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I met my first love at a class reunion seven years after we broke up.    He had a successful career, was holding his girlfriend's hand, and had a huge expensive diamond ring on his hand.    Everyone taunted me:‘You dumped Conrad, now you regret it, don't you? It's too late!’    But after dinner, Conrad drunkenly hugged me and cried:‘If you want to get back together, you can do it anytime.’  1 A class reunion is always a battleground for gossip to converge.    Not to mention the former couples in attendance, with the most disparate statuses being Conrad and me.    Everyone was

Reunited with My First Love After Seven Years Apart

Conrad's fingers tightened, as if he could touch the real flesh and blood through them.


"She reported herself by name, which is how you got her spot. But that made her enemies, and later when her dad ran off, she and her mom were bullied so badly they couldn't go on living."


An invisible hand gripped his throat, choking him with pain.


So this was how she had been humiliated.


"You were away at a competition then, out of touch with home for nearly a week. You don't know what happened that week. The Duke family collapsed, her dad ran off with his mistress, and debt collectors swarmed their home like vultures, threatening mother and daughter. Her mom couldn't take it and committed suicide, leaving her all alone - bullied, beaten, and wracked with illness."


"It was absolute torture back then. I couldn't bear to look at her for more than a second. She had already been broken beyond recognition."


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