Chapter 2

My best friend didn’t know much about what happened between Damien and me.

She only knew that shortly after we got married, I had an accident and it was connected to him.

After I fell into a coma, she came to visit me almost every day.

But she never once saw Damien there.

“That kind of man isn’t worth it!” she said over the phone. “I warned you back then. He already had someone else in his heart. Chasing him was only going to hurt you.”

“And look what happened. You chased him for four years, got married, and then almost lost your life!”

I put her on speaker and gave a few vague replies while continuing to scroll through my phone.

Since I loved keeping records, there had to be something about my past with Damien.

Sure enough, I found an encrypted folder named “DA.”

Was DA his initials? What was the password?

I had no idea.

I sighed and decided to let it go for now.

...

After a few weeks of rehabilitation, I could finally walk again.

I couldn’t wait to leave the hospital and go home.

I sent Damien tons of messages, but he never replied.

Following the address he gave me, I finally arrived at our house.

The large living room was completely silent.

Everything was decorated in cold, plain gray tones. There wasn’t a single warm color anywhere.

The whole place felt strongly like a man’s space, more like Damien’s private home than a place we shared together.

Using everything I had learned about his likes from my phone, I decided to redecorate.

I spent the entire afternoon adding plants and new furniture.

When I was done, the house finally felt a little warmer and more alive.

No matter what happened in the past, I still wanted to follow my heart.

I wanted to make this marriage work.

I waited excitedly for Damien to come home.

But when he finally walked through the door late at night, he froze. His brows pulled together tightly.

“Aurora Quinn, what is all this mess? What are you doing?”

“You’re not a little kid anymore. Stop being so childish.”

I looked around the room and felt a wave of hurt.

“But… I arranged everything according to your taste…”

Before I could finish, Damien turned around without even taking off his coat and walked right back out.

The loud bang of the door closing made the pictures on the wall shake.

I stood there, frozen, for a long time.

Staring at his photo on my lock screen, I tried hard to hold back my sadness and whispered to myself,

“In the past… did I chase you for so long just to be treated this coldly?”

“Never mind… it’s okay. Married couples are supposed to be understanding with each other…”

I calmed myself down and decided to keep trying.

Over the next few days, I did everything I could to spend time with Damien.

I learned that he often worked late at the company, so I made cute lunch boxes with love and brought them to him.

But he didn’t even look at me. He treated me like a stranger and walked straight to the corner.

He sat down with Chloe Kane, who arrived right after me.

They shared the same bowl of food and talked happily together.

When I heard his company was organizing a group hiking trip and family members could join, I trained hard for several days and bought full professional hiking gear.

I waited excitedly at the bottom of the mountain.

But Damien only gave me a cold glance, then quickly walked off with Chloe down another path.

I stood there alone, feeling completely lost.

The next day, I bombarded him with messages.

Damien finally came home.

We didn’t talk much, but I was still really happy.

Late that night, I saw his new social media post saying he was craving “the old taste again.”

After searching my notes for a long time, I finally understood — he wanted the small, hidden ice cream shop from our university days.

I got up in the middle of the night, went out, and bought it for him.

I offered it to him like a gift, but he impatiently waved it away.