"Perfect... just perfect," Caleb mused, looking at the caller ID.
How the hell was he meant to tell her that they would have to cut short their preparations?
How was he going to raise the money to go ahead with the wedding?
Now even the low-budget wedding he planned couldn't hold.
His savings weren't sufficient to carry the entire load.
He had planned to add it up with his next paycheck... which, of course, was no longer available.
Caleb was torn between answering the call or simply leaving it.
But the thought crossed his mind.
'She always understands... This is no different... I just have to explain.'
He didn't want to make her worried, so he took a deep breath before accepting the call.
He pressed the phone to his ear, waiting to hear her sweet voice.
"Haha, Caleb. What's good? Been a while since we last talked, hasn't it?"
Caleb paused, looking at the caller ID with a confused look again.
That voice—it was definitely not the one he recognized.
It wasn't Sophia...
"Sorry, who's this?" Caleb asked, confused, feeling a tingle of worry.
'Who the hell is with Sia's phone? Is she alright?'
He restrained the urge to fire all the questions right away.
"Ah... has it been so long that you completely forgot what my voice sounded like... Guess I didn't punch it into your skull."
Caleb's mind reeled...
'That voice...'
How could he forget it...
His perpetual tormentor.
Kevin.
A bully who had followed him throughout high school and, as though fate was playing a cruel joke on him... they happened to come to the same college.
Kevin was the son of the wealthy Jonas Gregory, a rich business tycoon.
And of course, thanks to his father's status, Kevin was an arrogant bastard who always felt like he could get away with whatever he did.
On one occasion, he bullied him—almost beating him to death. Caleb couldn't take it... he couldn't be like the rest who kept quiet and died in silence, in fear of Kevin's status.
He reported to the school authorities, and Kevin got expelled. That was a major hit to the name of the Gregory family, and it built an immortal enmity between the two.
Caleb wanted to forget the matter completely, but Kevin kept chasing after it... doing all he could to torment his life.
Despite his efforts, Caleb didn't bother with him... with time, it appeared as though Kevin had completely left the case.
Until now...
"Kevin, what are you doing there?! Where's Sophia?" Caleb's voice was low, strained—like a dam ready to break.
The answer came with a smirk in his tone. "You mean my girlfriend?"
Caleb blinked. "Stop joking. Give her the phone. Now."
"You still don't get it, do you?" Kevin's voice turned cold. "I told you I'd ruin you. You took something from me in high school. This is me taking something back."
"What do you mean?! Give her the phone this instant... else I'll do everything to make sure you spend the rest of your life in—"
"Oh, keep quiet, Caleb... Who the hell do you think you are? Spend my life where? In prison? Where's the money going to come from... you jobless m*therfucker." Kevin's words hit deep.Caleb paused momentarily, grasping the weight of his words.
'How does he know? How does he know that I lost my work?'
"What did you do?!" Caleb couldn't contain the restrained rage anymore; he lashed out.
"What else? I simply paid a few fees to get a mouse out of the house," Kevin said with deep laughter.
"But what does it matter... I simply just saved you the stress of arranging a stupid marriage."
Caleb felt the words hit deeper...
Caleb's heart slammed in his chest.
He barely whispered, "Where's Sophia?"
"Right here," came a female voice—too calm, too composed.
Her tone lacked the warmth that used to light up Caleb's day.
"Sia?" he asked, clinging to that tiny sliver of hope.
"Tell me he's lying. Please."
"No, Caleb," she said, and her voice wasn't angry or sad—it was tired.
"He's not lying. I gave him the phone."
Silence stretched between them.
"Why?" Caleb's voice cracked. "Why would you be with him?"
"Because I'm tired, Caleb. I'm tired of scraping by. Tired of dreaming about a future that's never going to come. You keep saying things will get better… but they don't."
"We had a plan… a life."
"A life with what, Caleb? Hope?" She laughed, and it was hollow. "I watched you fight for us, but all we did was lose. Kevin offered a different future. One I don't have to struggle for."
"You stood by while he tore me apart," Caleb whispered.
"No," she said. "I just stopped pretending I didn't want more."
Caleb stood there, his gaze darkening... the lines between reality blurring.
Her words resounded in his ears.
He felt a stab in his chest.
It drilled a hole right through him. He couldn't see it... but he could feel it.
A thousand shards... his heart was cruelly shattered.
"I guess you've heard it all, hehe? Poor brat. Next time think twice before ever crossing me."
Kevin had sounded smug in the message.
Too comfortable.
Too proud.
Like a man who knew he had won.
And that meant this wasn't recent.
She stood by and watched them crush him.
Then crawled into bed with his executioner.
Caleb walked out of the office like an empty shell.
The words resounding in his mind.
The pain he felt on the inside... there was nothing left, just an empty space.
Outside, the sky wept with him. Night slowly spread its curtain, cloaking the world in darkness.
He once wanted to watch this nightfall with Sophia beside him, on a vacation by the sea.
Now, it was nothing more than a shattered dream.
As he wandered aimlessly, his eyes caught a small boy standing at the roadside, eyes gleaming as he admired a sleek red Lamborghini Aventador parked nearby.
Caleb smiled faintly.
He remembered being that boy. Dreaming of a flashy life, success, status...
That was before life twisted him into this shadow.
'What a fool I was...' he laughed painfully at himself.
'I chased a woman over the dreams I had... now she left me for that same ambition I once had.'
It really hit.
It ate to the core of his very being.
Sigh...
He let out a sigh, and just then...
He caught the blaring light of the truck.
HONK!
His gaze moved from the boy and then took the truck.
It was Fast. Too fast. It came barreling down the road toward the boy.
"Shit."
His legs reacted before his mind could catch up
And in the next instant—
He was there.
Shoving the boy out of the way.
Why did he do it? He didn't know...
The last thought that ran through his mind was bitter and ironic.
"All this..... For a life that spat me out? What a bad day."
Squelch...
The pain came once... a tremendous pain that shot through every vein and artery... if they still existed.
---
Darkness.
All around him.
An endless, suffocating void.
Then, slowly… light.
Caleb groaned, his eyelids fluttering open.
A strange ceiling greeted him—high, domed, with golden trims. He blinked again. Velvet curtains. Crystal chandelier.
No beeping machines. No hospital bed smell.
Definitely not a hospital.
He sat up on silk sheets.
'What the hell…?'
Then—
{Ding!}
---