My Death Countdown (by Netulla) novel Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Over the next few days, Adrien didn’t come home. He only sent a message saying he was on a business trip.

But Kiersten kept exposing his whereabouts.

Sylvia still didn’t reply. She just printed out each message and stored it away carefully.

Then, she worked through her bucket list alone.

When it came to the tenth item on the list, which was to see flowers in bloom, she checked nearby locations on her phone and decided to visit a popular park renowned for its newly bloomed roses.

On a weekday, the park was quiet. She wheeled herself slowly along the path.

Around four in the afternoon, a few street musicians gathered in the square, playing guitars and singing soft love

songs.

Sylvia glanced toward the sound and saw Adrien and Kiersten not far away.

They were sharing a snack, talking, and laughing.

Kiersten fed him a piece of fruit. He ate it without hesitation.

Watching the ease in his smile, Sylvia froze.

She hadn’t expected to see them here.

She watched quietly a while longer, until Adrien suddenly walked over to one of the musicians. After a brief ex- change, the singer handed him the guitar.

Adrien adjusted the microphone and began to play in front of the curious crowd.

“This song is for Kiersten, the girl I love.”

He then began to sing in a clear, gentle voice, accompanied by the melodious strumming of the guitar.

Onlookers listened attentively to the tender, emotional love song.

A few girls nearby whispered to each other, their eyes sparkling.

“He’s so handsome. I’m so jealous of her. My boyfriend would never do anything this romantic.”

“This song is so moving. Is it an original?”

“Yes,” Sylvia answered without thinking.

She wasn’t sure if she was replying to the girl or mourning something.

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Chapter 3

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She had heard this song once before, at a New Year’s Eve event when she was sixteen.

Adrien had written the music and lyrics himself. He performed it as the finale, smiling under the stage lights as he ad- dressed the entire school with those very words.

Only back then, the girl he sang for was her.

The whole auditorium had erupted in noise. The schoolboys and girls whistled and screamed in excitement.

A few days later, he even signed up for the school radio station.

After that, every lunch break, Sylvia could hear this song playing.

Everything back then had felt so perfect.

But things were different now. That song was no longer meant for her.

She was no longer the one he cared about.

Those girls noticed her tears and looked down with concern, quickly offering tissues. “Miss, why are you crying? Did the song move you that much?”

Only then did Sylvia realize she’d been crying without even knowing it.

She took the tissues, wiped her eyes, and slowly shook her head before wheeling herself away.

The nineteenth item on her list was to visit their old school.

Sylvia entered the familiar campus: the track where Adrien had run with her, the library where they’d studied togeth- er, the building where he’d carried her when she sprained her ankle…

Every corner held memories of them together. But now that she couldn’t walk, she could only look from a distance.

Finally, she rolled her wheelchair to a corner of the garden. She gazed at a fringe tree that stood about as tall as she was and zoned out.

Adrien had planted this tree himself during a class activity years ago.

All the other trees her classmates had planted had died later, leaving this one alone.

It wasn’t because the tree was especially resilient, but because Adrien had come to check on it every day, watering and fertilizing it from time to time.”

He’d never missed a day, whether in cold winters or hot summers.

When she’d found out about it, she’d asked him why he cared so much about a single tree.

He’d pulled her over to the tree, brushed away the weeds around it. She’d looked closely and noticed a line of words carved into the base of the trunk.

Eight years later, the tree had grown to reach her waist height, aligning perfectly with her as she sat in her wheelchair.

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