Chapter 3

For a moment, I drifted into the past.

Once, she had treated me the same way.

During the worst period of my life, nightmares kept me awake night after night.

Natalie would hold me and whisper the same reassurances again and again.

I knew too well what Natalie looked like when she loved someone. One glance was enough to tell me she loved somebody else now.

I stood.

Without hesitation, I dumped the entire box of cards into the trash.

Then someone wrapped both arms around my leg from behind, and Caleb's drunken voice floated up to me.

"If you're Nat's cousin, then you're family to me too. Daniel, you can trust me to take care of her.

"I love her so much. We started dating three years ago, on May eighteenth.

"We agreed that we would get married after the first snow this year.

"Then we'll start trying for a baby. Nat never wanted children, but she changed her mind because I do.

"Oh, and the cats. She's so busy, but she takes wonderful care of all my cats. Wait, I haven't fed them. I need to go home..."

I had already decided to let her go, yet the words still made my heart jerk painfully.

While I had been working in silence to build our future, she had already built another life with him.

They had started dating on May eighteenth, the day I was hospitalized after being hit by a car while buying Natalie's favorite dessert.

"There, there. We'll take care of the cats. You're drunk, sweetheart. Come back upstairs and rest."

Barefoot, Natalie crouched in front of Caleb and coaxed him patiently.

Then I heard her call to me.

"Daniel, Caleb can't be left alone right now, so I need you to make a quick trip for us.

"Here's the key to his apartment. Feed the cats, then come back."

She pulled the key from her pocket with practiced ease and handed it to me.

Then she lowered her head and continued soothing Caleb.

At last, she noticed that I had not moved and looked up.

She sighed before asking cautiously,

"Are you angry again?"

When I stayed silent, she smiled as though she understood everything.

"What has gotten into you lately? You get upset over every little thing.

"Go on. It won't take long."

I accepted the key.

Looking directly at her, I finally answered,

"All right.

"But Natalie, this will be the last time."

The last thing I would ever do for her.

Natalie did not even lift her head. She simply helped Caleb into a chair.

Then she carefully held the honey water to his lips.

Her response was absentminded. "Yes, yes, I know you love me. This is the last time."

When I opened the door to Caleb's apartment,

I froze at what I saw.

There were 12 cats.

Natalie had always claimed to hate cats.

After my mother moved away, I had wanted to keep the cat she left behind as something to remember her by.

Natalie refused and even stopped eating until I gave it away.

And yet now,

every cat wore a different necklace around its neck.

Every one of those necklaces had once been a gift from me to Natalie.

I raised my eyes.

A large portrait hung on the wall.

It was a figure study.

The woman in it wore almost nothing, with only painted leaves covering the most intimate parts of her body.

The woman was Natalie.

The portrait was dated April 12, three years earlier, the day her family visited Bellmere and I spent the entire day showing them around the city.