["If it's over only for you... Is it really over?"
Gerard's expression crumbled.
"Are you trying to abandon me again? You didn't give me a reason, and you're doing it again..."
Gerard's eyes were bloodshot red. He had only been with Chloe Roem for about two years, so why did he have to suffer continuously for six?
"..."
Chloe couldn't say anything. She realized she was selfish. She couldn't deny having hurt him because she had no memories of him by now.
However, it couldn't be avoided at that time. She couldn't explain or convince him about things that happened to her.
"I think I'm going to die at this rate."
She could tell him why this time. If she wanted to make him comfortable, telling him would be enough.
"I found a letter from Leila asking you to marry me. I thought everyone would look at me and say that I was a replacement for Leila, but when I found that even you thought of me that way... it became unbearable for me."
Chloe brought up the old past. That was not the reason she left him. However, she thought it'd be enough.
"No, Chloe. I don't mean..."
Gerard was taken aback by the unexpected statement. He took a step forward while making up an excuse.
However, Chloe also took a step back in return. Gerard could only stare at her helplessly.
"My Lady..."
"I'm sorry. At that time, I felt like I'd keep living like that."
Chloe apologized. However, it sounded more like a refusal than an apology.
"However, I... I don't want to go back. So, can you just pretend you never met me here? I'll beg if I must."
When Chloe pleaded, Gerard seemed to lose his strength. He already sensed that she had no desire to be in a relationship with him.
What should he do?
Should he take that repugnant Moore as a hostage and threaten her with his life ? Or should he take the child away to make sure she wouldn't leave his side?
Should he lock her up in the Blanchett's estate and tell her to wait for him in her room? He could cry and beg, but she wouldn't even bat an eye at him.
Gerard felt a strange obsession creep up within him.
"...You think I'm going to let go?"
Those bloodshot red eyes were staring straight at Chloe. A single tear trickled down his cheek. She couldn't see it properly because his hand covered his face right away.
"Let me go. It's not my place to be by your side."
"Ha, that's what you want to think."
Gerard murmured coldly.
"No, I know it's not my place, but I was greedy..."
However, such a tranquil confession was able to relieve his seething cruelty at once.
"I loved you so much."
It was a cruel remark because she used past tense, and Gerard felt as if his throat tightened at the sight of tears in Chloe's eyes.
"..."
He wished she'd screamed at him while expressing her disapproval of his idea. She could've been as cruel as she wanted to be.
"I'm both sorry and grateful."
However, her sincerity left Gerard unable to do anything more than this.
"I sincerely hope you are happy."
Chloe gave Gerard a last greeting. She turned around and walked away as if she had no lingering feelings for him.
"Chloe..."
Gerard couldn't hold onto Chloe, who was getting further away. He knew there was no use in holding her back at this point. He had to stand motionlessly in his spot and watch Chloe going to another man. It was the ending of someone who was still trapped in the past. Chloe Roem had moved on from Chloe Blanchett and became Claudia Diaz.
He was still holding onto the one and only Chloe Roem.
He was bound to lose her.
***
Meanwhile, Chloe returned in haste. Her eyes immediately landed on Herace with Abel in his arms.
She felt like she could ask him to come with her somehow.
"Oh..."
And she realized that it was all over.
It took a long time until she could completely get rid of Gerard Blanchett, who was buried in the back of her heart.
Chloe's eyes welled up with tears, but she decided not to cry. She simply decided to be grateful for the time she was able to spend with him and for Abel, who was made through their time together.
Not at all love could have a happy ending. Therefore, she loved him with all her heart, and the memories of the pain she endured was enough.
It was time to get rid of the lingering feelings and moved on with her life. The wind gently nudged her from the back, as if cheering for Chloe's future.]
Tak.
He finally came to the last page.
The seemingly endless story came to an end.
Whether Chloe arrived safely in the East, leaving with Herace, or whether Gerard changed his mind and ran after her again.
There was no such thing. It just ended with Chloe getting rid of Gerard completely from her mind.
As if it was enough for Chloe to leave him and move forward with her life.
"No, no..."
Unlike Gerard inside the book, who was too set and didn't do anything, Gerard, who was reading the book, cried and begged her.
