Chapter 3The Wait Never Ends

I hung up on Cillian without giving him time to respond.

As soon as I expressed my desire for a divorce, I felt a weight lift from my chest, a relief that had been a long time coming.

Then, I switched off my phone and tried to get some rest.

I ended up tossing and turning without being able to fall asleep. I figured it was because the sound of the train track was too loud.

That was when I heard a voice coming from the bed above me. “Hi, sorry for disturbing you.”

When I looked up, I met the curious eyes of a girl who looked only about eighteen or nineteen years old.

“I heard you mentioning something about getting a divorce.” She suddenly waved her hand apologetically as if she was afraid of causing a misunderstanding. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your call! I just happened to be awake because I couldn’t sleep.”

The panic in her eyes seemed honest enough. There was even a trace of concern within them.

“I’m a university student majoring in mass communication, and I happen to be doing a research project about marriage. Do you mind if I conduct a brief interview with you?”

She reached for her student ID from her bag and handed it to me.

Her name, Anna McBride, was written on the card.

Since she was looking at me expectantly, I agreed to it.

Since we were the only two people in the compartment, she climbed down from her bed and sat across from me.

When she looked at the ring I wore, she suddenly exclaimed, “I recognize that ring! An anonymous buyer won the bid for it at a grand auction four years ago. That was your husband?!

“He must love you if he spent such a fortune on a ring for you. Why are you getting divorced from him?”

When I met her puzzled gaze, I took off the ring and stated faintly, “Because this ring wasn’t originally meant for me.”

Cillian and I belonged to two drastically different worlds.

Back in university, he was well known as the son of the prestigious Newberry family. He had excellent grades in school and had good looks to boot. Everyone held him on a pedestal. It was no surprise that a lot of girls fawned over him.

Meanwhile, I was from a rural town who worked my way into a university in the capital.

My encounter with him was nothing beyond a coincidence.

I was on my way to class with a stack of books clutched over my chest when a stray basketball flew toward me out of nowhere.

When it struck me, my books scattered everywhere like feathers. I crouched down and clutched my shoulder in pain.

The person who was responsible for the incident did not apologize. Rather, he yelled at me, reasoning that I was in the way and that I should apologize to him.

His constant insults rang in my ears. I wanted to protest, but the excruciating pain left me without strength to speak at all.

That was when a shadow suddenly fell over me.

A glacial voice followed after.

“Does that mean you owe me an apology if I hit you?”

I looked up just in time to see Cillian slamming the basketball right against the man’s feet.

Flecks of sunlight filtered through the treetops, showering him in a halo of light.

I knew he was only helping me out of the goodness of his heart, that he could not stand the sight of a bully. There was no more to his motive other than that.

Still, I could not help but start to foster feelings for him since then.

Like many of his secret admirers, I began to keep an eye on news revolving around Cillian.

I watched as he graduated, then studied abroad. When he came home, he inherited the family business and got engaged to his childhood sweetheart who studied abroad with him.

On the day of his wedding, I brought a gift with me, as a way of putting an end to my puppy love.

When I met him, he was seated on the couch in the dressing room, his figure shrouded in shadow. There was an air of depression about him, which was nothing like what one would expect from someone about to get married.

Before I could even speak, Cillian looked up at me with an exhausted look in his eyes, and asked, “Margaret Hayes, will you marry me?”