The Promise He Never Remembered Chapter 10

The Promise He Never Remembered Chapter 10

## Clara Bennett’s POV

The sun in Hawaii is perfect.

I walked barefoot on the warm sand, the wind blowing my hair into a mess, and I didn’t care. I’d been here for three days, spending every day with Toby as he dug in the sand, picked up shells, and chased the waves. I didn’t think about anything. I didn’t need to think about anything.

“Mommy! Mommy, look!” Toby ran ahead, holding up a starfish, laughing so hard his eyes disappeared. “It’s still moving!”

“Slow down, don’t fall,” I called after him, but I didn’t run.

He ran far ahead, squatted down to put the starfish back in the water, then went after a small crab scuttling across the wet sand. That little back, running around in the sunlight, looked like a bird finally let out of a cage. Watching him, the corners of my mouth rose without my knowing.

“Hi.”

A man’s voice came from beside me. I turned. A tall man stood two steps away, tan skin, white linen shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, sunglasses on his face, smiling naturally.

He took off his sunglasses, showing a pair of warm brown eyes, and stepped closer: “Alone? Interested in a drink? The piña coladas at that bar over there are fantastic.”

I looked at him, then at Toby in the distance, and gave a polite smile:

“Thanks, but I don’t drink.”

He was a bit surprised, probably not used to being turned down. He followed my look to Toby, nodded, and put his sunglasses back on: “Sorry to bother. Enjoy your day.”

Then he left without pushing. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at my footprints in the sand—one set, just mine.

In the past, when I went out, I would walk slower without thinking, waiting for the person who never caught up. Now I don’t have to. I can walk as fast as I want, as far as I want.

Looking up, I suddenly noticed quite a few people on the beach looking at me. A blonde woman in a bikini raised her glass to me with a friendly smile. A few young people sunbathing in the distance also looked over from time to time.

I was surprised. I looked down at myself—just a simple white dress with a thin cover-up over it, nothing special. I touched my face, feeling like laughing.

Maybe the reason they were looking at me was something I didn’t even realize myself—the string that had been tight for ten years had finally loosened.

Four years pining in secret, six years in a hollow marriage. I waited for one person for ten whole years. Waited for him to turn around, to see me, to keep that drunken promise he didn’t even remember making. In the end, all I got was a cold pizza and the reflection of him holding another woman on a Ferris wheel.

But standing here now, with the sea breeze blowing, the sun shining, and Toby laughing not far away—I suddenly felt it was worth it.

Those years weren’t wasted. Because I waited, I learned that it’s not worth waiting any longer. Sometimes, you have to let go. Being held back by one person for too long is meaningless.

I brushed my hair back and walked toward Toby. He was squatted in front of a sand hole, completely absorbed in pouring water into it, talking to himself.

“Mommy, look at the moat I dug!” He looked up, his face covered in sand, smiling to show the gap where his two front teeth were missing.

I squatted down and wiped the sand off the tip of his nose: “Very nice. Better than the ones I used to dig.”

He gave a proud “hmph” and went back to digging.

I looked up at the endless sea. The sky was very blue, the clouds very white, the world very big. I still have a long way to go.

Walking alone is fine too.