Ficorpio
Chapter 1
At twenty-three, as Adrian Sterling knelt before me with ninety-nine red roses and asked me to marry him, I received a call from an unknown number.
“Chloe Bennett, I’m you ten years from now. Whatever you do, don’t marry Adrian Sterling. He’ll cheat on you. He’ll make you miserable. Your marriage will end in divorce!”
My outstretched hand froze in midair. My mind went blank.
I couldn’t believe that Adrian, the man who had risked his life to save me from a fire five years ago, the man who loved me more than life itself, would divorce me ten years from now.
Shaking my head at the absurdity of it, I reached for the bouquet.
A piercing scream erupted from the phone.
“Chloe! You have to believe me. Don’t marry him. You’ll regret it!”
My hand paused.
My gaze traced the burn scar branded along Adrian’s arm before rising to meet his eyes, deep and full of a love vast enough to hold the whole world.
A smile curved my lips.
“I won’t regret it.”
01
I accepted the roses, and Adrian swept me into the warmth of his arms.
His lips brushed mine in a tender kiss. When he spoke beside my ear, his voice was trembling.
“Who was on the phone? You looked so serious. I thought you were going to turn me down. You scared me half to death. Thank God you said yes.”
I stiffened for a moment, then answered casually, “No one important. What were you so afraid of? We love each other. Unless you’ve done something to betray me, why would I ever refuse you?”
He pinched my cheek affectionately, the love in his eyes surging like a tide.
“That will never happen. You know you’re my whole life. I’d rather die for you than betray you.”
For some reason, the conviction in his eyes made me breathe easier.
I was suddenly ashamed that I had doubted him at all. That ridiculous phone call had gotten under my skin.
Adrian truly did love me more than life itself.
After our high school graduation, my classmates and I had gone to a private karaoke lounge to celebrate. A fire broke out without warning.
By the time Adrian arrived, the flames were already out of control.
Ignoring the firefighters who tried to stop him, he charged into the burning building and carried me out after the smoke had left me barely conscious.
To protect me, he wrapped me in his jacket. I escaped unharmed, but he suffered severe burns, leaving a terrible scar along his arm.
The guilt had never left me. For five years, I had tried every treatment I could find to make the scar disappear, but nothing could restore his skin to the way it had been.
Adrian had only laughed.
“Why would I want to get rid of it? This scar is proof that I loved you with my life. I’m keeping it forever.”
Chapter 2
Back then, that scar had been a source of pride to me.
I lowered my head and pressed a kiss to it, smiling with quiet contentment.
“I believe you.”
By the time we reached home, I had completely forgotten about the mysterious call.
I was sitting at my vanity, preparing to remove my makeup, when the unknown number called again.
Frowning, I let the phone ring over and over before reluctantly answering.
An furious voice came through at once.
“Chloe! Why did you say yes to him? Why won’t you believe me?”
“Why should I believe you?” I shot back.
The caller went silent for a moment. Then she recited both my phone passcode and Adrian’s, secrets known only to the two of us.
My thoughts dissolved into chaos.
I couldn’t begin to accept something so impossible.
The voice on the other end softened, carrying the desperate hope of someone who had finally found a way out.
“Do you believe me now?”
I remained silent for a long time before speaking slowly.
“What makes you so certain Adrian will betray me? We’ve been together for five years. He’s had plenty of women pursue him who are more accomplished and more beautiful than I am. If he were going to fall for someone else, he would have done it already. He wouldn’t wait another ten years.”
“That’s because the woman who changes his heart hasn’t appeared yet. When she does, he’ll leave you without hesitation. He’ll hurt you…”
“Did you change?” I interrupted. “If you’d remained the woman he loved, would he still have fallen for someone else?”
My thirty-three-year-old self went still.
Her heavy breathing began to tremble.
“I changed. I wasn’t as beautiful as I used to be. I became nagging and calculating. Sometimes I lost my temper for no reason. But my love for him never changed.”
“But he had changed long before that. He grew impatient. He stopped indulging me. He forgot our wedding anniversary…”
“Chloe, we’re only ordinary women. When you reach my age, you’ll understand. I can’t be as carefree as you are now.”
“Take my advice and leave him. The deeper you love him now, the more he’ll hurt you someday. Adrian Sterling isn’t worth it…”
“No. He is!”
Emotion surged through me, and I cut her off.
“Other than my parents, he loves me more than anyone in the world!”
“He learned to bake cupcakes for me. Whenever I was sick, he stayed beside my bed night after night. He recorded a ringtone just for me in his own voice. He carried me up a mountain so we could watch the sunrise together. He even risked being burned alive to save me!”
Chapter 3
“Those things really happened. You experienced every one of them yourself. What gives you the right to say he isn’t worth it?”
“But he killed your child with his own hands!”
I froze.
Something seemed to wrench at my heart, leaving behind thin, spreading threads of pain.
My voice trembled. “What did you say?”
Through the phone, I heard my thirty-three-year-old self’s teeth begin to chatter.
“Chloe Bennett, do you really want to hear this? Do you want to know what Adrian Sterling becomes ten years from now?”
I said nothing.
On the other end of the call, she gradually regained her composure and began to tell me what had happened.
My thirty-three-year-old self told the twenty-three-year-old me that five years after Adrian and I married, we began privately sponsoring a disadvantaged college student named Lily Carter.
At eighteen, Lily was as shy and delicate as a touch-me-not. She blushed whenever she spoke to me, and she hardly dared to look Adrian in the eye.
Apart from the living allowance we sent her every month, we rarely had any contact.
Once she graduated from the university and our financial support ended, we had even less reason to speak. She sent us polite messages on holidays, but that was all.
I thought she would remain nothing more than a passing figure in our lives.
I never imagined that, years later, I would see Adrian at the hospital.
I had just been discharged after a miscarriage. As I passed a room with its door partly open, I glanced inside and saw him.
The woman lying in the bed was Lily Carter.
Adrian sat beside her, their fingers intertwined. He gazed tenderly at the high curve of her swollen belly.
My entire body went rigid.
Before I could even begin to process what I was seeing, Adrian spoke, and his words sent me plunging into an abyss.
“Eight months already. Our baby will be here soon.” His voice was warm with anticipation. “Lily, I can’t wait. Just imagine our tiny, soft little baby, sweet and gentle like you. Every time I think about it, I can hardly contain myself.”
Shy happiness spread across Lily’s face. She lifted Adrian’s hand and placed it against her rounded stomach.
“The baby can’t wait to meet his daddy either. It’s just…”
She paused, worry gathering between her brows.
“Our child won’t have a legitimate place in the family. He’ll be born to the other woman.”
“No, he won’t.” Adrian interrupted her gently. “Chloe’s surgery is over. I’m going to ask her for a divorce today. We’ll be legally married before the baby is born.”
Guilt flickered across Lily’s face.
“Adrian, if Chloe finds out her miscarriage wasn’t an accident, will she hate me?”
Adrian kissed her cheek.