Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Once cremated, he would never see the woman before him again.
Peter leaned gently against the mortuary cooler.
“We haven’t properly said goodbye yet. You can’t cremate her so easily.”
The staff member sighed.
“Six PM is the absolute deadline. We must send Ms. Lee into the furnace. Please… bid her farewell.”
With that, he shook his head and left.
Alone in the funeral chapel, only Peter’s faint breaths broke the silence.
Through the glass, his fingers traced Kim’s features in the air.
“Kim, we grew up together. You know me better than anyone. How could you end us so abruptly?”
“As children, you’d chase after me calling ‘Peter! Peter!’ Why won’t you call me now?”
“Kim… three years. Why did you never reach out?
Do you know I waited for your call every single day?”
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Clatter. Kim’s phone slipped from his pocket onto the floor.
When Peter picked it up, her lock screen photo appeared-a couple’s portrait taken when they’d made their relation- ship official.
In the picture, Kim gazed at him with crescent-moon eyes sparkling like starlight.
Now those eyes would never open again.
Peter entered his own birthday. The phone unlocked with a click.
Seeing the unchanged passcode, Peter finally broke down.
“Kim… if you still loved me, why did you leave me?”
When setting passwords years ago, they’d vowed: “We’ll only change these when our love dies.”
Her unchanged code meant her love never faded.
Peter covered his eyes, sobbing until his shoulders shook.
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10:20
Chapter 9
The sun dipped below the horizon. Six o’clock approached.
Staff returned to move the body. Peter wiped his eyes.
“Can you delay this just a little longer?”
They shook their heads. “Mr. Jackson, Ms. Lee arranged everything herself. Please don’t make this harder.”
They’d already granted him until six. No more extensions.
“She planned this?”
Kim had orchestrated her own farewell.
Peter clutched the phone, heart cracking like shattered glass.
Soon they wheeled Kim toward the cremation chamber.
Peter silently carried her funeral portrait through the entire process.
Only then did he discover she’d even prepared her own gravesite.
Raindrops fell like knives upon his skin.
He stood drenched before her tombstone all night.
This felt like a nightmare. If he endured it, would he wake to find her beside him again?
Footsteps approached through the downpour.
“Peter Jackson, what on earth took you to the Alpine Mountain Range?”
He turned to face Samantha.
“I was keeping a three-year promise.”
Kim’s promise. One he’d ultimately failed to fulfill.
Three years after their breakup, they’d pledged to reunite amid the Alpine snowscapes.
But this agreement ended up costing Kim Lee her life.
Samantha Wright looked at Peter Jackson’s reddened eyes, biting her lower lip.
“So
you didn’t specifically take me to Alpine Mountain Range back then?”
Peter nodded, “Right.”
He’d been furious that Kim had blocked him for three whole years after their breakup.
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Every day since the split, he’d sent her dozens of Facebook messages, only to be met with that red exclamation mark.
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10:20
Chapter 9
At first, he thought she was just angry he hadn’t stood by her. But as days turned to weeks, he realized seriously.
Three full years of being blocked. On a whim, he’d brought Samantha to the gathering.
He wanted to make Kim jealous. Instead, things spiraled into something he never imagined.
Samantha gave a bitter laugh. “Then who have you loved these past two years?”
