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Although I didn’t look like the girl he remembered,althought I WAS crude,greedy,lustful and vulgar.It didn't matter.
That pork matched his memory.The rest,he could fool himself into not thinking too much.
Maybe I lingered too long in the bathroom,or Ethan was too eager to prove his feelings.
He knocked repeatedly,then came in held me tightly.
His faint woody scent,meant to calm,felt invasive with his ambiguous moves.
Unspoken desire—he waited for me to fall for him,a seasoned player.
"First time I saw you,I wanted you so bad."
"Isn't this fate,from when we were kids?"
"Let me heal your scars with love,they were my scars too,okay?"
I took off my clothes.Ethan flinched at the sight of my scars.
He threw up.My fine dinner all going to waste—better fed to dogs.
Like a gentleman,he asked for time.Our dynamic rekindled.
A year later,Ethan got his master's degree.I followed him to another country for his Ph.D.
No one dared order me around now.They called me"Miss Wendy"respectfully.
Ethan treated me like a delicate flower,hiring top doctors for my scars,funding treatments.
He taught me etiquette,tutored me,showed me how to savor things that didn’t belong to me.
He molded me into someone unlike me,more like my sister as a child.
"This place has the world's prettiest mountains, they’re even more beautiful when covered in snow,Wendy.Like it?"
"Being pretty doesn't mean earning money."
"..."
"Wendy,I'm sorry for freaking out that day.Next Wednesday,I'll let the mountains witness my love."
"You're good at moving yourself."
"..."
I shrugged,telling him to cash out the gift.He raised a fist,fuming.
Ethan planned everything,but I vanished.
Meanwhile,back home,Jessica was arrested the moment she got off the plane for drug use.
At the Harper estate,my parents were surrounded by security.Not their first theft,but this time,they couldn't explain why the Harper Group's key files were found among their loot.
Two months later,Ethan found Caleb,swinging a punch.
Caleb fought back,the two got into a heated in River City's downtown.
"Where'd you hide her,you snake?"
"Give Wendy back!I can't live without her.Caleb,I’m ordering you!"
Ethan broke,kneeling,sobbing.
"Wendy's gone.You knew it,didn't you?"
"Ethan,if I were you,I'd cherish every moment with her,not ignore her pain and pretend all's well."
Her pain?
Ethan squinted,recalling.Six months ago,Wendy grew lazy.
Lying on chairs,clutching her stomach,barring anyone from touching her room's trash.
What?
Gone?
Something churned in his gut.He felt sticky liquid trickling down the corner of his mouth.He wiped with his hand—blood.He collapsed on the pavement.
Ethan thought he'd wake in a hospital.Instead,the noise of a bustling night marketwoke him.
Laborers and cleaners passed,faces bright,steps light.
"Thanks to that girl,we've been eating free for months.Heard this shop's staying open."
"I miss little Wendy.Why's her life so hard?I'd take all her pain.Why’s god so unfair!"
Ethan,teary,approached a shop called"Two Little Wendy Sisters,"spotting a familiar figure.
