Chapter 1 - Regret
Three years later...
A man was seen sitting in his study. The lights were off; the only light filling the room came from the moonlight outside in the sky.
The moonlight illuminated the man’s exquisite facial features - thick eyebrows, piercing black eyes as dark as the ink, sharp nose, thin sensual lips, and chiseled jawline. To say that he was handsome was an understatement. He was drop-dead gorgeous and clearly was a man favored by God. Every man envied him, and every lady wanted him.
The man had his eyes down, staring absentmindedly at a paper and a photograph in his hand. There was also a white bunny plushie sitting on his desk.
Soon, his usually hawk-like eyes were filled with sorrow, despair, and heartbreak.
“Ivy...” his soft, hoarse voice sounded from his throat.
Yes, that man was Gerard Huxley.
He caressed the face in the photograph. The woman in it was beautiful. She was smiling brightly, and her eyes were twinkling with playfulness.
“Ivy...” he called out her name again before turning his attention to the paper underneath the photograph.
The paper was the pregnancy report his ex-wife, Ivy, had accidentally dropped during their last encounter. The date was the exact date as this day three years ago. ‘Two months pregnant’. Those words were jarring to his eyes.
Suddenly he felt suffocated. What had he done? He had divorced and driven away the only woman he had ever loved, and that event led her to her death.
Why didn't she tell him she was pregnant? Why didn't she insist on staying with him? He knew the answers to those questions but didn't want to acknowledge them.
“Ivy... Come back to me. I didn't mean to divorce you. I never meant to divorce you. You are the love of my life. There was nothing between me and Mia. It was all just an act. I’d torn the divorce paper. We are still married. I love you. So, come back to me, okay?” Gerard whispered as he caressed Ivy’s photograph again.
He knew no one would answer him. He knew he would never hear her soft melodious voice again, yet he still waited in the dark. He took the bunny in his arms and hugged it tightly as though the bunny was Ivy.
Finally, a single lone tear escaped from the corner of his eyes, and before long, he broke down and wept like a child. The sound of his sobs was heartbreaking. The butler and servants were even in tears listening to their Master’s sorrowful cry.
He could still remember every detail of his first encounter with Ivy. At that time, he was only nineteen and had just lost his parents in a plane crash. He had become a rogue who loved to fight and didn’t care about anything else.
His grandfather, elder brother, and even Mia, their childhood friend, couldn't do anything about it. There was too much bitterness in his heart from losing the parents whom he loved so much.
One day, he saw a young girl holding a bunny plushie, talking happily with her parents at the school compound, and he couldn't help the anger that rose in his heart. He hated how everyone’s parents were still alive while his had passed away.
When the girl's parents left, he went to the girl and released his anger toward the girl. He knew that girl. She was from a middle-class family way below his level, and she was adopted.
“What’s so good about having adopted parents? You know your biological parents must have hated you so much that they abandoned you, right?” he snorted and said those harsh words to the fourteen-year-old girl.
Thinking she was going to cry, a smirk formed on his handsome face.
But the little girl’s reaction was way beyond his expectation. Instead of getting angry or crying, she smiled and said, “Maybe my parents had some difficulties and had no choice but to abandon me. But it allows me to have two wonderful new parents who love me so much.”
Gerard was stunned hearing her positive words and looking at her radiant smile.
“My mom and dad always told me to see the bright side of life,” she said as she looked him up and down.
Gerard had just finished fighting with some punks, and he had scapes, his face was swollen after being beaten up, and his clothes were messy.
“Big brother, you have just gotten into a fight, haven't you? You must have some difficulties in life, but you shouldn't fight with others. You look sad, but you have to see the bright side. My mom said all the sadness we experienced would be replaced by happiness, but if we are willing to work for it,” the little girl lectured Gerard.
