you still owe me that flowerpot.”

Vivian laughed softly.

Later, she learned that Ethan already knew what had happened to her.

The clinic director had told him enough to keep her safe.

Ethan never looked at her with pity.

He never told her to forget the past.

When Vivian became afraid, he stopped and waited.

When nightmares kept her awake, he sat outside her room until morning.

Sometimes she looked at him and thought she saw Grayson.

She would panic and push him away.

Ethan always stepped back.

“Vivian, look at me.”

“I’m not him.”

“I won’t hurt you.”

Little by little, he helped pull her out of the nightmare.

A year passed

Vivian’s body healed.

Her mind became steady again.

She left the clinic and rented a small house with a garden.

Ethan lived nearby.

They ate together.

They walked together.

Sometimes the clinic director teased them.

“Mr. Langford, are you here to take Ms. Mercer out again?”

Ethan never denied it.

Vivian no longer moved away from him.

One day, she looked at the calendar.

A date had been circled.

She became quiet.

Ethan followed her eyes.

“What is it?”

“It’s the anniversary of my parents’ deaths.”

For the people in this world, her parents had been dead for years.

But for Vivian, they had been alive on her wedding day.

They had smiled as she walked toward Grayson.

She had never visited their graves.

“I want to go back to Northgate.”

Ethan put down his cup.

“I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to.”

I need to return to the United States for work.”

His voice sounded casual.

“It’s on the way.”

Vivian looked at him.

She did not point out the weak excuse.

Three days later, they flew to Northgate.

Light rain fell over the cemetery.

Vivian knelt before her parents’ graves.

She placed white lilies below their photographs.

Her mother and father still smiled from the stone.

Vivian wiped rain from the names.

Tears finally fell.

“Dad, Mom, I’m sorry I came so late.”

Ethan stood behind her.

He held an umbrella over them.

He did not rush her.

After a long time, Vivian stood.

‘Let’s go.”

She turned.

Then she stopped.

Grayson stood in the rain.

He wore a black coat and held white lilies.

He looked thinner than he had one year earlier.

His eyes locked onto Vivian.

Shock and desperate hope filled his face.

The flowers fell from his hands.

“Vivian?”