After the Rain Stops, I Will No Longer Love You

On the day we decided to divorce, Seaford City was hit by a once-in-a-century rainstorm.

Abner drove me to the county clerk's office.

Halfway there, he suddenly pressed a bank card into my hand.

Zoe, I'm sorry. I know I'm the one who let you down in this marriage.

But Ivy she only has me now, and I just can't bear to see her hurting.

I stared at the endless raindrops outside the window and said nothing.

Three years ago, on our honeymoon trip,

Abner and I ran into a small-time thug who robbed us at knifepoint.

Trying to protect Abner, I killed him by accident.

For manslaughter, I was sentenced to three years.

Abner mortgaged the house and drained our savings.

All so I could get out of prison sooner and reunite with him.

Now I'm out.

And Abner tells me he has fallen hopelessly in love with the very girl who put me behind bars.

1.

The rain came down harder and harder, and the car stalled in the downpour.

Abner and I looked at each other, at a loss.

With no other choice, we ended up at a coffee shop on the street corner.

When we ordered, the staffer thoughtfully brought over hot towels.

He looked at the two of us, and his expression suddenly grew excited.

"Mr. and Mrs. Mason, it's you two! It's been so long."

"You two have such a good relationship, out on a date even in rain like this."

I looked at Abner and gave a faint tug at the corner of my lips.

"We're on our way to get divorced."

The staffer froze.

Abner closed the menu without dwelling on it.

"The usual few things, and remember, no sugar in her coffee."

The staffer was about to put in the order when I raised my hand to stop him.

"No need. Just a cup of warm water for me."

"I picked up a stomach condition in prison. I can't drink coffee anymore."

The hand reaching for his wallet paused.

Abner lowered his head and said nothing more.

I pulled out a few tissues and wiped the hem of my skirt, soaked from the rain.

Abner moved to help.

But his gaze drifted, without meaning to, to those ugly scars on my leg.

He froze for a moment, then couldn't help asking.

"These how did you get them?"

After all this time since my release, Abner had finally noticed something was wrong with me.

Maybe it was only when Ivy wasn't around.

Only then was he willing to spare a little pitiful attention for me.

"Just a minor accident."

In my first month in prison, somehow I offended the head inmate, and every day I was beaten and singled out for no reason I could understand.

Once, I was shoved down a flight of stairs.

A shattered fracture in my lower leg, seventeen stitches.

Back then I really wanted to bury my face in Abner's arms and cry my heart out.

But later, once I learned it was Ivy who had paid someone to do it.

All those countless grievances suddenly wouldn't come out.

I could see the ache and the reluctance in Abner's eyes.

I smiled and said, as if it were nothing.

"It's nothing serious. It's all in the past."

The staffer brought over the drinks.

Out of habit, Abner tore open the packaging for me.

The wind chimes by the door jingled in the rain.

Everything seemed just like it used to be.

Except that as he raised his hand, I caught a whiff of that unfamiliar perfume on him.

Suddenly I felt a little sick.

I didn't touch the glass of water in front of me.

The shop fell silent again.

Abner glanced at the time and, a little awkwardly, cast about for something to say.

"These past few years must have been hard on you."

"I kept trying to find a way to get your sentence reduced, but some things were simply beyond me."

Those days really had been hard to get through.

After I went to prison, my parents cut all ties with me.

The dance troupe struck my name from its roster.

Abner was the whole reason I kept going.

In my first year inside, he was afraid I'd do something desperate, so he always came right on time for visiting hours.

He'd tell me about everything going on in his life lately.

He'd talk over with me how to get my sentence reduced sooner.

He said he'd found the victim's family and would do everything he could to earn their forgiveness.

In my second year, Abner's attitude shifted a little.

He wasn't as full of grief and anger as before; he started sighing often.

"Zoe, I don't know what I should do either."

"Ivy is a pitiful girl. Her parents died young, and she and her brother had only each other growing up."

"Dustin did what he did because he was desperate, with no other way to raise money for her treatment."

"Now that Dustin is dead, how is a young girl like her supposed to survive?"

Back then I didn't grasp the pity and the ache in Abner's words.

I could only faintly sense it.

In a daze, it felt as if something had changed.

After that, Abner visited me less and less.

Our conversations slowly drifted from everyday life to Ivy.

I'd tell him about the wrongs I suffered in prison.

He'd tell me how hard it was for Ivy, living all alone.

I poured out to him how much I missed him.

He kept fretting over Ivy, alone at home.

Maybe by then he had already fallen in love with Ivy.

It was just that neither of us had realized it yet.

The rain was still falling.

Traffic in the city was badly backed up.

The tow truck Abner had called wouldn't arrive for several more hours.

He couldn't stop worrying about Ivy, so he called to let her know he was safe.

