Tears streamed down his cheeks, mingling with the rain clinging to his face, before splashing onto the cold pavement below.
He had only just learned the truth.
He had only just discovered that the woman he loved—Charlotte—was the very same girl he’d once called his first love, the one he’d searched for in countless restless dreams: his Shortie.
The woman he loved had always been the same person.
And she, too, had once poured her whole heart into closing the chasm between their worlds, offering her love to him without reservation.
Yet somehow, he had managed to lose this rare and precious treasure.
Darren couldn’t remember when Charlotte had first started telling him, “I don’t want you anymore.”
Every time she said it, he’d brushed it off as nothing more than anger, thinking she was waiting for him to coax her back. Again and again, he ignored her words.
Until today.
Today, he had let go of all his pride and knelt in the rain, begging her to turn back. He had shattered his dignity, his identity, and his self-respect beneath her feet—yet she walked away without so much as a backward glance.
At last, Darren was forced to admit the truth: the Shortie who used to look at him with stars in her eyes, the Charlotte who’d once giggled in the kitchen over a careless word from him, had truly left him—for good.
“Dad…”
Noah’s sobs pulled him out of his daze.
His son’s tear-streaked face was blotchy and red, eyes swollen like walnuts. His voice trembled as he choked out, “Mom’s not coming back, is she?”
Darren lowered his head, meeting the hopeful gaze in his son’s eyes.
He wanted to nod, but couldn’t bear to shatter the last bit of hope in his child’s heart; he wanted to shake his head, but couldn’t even convince himself.
In the end, he simply reached out, gently ruffling Noah’s hair, and murmured, “Daddy will wait… Daddy will keep waiting…”
Eventually, Lena had no choice but to take Noah away.
Darren remained, kneeling alone at the door of the research center.
He stayed there for seven days.
Seven days of rain, wind, and burning sun. He neither ate nor drank, his eyes fixed on the doors of the research center, as still and hollow as a statue that had lost its soul.


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