8#08

8

Over the next two months,

I received a message from Aiden.

[Clare, meet me at the entrance of City Hall at 8 AM tomorrow. After registration, I will call you my wife. I will love you forever.]

Around 10 PM, he sent another message.

[I will pick you up at 7 AM tomorrow and take you back to our love nest.]

An hour later, another message arrived.

[Honey, where are you? I brought you home, why aren't you in the new house?]

He seemed to have lost his mind.

Lydia called me shortly after.

"Clare, Aiden has a severe mental disorder. He believes you're still in the honeymoon phase. He's been going door to door searching for you. Please come back," she begged, crying.

"I'm sorry, Lydia. I'm not a doctor and I can't cure him even if I return."

"Clare, Aiden really needs you now. Please, come back."

"I cared for him for 20 years. Now that we're divorced, I have no obligation to look after him anymore. I am truly sorry."

"Can you bear to watch him descend into madness?"