Am I really unworthy of happiness? Every time I think I’m finally getting the happiness I deserve, God always extinguishes my hopes.
I was in a trance for so long until the car came to a sudden halt. I was flung forward by inertia.
“Eve! Are you all right?” As Isabelle helped me back to my seat, she yelled at the driver, “Is this how you drive?”
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Goldstein. I had to avoid a car that was running the red light,” the driver apologized in fear.
“Are you hurt, Eve? Let me have a look.” Isabelle cupped my cheeks and scanned my face for injuries. Upon noticing the bump on my forehead, she ordered the driver to drive us to the hospital.
I recovered from my daze and grabbed Isabelle’s hand anxiously. “Mom, what went wrong? Why are Chris and I enemies now? I can’t lose him, Mom. I can’t!”
Isabelle’s expression darkened. Feeling dejected, she leaned backward. Her gaze started to turn cold, but she tried to keep her tone neutral when she saw how devastated I was. “Don’t blame me for being heartless, Eve. I have no objection to you marrying any man in this world. I will do anything to fulfill your wish, even if he does not want to marry you. But why does it have to be Christopher?”
“Why Christopher? I’m not afraid in the slightest even in the face of death as long as I can be with him. Why can’t I be happy just this time, Mom?” Unable to restrain my emotions any longer, I burst into tears.
Tears streamed down Isabelle’s face too. Not long after, she asked the driver to pull over. After lighting up a cigarette that she took out from her bag, Isabelle pressed it to her lips and began, “Julia and I used to be good friends years ago. You may not know this, but our family used to be one of the wealthiest. If not for what happened on that fateful day, we’ll still be doing fine.”
Dabbing my eyes with a handkerchief, she continued, “Your Uncle Robert was a genius. He was in charge of running the family business, and he certainly did an excellent job. If not for his passing, the Anderson family and the Goldstein family could have been equals. Alas, Julia murdered him.”
She pointed at a tall building outside the car window. “That’s Centurion Tower, a twenty-year-old building and the place where your uncle fell to his death. I know I don’t have the right to ask you for anything since I have never taken care of you all these years, but this is an exception. I can never agree to you and Christopher’s marriage.”
The car was soon full of the cigarette’s burned smell. “You can hate me all you want, but I will never agree to this marriage. I will not allow your uncle’s death to turn into a joke.”
Light rays from the setting sun cast themselves on the old building before me. I saw several construction workers preparing to demolish the dilapidated building.
Is Julia behind my uncle’s death at this building?
“What should I do, Mom?” I muttered while stumbling out of the car. I could hear Isabelle’s voice behind me vaguely, but I didn’t respond because right then I no longer had a destination in my life. All I could do was stumble forward aimlessly.
For a moment, the footsteps behind me sounded familiar. When I turned around, Christopher was just standing a few feet away from me. His gaze was full of worry, his thin lips were pursed, and his brows were knitted together with sorrow.
“Chris!” Tears rolled down my cheeks again, but this time I was smiling. Somehow, I could always see him whenever I turned around.
It then hit me that Christopher was such an important part of my life that I could afford to lose everything except for him. I might not know what happened in the past, but my experiences showed me that Christopher was more important to me than I was to myself.
I ran into his arms and sobbed, “What should I do, Chris? Why do these kinds of things keep happening to me? Why can’t we be together happily ever after?”
