Adrian put the call on speaker mode.
“Adrian, I really want to die right now. I just can’t help it. If you don’t come, I’ll jump,” Katelyn
said.
It seemed that she was up her same old tricks.
This was the move Katelyn had used before. Back then, Adrian left me alone on my birthday to rush to her side, only to be met with her leaping into his arms.
She said, “Gotcha! I just missed you, that’s all.”
I smiled at Adrian, waiting for his answer.
He then got to his feet and said, “Wendy, this will be the last time.”
And just like that, he left the restaurant, leaving only me and the dinner for two.
I smiled briefly, then picked up my cutlery and quietly started eating.
I wasn’t the least bit surprised that he would walk away. It was precisely because I knew that he would choose to leave me again that I dared to make such a bold promise.
I was going to Solaria, no matter what.
Before leaving the country, I blocked Adrian’s contact information. I also warned Celeste and a few trusted colleagues not to bring up anything about us again.
The conditions at the front line were brutal. Bombings came without warning.
I was relatively fortunate. A year in, and I was still alive.
But in a recent rescue operation, a shell exploded dangerously close to me.
A colleague lunged over and shielded me with his body. His phone flew out of his pocket and hit the ground, the screen shattering on impact.
“Hey? Hey! Wake up!” I frantically slapped his face.
Then, I saw the phone lying on the ground. The lock screen showed a photo I knew too well. I picked it up and stared at the screen in disbelief. It was a photo of Adrian and me that was taken on the day I woke up from passing out.
I tore off the man’s mask and heard myself cry out in disbelief, “Dr. Randall!”
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We were evacuated shortly after that. The organization temporarily withdrew from the conflict zone due to safety concerns.
That gave me a chance to exchange a few more words with Adrian.
The blast had wounded his back. I would probably have lost my eyesight if he hadn’t shielded
- me.
I was careful while treating his injury. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I couldn’t get used to living alone.”
I smiled but didn’t respond. After treating and wrapping his wound, I turned and walked away.
He quickly grabbed my wrist and begged, “Don’t go.”
He looked at me like there was an entire world between us. “Please stay with me. There’s so much I want to say to you.”
Instead of answering, I just tried to pull my hand away more firmly.
However, he wouldn’t let go. “Wendy, consider it as repayment for saving you, okay?”
I turned to him. His eyes were tinged red at the corners, and the look in them could only be described as desperation. It was a side of him I had never seen before.
I pulled over a chair and took a seat. “Talk. I’ve got another mission in ten minutes.”
“After you left, I kept making mistakes at work,” Adrian said, his thumb brushing the cracked screen of his phone.
“Every night, I would dream of you. You’d look exactly like in that photo we took. I think you were right. I sensed something at that moment, and that was why I took the picture.
“But at the time, I didn’t believe you’d really leave me. I mistook the feeling in that moment as guilt–driven compensation.”
His voice trembled slightly, and he took a deep breath to steady himself. “After you left, this photo was the only thing that kept me going. I lost count of how many times I cursed myself for not taking more pictures with you.
“But now I think that maybe if I hadn’t turned you down that day, you wouldn’t have left me at
all.”
I listened in silence.
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He looked at me and smiled at me faintly. “Actually, I’ve been here for a while now. But I never
dared to let you see me.”