"Don't worry, I'll come back once the rain stops."

"Zoe and I will definitely get divorced today."

"Yes, I won't shortchange you or the baby. The wedding will be exactly the Chinese-style ceremony you like."

As Abner said these words, his face was full of tenderness.

I lowered my head and took a sip of the water in my glass.

I don't know if something was wrong with my sense of taste.

I hadn't ordered coffee.

And yet the water in the glass tasted so bitter to me.

When he hung up, Abner seemed to feel it was a little inappropriate, and explained to me almost sheepishly.

"Zoe, don't take it to heart. Ivy just has that kind of temper."

"Her moods have been unstable ever since Dustin passed away."

"Now that she's pregnant, I don't dare upset her."

His eyes were practically overflowing with tenderness.

I paused, then couldn't help speaking.

"Abner, do you still remember our child?"

On our honeymoon, I was already three months pregnant.

So when we were being robbed, I took out all the cash and jewelry I had on me.

All I asked was that Dustin not harm the baby in my belly.

He had already agreed.

Then somehow, because of a single phone call from Ivy, they turned murderous toward us.

In the chaos, I accidentally killed him while trying to protect Abner.

And because of that, I lost the baby in my belly.

Back then Abner had held me and cried so hard he nearly fainted.

With tears streaming down his face, he told me.

"Zoe, I'm the one who wronged you, I'm the one who owes you."

"I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

But now he'd had a child with the murderer's sister.

I took a deep breath.

I lowered my head and stopped dwelling on it.

"Never mind. It's all in the past."

Three years in prison had already smoothed all of it away.

But Abner's emotions suddenly grew agitated.

His eyes reddened, and the coffee in his hand spilled over.

"Of course I remember! How could I ever forget!"

"That was our first child, and the doctor said he was developing very healthily."

"We bought him little clothes, little toys, and we decorated the nursery together with our own hands..."

Yes, back then we'd waited for that child to arrive with our hearts full of joy.

But by the time I got out of prison, the clothes and toys were covered in dust.

And that nursery we'd decorated with our own hands had been turned into Ivy's art studio.

Abner explained to me.

"Ivy was heartbroken after losing her family."

"The doctor suggested she ease her pain through painting, so I set up this studio for her."

He ached for Ivy, who had lost her only family.

But he forgot.

How heartbroken I, who had lost everything, must be.

I glanced down at the time.

It felt like a long time had passed.

It turned out to be only ten minutes.

Three years had left us with nothing to say to each other.

We faced each other in silence, and all we could do was stare blankly at the raindrops outside the window.

Abner hesitated for a long while, then suddenly asked me.

"Zoe, after the divorce, what do you plan to do?"

I hadn't thought about that.

My legs were ruined; I couldn't dance anymore.

I couldn't go back to my hometown either.

My parents couldn't accept having a murderer for a daughter, so they cut ties with me long ago.

Cut off from the world for so many years.

I didn't know what else I could do.

Abner read my silence and took out the bank card again.

"Even though we can't grow old together, what we once shared still counts for something."

"You went to prison to save me, so I owe it to you to take responsibility."

"Take this money for now. If there's anything else you need, let's settle it all at once."

"Ivy... doesn't want us to stay in contact."

After all these years, the cartoon print on the card had faded.

But I still remembered the two of us opening the card together.

Back then we promised each other we'd build a home and a life in Seaford City through our own hard work.

We'd save up so much money on this card.

Now he had a family, and a career.

And he wanted to use this faded card to sever every last tie with me.

I still didn't take it.

My voice just couldn't help catching.

"Abner, do you really think this little bit of money can make up for the harm you two have done to me?"

When I first got out of prison, I tried so hard to patch things up with Abner.

I pretended not to see the pink cartoon cushion in the car.

Pretended not to see Ivy's photo in his wallet.

But once I pushed open that familiar door,

I broke down anyway.

The wedding home I remembered was completely unrecognizable.

The big red "double happiness" character had been replaced with a celebrity poster Ivy liked.

The wedding photo on the wall had been replaced with a photo of him and Ivy.

This house we'd saved up to buy together and decorated together

there was no trace of me left in it anymore.

I cried and asked Abner why.

He explained to me helplessly.

"You only lost three years. Ivy lost the only family she had."

"She ended up this way because of us. How can I just stand by and do nothing?"

So he hired the best psychologist for Ivy and took her into his home, caring for her every need.

I couldn't accept any of it.

We had the fiercest fight we'd ever had.

At the height of it, Abner suddenly stopped.

He looked at me calmly and said, in a tone that left no room for argument.

"Ivy is afraid of your voice."

"Whatever it is, let's talk about it outside."

In that moment, I knew.

Abner and I could never go back to the way things were.

