Chapter 66 A Message After Four Years.
Chapter 66 A Message After Four Years.
She didn’t like adding strangers on chat apps.
But her conversations with James had felt almost magical.
Though they’d never met, it was like they were kindred spirits.
So even after realizing she had added the wrong person, she never deleted him.
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That is—until over four years ago, when James vanished as if off the face of the earth. No matter how many messages she sent, he never replied.
She figured James just didn’t want to keep in touch. After all, they’d only ever known each other online. Who would genuinely treat an internet friend as a confidant?
Only her. Because there were so few people in her life who treated her kindly, she had truly come to cherish James as a friend.
Still, people have to move forward. Even if she felt a quiet emptiness from losing that friendship, she wouldn’t let herself stay trapped in the past.
Most people had switched to using WhatsApp and uninstalled Instagram.
But maybe because a small part of her still held onto hope, she never deleted Instagram. Even when she got a new phone, it was the first app she reinstalled.
She never imagined that after all these years, James–the friend she’d once considered her closest–would really reach out again.
And what she didn’t expect at all was that the first thing he said… was “I’m sorry.”
To be honest, when she first lost contact with James, she had blamed him.
Because during those three months they kept in touch, they’d called each other best friends–promised they’d be lifelong friends.
But when the Ginger family turned on her–every single one of them–hurting her, isolating her during her most painful and hopeless days, every message she sent him went unanswered.
Even when she called him, he never picked up.
She’d thought that after such a sudden disappearance, she’d resent him when he came back. That she wouldn’t want to talk to him.
But as she looked at his message now, all that resentment and blame seemed to dissolve in an instant- replaced by gratitude and relief.
He was alive. James was still in this world.
Over the past four years, she’d imagined so many worst–case scenarios.
She had been afraid–truly afraid–that something terrible had happened to James and that he had
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Chapter 66 A Message After Four Years
disappeared from the world forever.
But he was alive. Her dear friend was still alive.
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Lily was still dazed when another message from him came in: “I didn’t mean to stop talking to you.”
“Over four years ago, I ran into some really bad stuff… that’s why I cut off contact. Things are better now. I won’t disappear again.”
“Leila, how have you been all these years?”
How had she been… all these years?
Lily didn’t reply right away.
Her thoughts drifted far, far away.
The four and a half years she’d lost contact with him… had not been kind.
The Ginger family had found their biological daughter. The adoptive parents who once cherished her began belittling and resenting her.
The brothers who had once fiercely protected her now treated her like an enemy and led the charge in bullying her.
At her lowest point, John had pulled her out of the dark. She had run to him with everything she had, laid her heart bare–only to be repaid with betrayal.
These past four and a half years felt like she had lived through several lifetimes of hardship.
Still, Lily wasn’t the kind of person to spread negativity. After a moment’s hesitation, she typed, “I’ve been doing okay these past few years. How about you?”
After sending the messages, James–usually composed and unshakable–found himself strangely nervous.
He knew how much it hurt to disappear without a word.
And he was scared–scared that Leila wouldn’t want to talk to him anymore.
But seeing her reply, those two simple sentences, he finally felt his tense heart settle.
The cold around him seemed to melt in a rush of spring wind.
As if frost on a mountaintop thawed in an instant, and spring bloomed across the landscape.
And that spring light poured into his eyes. The chill in his usually distant gaze began to soften.
What he really wanted to know was… had she gotten married? Started a family?
Four and a half years was a long time. Anything could have happened.
All his life, he had always been brave–fearless, even.
But when it came to feelings, even the brave hesitate. A few simple words suddenly became so hard to say
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Chapter 66 A Message After Four Years
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He clenched his phone tight and stood frozen for a long while before finally typing, “Did you… already get. married?”
Huh?
Lily froze for a moment.
She hadn’t expected James to ask something like that out of the blue.
But thinking about it, it wasn’t strange at all. They were old friends who hadn’t talked in years–asking about school, work, love… it was totally normal.
Even at class reunions, everyone talks like they’re trying to do background checks.
She instinctively started to type that she was married.
But then she remembered what James had said earlier–he didn’t want anyone outside the Luke family to know about their relationship–so she deleted the words she had typed and wrote something else instead: “No.”
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t really a lie.
After all, her relationship with James was just a marriage on paper. In six months, they’d be getting a divorce.
Besides, he’d just said that even during those six months, they wouldn’t interfere in each other’s lives. Which clearly meant he could go find other women if he wanted.
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