Page 31 of Neptune

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LUKE

I stand at the back patio of my house, since I can't go back to my bedroom. My heart feels like it’s being sliced continuously, my soul empty.

Even though it's dark out here with just a few lights from the garden lamps, I can still see the gerbera daisies in my garden.

They are her favorite flowers, which I’ve planted all these years, just for the sake of seeing her smile again when she saw them.

All this time, I've been waiting for her to come back to me. And she's finally here. Cassie . My Cassie. Now my wife, whom I love so much.

My throat hurts so fucking bad, and the single tear that falls onto my cheek startles me. I collapse onto my knees, my eyes squeezing shut as a soft cry leaves my lips.

My shoulders shaking, I bury my face in my hands.

I couldn't bear seeing her with that man again.

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 forgot us .

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 be somewhere 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.

"I'd like to see you try." She grinned sheepishly, and I realized that she wasn't completely sober.

Is she...tipsy?

"Then maybe I could join you," she said. "I want to swim too. It's been a long time since I did that."

I looked at the water and then at her again. Did she think that I was going to jump into the water? And that she would follow me afterward?

Did she think that it was a fucking beach?

Alright. She's way more than tipsy than I thought.

We stared at each other, and I was drowning. Not in the lake, though, but in her eyes. They were chocolate, nothing special.

But why couldn't I stop staring?

She laughed, spinning around, her arms wide open as she looked at the sky. "Look. It's raining," she exclaimed, her eyes filled with excitement.

It's snowing, you fool.

My heart cursed in irritation at the girl who had just bothered me. The first snowflake fell on her nose as she closed her eyes, her smile now ear to ear, and she whirled around like some snowman in a Disney movie—I forgot his fucking name.

I thought that I'd just met the stupidest drunken girl I'd ever encountered in my life.

But at the same time, I was no longer wondering about the lake. The water.

Little did I know that after that, I would never ever wonder about it again.

My eyes were still locked on her when she stopped twirling, looking at me with confusion crossing her expression.

"So, you're not going to swim?" she asked with a cute pout on her face. "Fine, then. I'll just go." With that said, she turned on her heels, swaying as she walked off.

Weird girl. But then again, she wasn't sober, so I couldn't blame her.

I rolled my eyes, throwing my gaze back to the lake even though my mind wasn't there anymore. I snapped my head back toward the girl, who was walking slowly, the sound of her hiccups fading out.

Right. I didn't have to think about how she was going to walk alone to God knows where in her current drunken state in the middle of the night.

I could care less about her. She might indeed be crazy even if she were sober. I mean, why would a young girl walk alone unconsciously in a random country during a freezing night like this?

Judging by her accent when she'd spoken before, she was an American.

I looked away again. A few seconds of silence filled my mind before I cursed under my breath.

Shit .

I rushed to follow her. Such trouble . Did she think that she could just walk away while still disturbing my mind like this?

Such a stupid girl might only invite stupid men to do stupid things to her.

Just as I expected, a few steps ahead, two guys who were walking down the street holding beers spotted her and looked at each other with a knowing look.

They followed her, and my jaw tightened as I quickened my pace. Before they could step farther to get close to her, I threw them a menacing glare that made them abruptly stop in their tracks.

They backed off, and only after they turned on their heels did I turn to the girl again. She hummed, swaying as she walked farther, having no idea what was happening around her.

Quietly, I resumed my steps to follow her.

She walked until she stopped in front of a building. I looked up to find what seemed to be a cheap motel. She got inside, and I pushed through the door too, still following her.

The owner of the motel stared at me with suspicion, while my eyes followed the girl until she reached her room on the ground floor. She opened it, and once I heard her lock the door, I sighed in relief.

Ignoring the stare from the motel owner who might have been thinking that I was some kind of creepy stalker, I walked off.

While I was heading back to the house Victor had bought to stay in almost every winter, I couldn't help but curse under my breath again.

What a stupid and troublesome girl. I hoped that I wouldn't encounter her again.