Dorian Vivienne Selene Novel Locked in Autumn’s Memories

I was sent to prison by my wife for two years. After being released, I changed my name and left the country.
Seven years later, we met again in front of my sisters grave.
When our eyes met, she stopped wiping the tombstone. In her eyes flashed a mix of emotionsshock, joy, guilt all hard to describe.
Dorian, Ive been looking for you for so many years. I thought you were gone too. Where have you been all these years? Why didnt you contact me even once?
Seeing that I didnt respond, she quickly wiped the corner of her eyes.
Youre avoiding me on purpose, arent you? You still hate what happened back then. I had my own difficulties.
I didnt know how she still had the face to say those things in front of my sisters grave after killing her, stealing her husband and pushing me to the point where I almost couldnt survive.
But love and hate were both luxuries. To me, she had already nothing.

Meeting again after so many years, my heart no longer stirred.
Vivienne turned around and left.
I bent down and gently placed the pure white chrysanthemum in my arms onto my sisters tombstone.
In the photo, my sisters smile was warm, her eyes clear, forever frozen at twenty-five.
If she were still alive, shed definitely be at the airport picking me up today, just like when we were young, messing up my hair with a laugh.
Little one, why are you frowning?
No If she were still alive, she would never have allowed me to be bullied to the point that I had to flee far away.
I crouched down and gently traced my fingers over my sisters eyebrows and eyes on the tombstone.
Selene, I have some good news to tell you
Before I could finish, Vivienne came back, holding a heavy bag and placing it in front of me.
I once promised you that Id make you a gift by hand every year on your birthday. I couldnt find you these past years, so I saved them all up.
A razor, the newest game console, an expensive watch I could tell she really put effort into it.
But I felt nothing.
Her hand froze in mid-air and a hint of embarrassment and disappointment appeared on her face.
You dont like them? I can ask someone to prepare new ones. How about we have lunch together?
No, I still have something to do.
She was about to continue pestering me, but her phone rang.
Vivienne, when are you coming back? Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. Ive already booked the restaurant
My fingers paused as I brushed away a yellow leaf that had fallen with the wind.
Selene, this is the person you risked your life to protect back then. You were wrong. And I trusted the wrong person too.
My throat suddenly felt itchy and I couldnt help coughing twice.
Vivienne, where are you? Why is there a mans voice next to you?
Vivienne hung up without saying a word. She took a mask from her coat pocket and handed it to me.
Youre allergic to cold air. Every autumn you start coughing. Remember to wear a mask.
I turned my head away and avoided her hand.
Its already cured.
After saying goodbye to my sister, I turned and walked out.
Vivienne quickly followed after me.
I didnt understandseven years ago, she warned me never to appear in front of her again. Why was she now clinging to me like glue?
At the cemetery gate, a row of shared bicycles was parked.
I scanned the QR code to unlock one.
Just as I was about to pedal away, Vivienne drove her Mercedes up beside me and stopped steadily.
Dorian, all these years have you still been alone?
In the autumn sunlight, there was a careful, hopeful look in her eyes.
I nodded, giving no further explanation.
This time, I came back because I wanted to tell my sister in personI was getting married.
I was selfish enough to want to share this kind of happiness only with her.
Dorian, dont force yourself when youre alone out there. If you have any difficulties, remember you can come to me.


My number is still the same, its never changed. I was afraid that if you ever wanted to contact me, you wouldnt be able to find me.
I couldnt help pulling the corner of my lips.
Who wouldve thought the person who once cut off all contact herself, the one who wished never to see me again, alive or dead, was now pretending to be so devoted and regretful?
No thanks. Im not interested in getting entangled with a married woman.
I pushed hard on the pedals and the bike carried me away along the long path covered in golden ginkgo leaves.
The wheels rolled over the fallen leaves, making soft rustling sounds.
This path used to be so familiar to me.
When I was young, I loved coming here with my sister for morning runs and bike rides.
She was better than me at everything, except running.
Whenever I slowed down on purpose to wait for her, she would mess up my hair and laugh at how annoyed I got.
She once said that even when we were old and gray, the two of us would still walk this path together, supporting each other and basking in the sun.
But now I was already two years older than she ever got to be.
I rode all the way back to the old apartment complex where my sister used to live. Ever since the accident, the place had been empty.
When I opened the rusty security door, a musty smell rushed out.
In the living room hung a photo of the four of us, covered in dust.
My sister and I grew up depending on each other.
When I was sixteen, Vivienne entered our lives.
She said my sister had saved her from drowning and given her a second life. From then on, she was my sisters best friend.
She and I were like natural enemies. We argued over the smallest things, faces red, tempers flaring.
Until after our senior-year graduation trip, when a mudslide struck the resort area.
Classmates were picked up by their parents one after another, but my sister was away on a business trip and couldnt return in time.
The rushing mud buried the hotel in an instant. I was pinned under a collapsed beam, silently waiting for death.
But Vivienne fought her way back against the flow, digging with her bare hands from dawn until nightfall.
Dorian, dont be scared, Im here!
She carried me on her back and walked the whole night.
Only when she finally got me to the hospital did I notice that she had lost both of her shoes.
Her feet were covered in pale, water-soaked wounds, overlapping each other.
Her always-pretty manicured nails were broken from the roots, bloody and torn.
Dummy, why are you crying? As long as youre safe, its worth it even if I end up crippled!
In that moment, even the spring breeze couldnt compare to the smile in her eyes.
On New Years Eve, the three of us were making dumplings when Lucian showed up, looking a complete mess.
He was the son of a neighbor from our hometown. His family had gone bankrupt and he was hiding everywhere because of debt collectors.
Because my sister remembered how his family once gave her a bowl of hot porridge when she was young, she didnt hesitate to take responsibility for him.
She quit her stable, respectable job and started doing business.
She drank so much at social events that she had stomach bleeding and she hovered at the edge of life and death several times.
In two years, my sister lost thirty pounds. She helped Lucian pay off all his debts and in return, won his love.
We toasted together, promising to stay close and love each other for a lifetime, never to be separated.