Chapter 1

Twelve years ago, I was stabbed by one of Zoran's admirers, leaving me unable to bear children for life.

Zoran knelt by my hospital bed, crying as he vowed to love me with his life forever.

"Fallon, I'm already thankful to heaven that you survived..."

"From now on, I will never let anyone hurt you again."

Twelve years later, Zoran pinned that former admirer beneath him:

"Aria, will you have a child with me?"

I laughed bitterly at myself, went home and trashed Zoran's bedroom, accidentally discovering his old diary.

In anger, I wrote: "Zoran! I hate you!"

Unexpectedly, a sentence appeared out of thin air: "Who are you? I don't care who hates me except Fallon."

For a moment, I forgot my fear and wrote stroke by stroke: "I am Fallon."

————

"Are you Fallon?"

"Impossible, you can't be her."

"Fallon would never hate me, I haven't done anything to hurt her!"

These three sentences appeared out of thin air, startling me so much that I dropped the diary.

It took a full three minutes before I could calm down.

I picked up the diary from the floor and asked, "Is this your diary? Who are you?"

A line of text quickly appeared on the page: "I'm Zoran."

The hand holding the pen trembled uncontrollably.

My heart was racing.

Could it be that the person on the other side was 18-year-old Zoran?

"Who are you really? What gives you the right to say Fallon hates me???" the other side continued to question.

I quickly wrote down: "I'm 30-year-old Fallon."

"Twelve years from now, you'll hurt me, so stay away from me now!"

"Impossible!!!" His words appeared rapidly, scrawled messily, as if he was desperately trying to prove himself.

"If you're really Fallon, you'd know how much I love you!!!"

A distant, blurry memory surfaced, and I could almost imagine how indignant 18-year-old Zoran, who loved me more than life itself, would be after being questioned like this.

The young man who could unhesitatingly give me his heart never imagined that one day he would push me away with his own hands.

My eyes welled up with tears, and just as I was about to tell him more, the bedroom door swung open.

Thirty-year-old Zoran walked straight to the dresser and started rummaging through the drawers, paying no attention to me.

He hadn't looked at me once since he entered.

"I'm sure I left it here," he muttered to himself.

Finally remembering my presence in the room, he turned to me and said, "Hey, where did you put the family heirloom?"

I was momentarily struck dumb, unsure how to respond.

When we got married, he had entrusted the family heirloom to me in front of everyone.

"Fallon, from now on, you're the only treasure in this family," he had said.

At the time, his older brother was furious and stood up, yelling,

"Zoran, have you lost your mind? Fallon's a barren hen. What right does she have to keep the family heirloom? Who will it be passed down to?"

Twelve years ago, I had been injured in an accident, leaving me unable to bear children.

The room fell silent instantly, with all eyes on me.

I lowered my head, my face burning with shame and humiliation.

But Zoran had gripped my hand tightly and slapped his brother across the face.

"Brother, I suggest you watch your mouth! Except for Fallon, no one deserves the family heirloom! It's not your place to lecture me on my choices!"

Amid the gaze of everyone present, I met Zoran's loving eyes, certain that I hadn't married the wrong man.

I thought I had found the warmest safe haven in the whole world.

For seven years of marriage, I kept the family heirloom safely tucked away in a safe, fearing even the slightest mishap.

But now, Zoran, for the sake of another woman, personally broke his vows.

I rose numbly, retrieved a meticulously polished box from the safe, and handed it to him.

Zoran snatched it eagerly, opened it, and nodded with satisfaction at the jade pendant inscribed with "Joy and Happiness."

"With the family heirloom, Aria and our son will surely be safe."

After saying this, he gave me, with my haggard appearance, a lazy once-over: "You keeping this wouldn't matter since you don't have any kids to pass it on to. I'll buy you something else later."

"Our wedding anniversary - I'll celebrate with you after I'm done with this. Right now, Aria needs me more."

I opened my mouth, but before I could speak, Zoran was already at the door, ready to leave.

As a parting shot, he added: "Be sensible. No one's trying to steal your position as Mrs. Stratton."

I looked at his retreating figure, laughing self-mockingly as tears flowed unchecked, my heart aching incessantly.

After loving each other for so many years, did he think I was after the title of "Mrs. Stratton"?

I reopened the diary, and a new line appeared before my eyes:

"Today we took our graduation photo. Because I was waiting for your reply, I didn't get the spot behind Fallon."

I immediately pulled out the graduation photo, and sure enough, his position had changed.

Could it be... that the choices 18-year-old Zoran made could really change everything now?

Before I could wrap my head around it, another line appeared below: "If you really are Fallon, then do you know where I'm standing?"