I Traveled Back Ten Years, Only to Witness His Love for Another Chapter 13

I Traveled Back Ten Years, Only to Witness His Love for Another Chapter 13

I returned to my villa.

Even from a distance, before I reached the gate, I could see the beautiful tulips lining the entrance.

Ethan had been waiting, crumpled in the dark.

The moment he saw me, he dropped quickly to one knee.

“Honey, I replaced the proposal flowers—with the ones you love. Will you marry me again?”

Why hadn’t he used tulips before?

I remembered: “It’s not the season,” he’d said.

Right—but a missed season is a missed season.

Blue roses or tulips—it didn’t matter.

I walked past him.

He shuffled on his knees to my side.

Feeling that wasn’t sincere enough, he switched to my full name and said it again: “Rachel Moore, I swear I’ll only love you from now on!”

I’d heard that before.

I wasn’t about to fall for the same trick twice.

I tried to go inside, but he, still on his knees, wrapped his arms around my waist.

—

I felt his tears soaking through my clothes, burning my skin—hot and salty, filling life with an endless tide of dampness.

How had eighteen-year-old Ethan treated my tears?

He’d ignored them, dismissed them, even pushed me to apologize to Lily.

So I pried his fingers off, one by one.

But he was too strong—the fingers I’d just pried open would close again.

We struggled for half an hour.

Finally, I asked: “When you were eighteen, did you meet a strange woman—your future wife?”

He lifted his face from my waist and looked up at me.

“How did you know? She was crazy. I don’t even remember what she looked like.”

Maybe it was the timeline protecting itself—he didn’t seem to recognize me.

I laughed, bitter. “It was me.”

To jog his memory, I slapped him again, imitating my earlier hysteria:

“Ethan! You bastard! I won’t go! Let go of me! Let go…”

The voices overlapped.

I saw the tremor in his eyes.

—

He let go, disbelief on his face, laughing and crying—then just crying.

“So that’s how it is. You’ll never forgive me.”

“That’s right,” I said, tilting my head to look at him. “I’ll never forgive you.”

His arms fell limply from my waist.

He buried his face in his hands, tears seeping through his fingers.

I didn’t watch.

I turned, opened the door, and slept soundly.