This isn't fucking easy for me. Because unlike her, who doesn't remember me anymore, I remember everything.
I remember everything about us, each and every moment. For years, I watched everything. I watched as she forgot me and went with that man.
I watched as she forgot our promise. I watched as she forgotus.
I grip my chest harshly as more of my tears fall to the ground below. If I hadn't met her seven years ago, maybe I wouldn't be in pain like this.
But then, had I not met her, I wouldn't be who I am now.
I wouldn't be here.
???
Hallstatt, Austria. Winter, Seven Years Ago
Luke, Age 21
Cassie, Age 18
The air was freezing. The night had fallen. The view before me was magnificent—the hills, the mountain.
The lights from the village were reflected on the lake.
The calm water looked tempting.
My heart was dying.
All I could think about was my family. The car crash that had happened to Victor, my elder brother, and his lover, Emily, felt like a bullet in my heart.
It was a tragedy that had befallen my family. I'd lost my brother. Forever.
And all I could remember was his last words. His cries. That he was begging.
"Please, Luke, just take it," he rasped. "Why won’t you just take over the company? I’ve never wanted it. I don’t deserve it anyway."
At the time, I thought that I’d be robbing my brother of his right as the eldest heir and the successor of Klein Enterprise, so I didn't listen to him.
But if I'd done it, maybe our parents wouldn't have been that furious. Maybe Josephine wouldn't have pushed him even further.
Maybe Victor wouldn't have been trapped.
Maybe the car accident wouldn't have happened.
I stared at the water again.What am I doing here?
My family was collapsing. Their business was going downhill. We were on the verge of bankruptcy. We were hanging by a rope.
Are we all going to die?
I knew that I was running away. My mind needed to besomewhere else for me to forget. And out of all places in the world, I'd chosen this place, where my brother liked to spend time during winter. Painting.
"I'm not into business," Victor said. "You know where my passion is. But you're different, Luke. This is where you belong."
Fuck. The more I stared at the water, the more I was being hypnotized by it. If the air I was breathing was this freezing, I wondered how the water would feel on my skin. It might feel like a thousand needles.
"Do you want to swim or what?" A cheerful voice snapped me out of my daze.
I snapped my head, only to find a girl standing next to me, a blue scarf wrapped around her neck on top of her pink coat. She watched me with interest, a smile on her face. A pretty smile, I had to say. It soon vanished when she hiccupped.
