Chapter 55

"I was devastated when you said no, but I couldn't blame you for saying it. That night I went home to our unit and in my feverish state I imagined you were there in our bed! And I was so happy! I really thought you came back but I woke up to reality and you weren't there..." his tears started to fall as he said those words.

He tried to wipe his tears with his hand.

"Why did you have a fever that night?" Dale asks in remorse.

"After you said no, I was so angry at myself that I punched the mirror in the restroom so my fist was bleeding." he says with a sad smile on his face.

Dale took his hand.

"Is this scar from that night?" she asks as she traces the scar on his fist.

Edward silently nods.

Dale took his fist and kissed his scar.

"I'm sorry...." she says as a tear falls.

"No, don't say that! It wasn't your fault!" he says as he wipes the tear with his thumb.

"What happened after you woke up?" she asks after Edward held both of her hands again.

"The wedding happened where Quen took my place as Elizabeth's groom. My parents were furious so they disowned me. They left me with nothing except my father's family name." he says in a matter of fact tone of voice as if he already knew that it would happen.

"What?!?!" she asks shocked by Edward's revelation.

"I didn't care because all that mattered to me was you! I immediately left after Quen and I switched places and I tried to look for you in your old place but you weren't there! I went to the bar and Jinnie told me that you already left for Japan!" he says with anguish in his voice.

"I persuaded her to tell me where you went but she wouldn't tell me anything! I asked everyone who knew you at the bar but they all seem to know nothing! I was too late! You already left! You left me..." and he broke down in tears.

And Dale cried with him.

She feels his despair in his words.

She hugged him then and tried to soothe him even as she was crying too.

"Shhhh...stop crying my heart....." she says as he strokes his hair.

Edward's sobs seems to subside with her words.

It didn't escape his ears when she called him "my heart".

Reluctantly he pulled away from her embrace and tried composing himself.

"But I didn't give up you know....I went to the bar every day trying to convince Jinnie and even Elisse to tell me where you were. At first, I didn't believe them when they said that they didn't know where you were. But when they told me that you were supposed to go to your aunt but you didn't go there, I knew then that they weren't lying anymore."

She didn't contact Jinnie and Elisse in those years because she wanted to forget everything that had a connection with Edward.

"Quen persuaded me to go to Germany first to fix myself before I look for you because I was a mess when you left. He and Elizabeth helped me get back on my feet again without my parents' knowledge. I tried making my own business successful while continuously looking for you. And finally after four years, I found you! Ms. Dale Tanaka..."