The memories surged forward like a tidal wave.
Back then, she was just a little girl climbing out of the rubble after an earthquake. My father and I were inspecting the site in that village when we found her among the broken walls and ruins.
She had no one.
That was when I began sponsoring her education.
Every month, she wrote me letters.
Year by year, the emotions hidden between the lines grew more unmistakable.
Later, I bought her a phone. She confessed her feelings to me during one of those calls, and I turned her down. She didn’t argue or cling. Instead, she immersed herself even further in her studies and gained admission to a prestigious university overseas.
When she returned, she was immediately parachuted into the company as its youngest department manager ever.
Standing in front of me again, she asked calmly, “Nathan, am I worthy of you now?”
This time, I nodded.
When I told my family I planned to marry her, my father broke his favorite whiskey glass, and my mother cried all night. I knelt in the ancestral hall for three days straight. In the end, though, I didn’t back down.