Ben laughed even harder. “Sherlyn, I told you before that we would always be together. You owe me for abandoning me; you need to come back and atone!”
After my breakdown, I slowly calmed down. “Ben, do whatever you want with that club. I don’t care anymore.”
There was a long silence on the other end. “Sherlyn has been outside for years, and it bothers me that she’s learned bad habits.”
“And what about your fiance? Will he still want you after he finds out everything?”
With confidence, Ben hung up the phone, leaving me frozen in place. My phone lit up with a message from Jonathon: “Sherlyn, I’ve learned some information. I’m coming back to talk to you.”
The Sword of Damocles had finally fallen upon me. By the time Jonathon arrived, I sat on the edge of the bed, dazed and unsure how to react.
Jonathon looked at me in silence before pulling out his phone. “Sherlyn, is this you in the picture?”
I numbly turned to the phone; the person in it was handcuffed and wearing shackles, looking like a dog stripped of dignity, chained in the corner.
If it wasn’t me, then who could it be?
Ben liked me simply because, back in high school, I once took him to the hospital after he was beaten up, gave him an extra amusement park ticket, and kindly cooked him a bowl of longevity noodles, wishing him peace and happiness.
So when we met again, Ben started pursuing me, but by then I had a boyfriend-my first innocent love after starting college. Ben smiled gently. “It’s okay, Sherlyn, I came too late. I wish you happiness.”
But not long after, my boyfriend found me to break up, and no matter how much I pressed for answers, all I got was a simple “I’m sorry.”
Before long, I saw him on the notice board as a candidate for graduate school recommendation. When I found Ben, he wore a knowing expression.
“Ben, why?”
He patted my head. “That guy isn’t right for you. I just gave him a little nudge, and he left you willingly. A person like that doesn’t deserve you.”
Thus ended my first love. But the cost didn’t stop there; when my parents’ business was on the brink of bankruptcy and I returned home, they tied me up.
They and my sister knelt before me. “Sherlyn, your sister still needs to study, and we need to live. If we go bankrupt, none of us will survive!”
My mother took my hand, tears in her eyes. “Sherlyn, we’re sorry.”
My parents sent me to Ben’s villa. In just a month, with a mere flick of his finger, I was easily abandoned by the world.
Ben gently wiped my tears. “Sherlyn, it’s okay. I will never abandon you.”
That year, I actually got the recommendation for the major I wanted most. But that hand that seemed to want to save me instead trapped me in a tightly sealed villa, where he arranged for me to take a leave of absence from school.
I cried and protested, even kneeling before Ben in a desperate plea to let me go. He only pulled me up from the floor, half-kneeling to massage my knee. “Sherlyn, you really… are very naive.”
It wasn’t until I cut my wrist that he finally compromised. “Sherlyn, I can let you go back to school, but you can’t leave me.”
I returned to school, and Ben acted like any normal boyfriend, walking with me around the schoolyard. I looked at the man’s face in the sunset and repeatedly told myself that this was fine.
Until that day after the debate competition, I politely shook hands with the opposing male debater, only for Ben to break each of that guy’s fingers right in front of me.
Then, he calmly wiped his hands and looked at me with tenderness. “Sherlyn, I can’t stand it anymore; you’ve played enough games at school. It’s time to go home.”
I ran, but by the time I reached the airport, Ben had caught me and wound his tie around my hands. “Sherlyn, where do you think you’re running off to?”