Till Death Do Us Part

Chapter 10 - You Only Live Once

I once wrote a bucketlist when I was in college. With my parents' wealth, things on my bucketlist that money could buy were quickly ticked off. Sky diving in Dubai? I did that. Eating at the hanging restaurant in Belgium? Done that. Seeing aurora? Several times already. Safari in Africa to see the Big Five*? Ha. Twice.

Things that proved to be difficult to fulfill, and took a long time, were actually things that couldn't be bought with money. For example: visiting all countries in the world. You didn't just need money to do that, but also time.

Falling in love, getting married, and becoming a bestselling writer were the three of my bucketlist that took the longest time to tick off. I fell in love at the age of 24, I got married at the age of 25, and became a famous writer at the age of 30.

You only live once, but if you do it right ... once is enough.

***

I always liked autumn in New York. I kept many good memories in this city since I was in university. Central Park in autumn was a magical place, and now it almost felt like home to me.

To calm myself down after the incident at UWRF, I flew to New York. The first week, it was so hard for me to leave the hotel, but then the weather became sunny, and the sparrows singing from outside the window invited me to step into Central Park.

When I took Andrea to Central Park for the first time for our first anniversary, it was also sunny like this. We sat on a picnic blanket and accompanied by a bottle of wine and a few slices of the famous New York 1-dollar pizza. I read a book, trying to find inspiration while Andrea did a bug testing on the new security system that he was about to launch.

After getting bored reading the book, I would take a pizza slice and some bread and feed the swans in the nearby lake. Andrea would catch up with the second slice of pizza. After feeling satisfied to see the swans all full and happy, we would walk hand in hand to my favorite coffee shop in Central Park West.

Today, I could not help crying when walking alone over to the lake and took out the pizza from a paper bag to give to the swans that immediately approached me.

The memories from that day flashed before my eyes and made my tears flowed down slowly. I was ashamed because I didn't count my blessings. I had fallen in love, I got married to the love of my life, and became a famous writer. Most of my wishes, those that could be bought with money, or those that not, had been fulfilled.

I sat down and sobbed by burying my face in my hands. Many people thought of me as the girl who had everything because of my wealthy background, but they didn't know how I felt so poor because all I had was money.

"Ludwinaa .. !! Winaa ... !!" suddenly a voice called from afar, "Ludwinaaa ..!!"

I must be dreaming.

That's Andrea's voice.

I looked up at the sound coming. From behind my tears, I saw a glimpse of a man running closer. He wore a long gray coat and ran with all his might towards me.

"Winaa ..."

Finally, the owner of the voice arrived before me, he was panting, and his face looked drained, "Wina... Honey..."

I recognized the man immediately. Inwardly, I thought I must be dreaming. This was Andrea's voice and Andrea's scent. This was Andrea's body.

But there's no way he was really here ... Andrea was in London!

He hugged me very firmly.

"I came as soon as I knew ..." he said softly. He hugged me for a long time. "My American visa has expired ... The new visa application took one week, and I came here directly from the airport. I'm sorry I can only come now ... I'm sorry ..."