Chapter 10
Yoseph’s POV
I loved Freya, but that love now seems painfully ironic.
Before the wedding, Sonia came with her parents and knelt before me, begging me to marry her, saying it would fulfill her dying wish. They praised my magnanimity, called me decisive, and assured me that Freya would understand my predicament.
In a moment of impulse, I agreed, forgetting that Freya had been making sacrifices her entire life.
Now she had to give up even her groom to someone else—what must she have felt?
I forgot that she also needed to be cherished, forgot the pain in her voice when she told me how her family always favored Sonia. I was scum, joining them in bullying the person I loved
most.
During our honeymoon at the beach, Sonia initiated embraces and kisses.
From the corner of my eye, I thought I glimpsed Freya’s figure.
Throughout the entire honeymoon, no matter how beautiful the scenery or delicious the food, I was distracted, everything tasting like ash.
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I decided to apologize to Freya as soon as I returned home. But when I came back to find the house empty, I panicked.
I had assumed Freya was angry with me, wanting me to coax her as usual, to humble myself and sincerely apologize. After so many days without hearing from her, I never imagined Freya would die, never thought my girlfriend of seven years would truly leave me.
When the police called, I prayed to God it wouldn’t be Freya.
But fate was cruel. Seeing that strand of hair, my heart turned to
ash.
The cold, decomposing body in the morgue drawer was my
fiancée.
When I left, she was still alive; when I saw her again, she had become a cold corpse.
I will never forgive myself. Learning from the police that Freya had been pregnant at the time–in that moment, I wished it was me lying there instead.
In the days that followed, Oscar and Sonia were arrested one
after another.
Only then did I learn her cancer was fake, but her desire to kill Freya was real.
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She used her pregnancy as an excuse to stay in the hospital, under constant police guard. I planned to go to the hospital and kill that menace, but I was caught in the act and detained for several months.
That autumn was Freya’s birthday. Standing before her grave, I wondered:
If I had firmly refused Sonia’s ridiculous request back then, would I have already won my beloved?
Would I have already met our unborn child?
Would I have already taken Freya on that beach trip she
wanted?
The Yoseph who once had eyes only for Freya had died with her in that rental apartment where we once struggled together in our youth.
The current Yoseph disgusts even myself.
Later, I lived each day in a daze.
The company went bankrupt too. I wanted to die every moment, but Freya’s parents were still alive. Having failed her, I couldn’t leave her parents without support.
After they passed away one by one, Sonia’s child was taken in
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