[Stand-in + ten years of secret love + running away while pregnant + groveling to win her back]
A year into our marriage, I found a photograph in his study.
The woman in it wore a white dress and smiled gently. On the back, in his handwriting, were the words: “Siqi, wait for me.”
So I was nothing but a stand-in.
I took off my wedding ring and left without looking back.
He searched for me like a madman for a whole month.
The day we met again, he knelt on the ground and laid out every secret he had kept in his safe for ten years.
My medical records. My photographs. The diaries he'd written for ten years.
“Su Nian, you think you're her stand-in?”
“She was yours.”
“You're the only one I've ever loved, from the very beginning.”
I looked down at the man who had watched over me for ten years, then asked softly:
“Then why didn't you tell me sooner?”