“So, Big Brother, don't fight or be sad anymore, okay? If you fight or be sad, people will be sad too. Here’s my favorite bunny. You can take it. I hope it can bring you happiness as it did for me,” the little girl offered her bunny plushie to Gerard.
Gerard didn't know why, but his hand moved, taking the bunny plushie from her.
“Don't be sad anymore, Big Brother. Now you have Bunny to accompany you,” the little girl kept smiling radiantly at him.
Suddenly a bell was heard, and the little girl looked at one of the school buildings. “I have to go and attend class now, Big Brother. Don't forget to go to the hospital. Bye, bye,” she said and ran toward her class before Gerard could say anything.
Gerard stood frozen for some time while looking at the white Bunny in his hand.
He didn't know why, but the girl’s words touched him so much. He still had a grandfather and an older brother who loved him. They would be sad every time he got into a fight. The girl’s words were valid.
Since then, he began cleaning up his act. He never fought anymore and began taking his life seriously. At the same time, he kept watch on the little girl, who he later found out was named Ivy. And her bunny had become his most treasured possession.
They were studying in the same exclusive school compound where all levels of education were available - from kindergarten up to University. He was in college while she was still in high school.
He loved looking at her. She was warm and always happy. He would smile every time he saw her laughing. She was like the light in his darkness, lighting everything around her and guiding him toward the world's goodness.
A year later, he rescued her when she was bullied, but she didn't remember him. She thought it was their first meeting. Maybe because he looked different, he looked like the second young master of the wealthiest family in Artea compared to the rogue boy when they first met.
When Ivy confessed her feelings later on, Gerard was over the moon, but he had to reject her as she was still underage. Even though he rejected her, he couldn't help but feel nervous. There were so many boys who liked Ivy; what if she was snatched away?
But his worry was unfounded. No matter how many confessions Ivy received, she always turned them down.
During her eighteen birthday, three years after he rejected her, he was desperate to make her his and begged his grandfather to go to Ivy’s house and propose to her.
His grandfather naturally was against it as Ivy’s family was too far below their level. But Gerard kept begging him, and after he told his grandfather that Ivy was the one who changed him, his grandfather went to Ivy’s parents to propose despite his reluctance. His only condition was to keep the wedding reception as low-key as possible, with only their core family present.
Gerard felt guilty when he told Ivy about his grandfather’s demand, but Ivy being Ivy, didn't mind it. She said the rest wasn't necessary as long as she married Gerard.
And so they had a minimal and simple wedding reception with only Ivy’s adopted parents, Gerard’s grandfather and his butler, his older brother, Louis, and Mia, his brother’s girlfriend, and their childhood friend. His grandfather even asked them to keep their marriage a secret from everyone else.
Ivy and his parents didn't object, knowing how society worked.
Even though their marriage was low-key, Gerard always lavished Ivy with everything he had. He wanted her to be happy while being married to him.
As for his grandfather, Gerard was optimistic Ivy would be able to melt the heart of the stubborn old man. And as he had expected, his grandfather began loving Ivy and even treated her as his own granddaughter.
Thinking of the past, Gerard's heart was pierced with regret. Regret... That one word had never appeared in Gerard's dictionary, not even when he was being a punk, but now he was feeling it.
He regretted it. He regretted everything that happened three years ago. He regretted following his grandfather’s order to divorce his beloved. He regretted putting an act with his childhood friend, Mia so that Ivy would agree to divorce him.
But what was the point of regretting everything that had happened? It couldn't change the fact that he divorced her while she was pregnant with his child. It couldn't bring his beloved wife back from the dead. But oh, how he wished it could.
Gerard looked at three bottles of wine on the table he had specially prepared for today. He knew the only way to forget everything was to just drown his sorrow with alcohol.
And so, he uncorked the first bottle and began chugging down the wine straight from the bottle, like he was drinking water.
Soon, the three bottles of wine were emptied, and he became drunk.
In his drunken state, he heard the study door being opened, and a soft female voice sounded in his ears.