"Don't do this, my Lady. Please don't abandon me..."
He would have to let her go if he truly loved her, if he truly cared about her, and so on.
It was because he got too emotionally invested in Chloe.
As a result, Gerard treated himself in the book like a different person. It was his desire to deny that he was the one who gave her a hard time. Foolishly.
"Crazy b*st*rd. Hypocrite. Don't let her go."
And he felt complacent upon knowing that she didn't completely sort out her feelings towards him.
However, as soon as the book came to an end, an eerie feeling crept up to him. He woke up to reality as if he had fallen into an ice lake.
"Hurry up and hold her back!"
Gerard shouted at himself in the book.
However, he was motionless in the book. Gerard ended up going after Chloe, who was walking further away from him.
"I was wrong. Chloe... Please don't abandon me, I beg you."
"..."
However, Chloe only moved on without seeing Gerard beside her. And there her fate awaited.
He was so terrified, holding on to her and their son.
"I can't live without you. Don't go, please?"
Gerard reached out for Chloe. However, a transparent wall divided them.
"Chloe! Chloe Blanchett!"
Gerard called Chloe desperately.
However, Chloe never spared a single glance at Gerard. She simply flashed a faint smile at Herace and Abel.
"It's my fault... I will do my best. I'll do well so you won't have a hard time, can I do that?"
"..."
The scene of them together ripped his heart to shreds. His eyes were bloodshot, and his lips were torn, having been bitten many times.
Eventually, the illusion disappeared.
"No! Don't go! Darling!"
Gerard hit his hands against the transparent wall. He seemed to intend to break his own fist.
However, the illusion and light gradually disappeared despite his despair, and Chloe vanished from his sight.
"No... Come back..."
The darkness that engulfed Gerard emitted a strange fear.
Fear. It was unfamiliar for him, having been looked down on in many ways from birth. As he grew up, he wasn't afraid of his father's discipline at a certain age.
Not when his father died, when he cut off his relationship with his mother, when Leila left him, or when he was in a battlefield where life and death were at stake. Even when a knife was stuck in his stomach.
He had never felt this way before.
"Huff..."
Gerard hid in the darkness and cried his heart out. He couldn't bear the surging emotions without crying.
He thought about the despair and sorrow Chloe had to feel in the book. The betrayal and pain that Gerard had to feel. Actually, it was entirely caused by Gerard.
It was such a traumatizing experience that it wouldn't be strange if Gerard had fainted in the midst of it, but the dream didn't allow him to run away. Due to that, Gerard's reasoning was barely intact.
The emotions that he had to feel vividly from beginning to end were really ruthless.
"Chloe, I really..."
He only muttered a few words after going through it all.
"I love you."
Why was he so stupid?
It was frustrating because his mind was clear only after going through everything.
He couldn't live without Chloe.
He was sorry.
But he couldn't even tell her to move on and live happily ever after.
'Stay with me. I can't let you go, so please stay with me.'
It was his innermost thoughts. The thoughts he had been hiding from his wife all this time.
'I'll willingly bear more pain so that you won't. I'll work harder so you won't have a hard time. So, please...'
However, he couldn't do anything, even if he acted selfish and childish. He didn't want to lose Chloe by rushing things.
"Just once... Give me one more chance."
Gerard prayed desperately with a strained voice.
"Give me back my Chloe."
At that moment, the book shone in the total darkness. It seemed as if the book was sucking up the darkness surrounding it.
The book began to flip through the pages backwards.
Gerard looked up at the book, a complete mess. However, after adapting to the darkness for a while, his eyes couldn't see the shining object properly.
When he frowned, trying to grasp the situation, the book went back to the first page.
[In the middle of the darkness where she couldn't see anything, Chloe woke up.]
It was the same scene where Chloe tore up the book before she returned to the past. That scene was in the first chapter of the book.
Thud.
And the book was completely closed after that.
"!"
It was the moment when Gerard's eyes were able to look at the front cover of the book after adapting to the shining light. Some words began to engrave themselves in the place where the title was supposed to be.
However, his mind went blank before he could finish reading it.
It was time to wake up from this dream.