She had expected him to deny it or look at her with surprise and ask why she was asking such a ridiculous question. Yet none of that happened. His response was simple and direct, cutting through everything.
She really was his wife. This man, still a stranger to her in many ways, was her husband—and they even had a child together.
“What… have you remembered?” His expression grew serious, and his tone seemed to tighten.
This kind of tension was something that shouldn’t appear on someone like him. He was supposed to be calm and composed, someone who navigated any situation with ease.
But, strangely enough, just like her sister, he seemed afraid of what she might remember.
Thelma closed her eyes and shook her head. “It’s just a fragment. I was sitting in a room, drinking, holding a cigarette between my fingers. Tyler ran over, and I tried to push him away, but the cigarette burned his arm. I heard him call me ‘Mommy.’ That’s all—just this fragment.”
He didn’t respond. The car filled with a heavy, stifling silence.
“I find it strange. If I’m Tyler’s mother, why would he pretend not to know me?” She looked up at him. “And why would you, Mr. Sam, pretend not to know me either?”
He smiled faintly—a subtle, fleeting smile, so faint it was almost impossible to tell if he was really smiling at all. “There’s no need.”
“No need? Why?”
His half-narrowed gaze fell on her, deep and heavy, as if he were trying to peer into the depths of her soul.
He said, “Because you dislike me. And you dislike Tyler.”
Thelma: “…”
He continued, “We didn’t want you to know about our relationship because we were afraid you’d remember your dislike for us. But at the same time, I wanted to be close to you. So this was the only way.”
His tone carried a certain weight, like a heavy knock on the heart.
Dislike him? Dislike Tyler?
“Why would I dislike you?” she asked.
He leaned his head back against the seat, gazing at the car’s ceiling. His smile held a touch of self-mockery. “Maybe because you wanted a divorce, and I refused.”
It was all so foreign. Everything he was telling her felt like it came from a completely different world.
This must be a dream, a surreal and absurd dream. How could she have any connection with a man like him?
Dislike him? Dislike Sam Noah? This outstanding yet unattainable man? And not just dislike him—she wanted a divorce? These things felt like they belonged to an entirely different world, a world that had nothing to do with her. She couldn’t comprehend it; it all seemed so absurd.
“Then how did we meet?” she asked.