The man in front of me fell silent again.

He hesitated a moment, then slowly raised his head to look at me.

"Ivy's wedding cost quite a lot, and there'll be expenses once the baby comes."

"It's true we bought the house together, but its value has dropped a lot. Even so, I'm figuring your share at the original price we paid."

"Zoe, this is all I can give."

Then he took a business card out of his bag and set it in front of me.

"If you ever need anything, you can call the number on it."

"I'll help you as much as I can."

"As for the rest... all I can say is I'm sorry."

He seemed to be reminding me.

As a top attorney, he had a thousand ways to leave me with nothing.

Yet for the sake of what we once had, he was still leaving me one last shred of dignity.

I shouldn't fail to recognize a kindness.

I smiled, a little helplessly.

"Abner, you don't need to worry so much."

"I have my dignity too. I won't cling to you and make a scene."

At first, I really did feel wronged.

I hysterically demanded that Abner give me an explanation.

But Ivy made far bigger scenes than I did.

When I met with Abner, she'd threaten to jump off a building.

When I called Abner, she'd run crying into the bathroom to slit her wrists.

When I refused to divorce, she'd stand in the street cursing me as the mistress who broke up their relationship.

Abner never blamed Ivy.

He'd only frown and say to me,

"You know perfectly well Ivy is sick. Why do you keep provoking her?"

The worst time, Ivy hired people to beat me until I ended up in the hospital.

I thought Abner would surely take my side.

But he just silently set a divorce agreement in front of me.

"Ivy is pregnant."

"This child is the only thing she has left to hold on to in this world."

"I have to give her a proper standing, so the child can be born safe and sound."

From that moment on, I let go of my last lingering attachment to Abner.

The rain was almost over.

Ivy's messages kept popping up, one after another.

Abner stood and glanced at the time.

"Let's take a cab to the county clerk's office. She's scared at home by herself."

I didn't refuse.

Just as I reached the door of the coffee shop, a taxi pulled over not far away.

In a white dress, Ivy flew into Abner's arms like a butterfly.

"Abner, why aren't you home yet?"

"Can't you bear to leave Zoe? Don't you want me anymore?"

Her big, watery eyes broke Abner's heart.

He pulled her into his arms tenderly, aching for her, and said,

"How could that be?"

"I told you, I'll spend the rest of my life taking care of you."

Such a familiar line.

Abner had said it to me a thousand times too.

On the school field.

In the coffee shop on the street corner.

He liked to press his forehead to the tip of my nose and murmur it over and over.

"Zoe, I really do love you so much."

"I'm willing to spend my whole life loving you."

His whole life turned out to be so short.

I turned my head away, not wanting to watch any longer.

Ivy glanced at me, then deliberately acted coy in Abner's arms.

"This is where you two used to go on dates. I won't let you come here again."

"You're not allowed to go anywhere connected to her ever again!"

Abner stroked Ivy's head fondly.

He said "Okay" several times over.

The three of us went to the county clerk's office together.

When it came to signing the divorce agreement, Abner hesitated.

Again and again he seemed about to speak and then stopped.

In the end, all he said was,

"Zoe, take care of yourself."

But where could I even go?

In all the world, it seemed there was no longer any place for me.

I couldn't figure it out, so I just sat by the roadside, dazed.

Ivy was discussing with Abner where to go celebrate that evening.

When she saw me, she smiled and walked over.

By the time she reached me, her expression had long lost the gentleness and timidity from before.

"Zoe, you lost."

"So what if you served three years in prison for Abner? In the end, he still belongs to me."

"There's something you don't know yet. Abner found the evidence that could prove you acted in self-defense a long time ago."

"But he was afraid that if you showed up it would ruin my mood, so he destroyed all of it himself."

She stepped a few paces closer.

A victor's smile on her face.

"Do you understand now, Zoe? You lost from the very beginning."

"You never had any right to fight me!"

She thought I would break down sobbing, thought I would be heartbroken and grieved.

But I pressed a hand to my chest.

Strange, I didn't feel a thing.

Maybe I'd known the answer all along.

After I went to prison, the friends around me had helped me consult a few lawyers.

They all said the chances of winning an appeal in the second trial were extremely high.

The gold-medal attorney, ranked first in law, somehow lost the very case he'd been determined to win.

The lover I had longed for.

He had given up on me a very, very long time ago.

My face felt cold.

The rain still hadn't stopped.

I lowered my head as if fooling myself, and laughed softly.

"None of it matters anymore."

"Abner and I... were over long ago."

At least from the moment I went to prison, we were already over.

I didn't want to be tangled up in it any longer.

I stood and walked toward the taxi at the roadside.

But Ivy's face suddenly went dark, and she shoved me hard from behind.

Bang