Once they walked a distance away, Bertha let go of Samuel’s hand. He did not understand why and wanted to hold her hand again but one question from Bertha made him stop.
“Why did you lie to me in the past?”
Samuel was stunned. He bowed his head and dared not meet Bertha’s eyes. He just whispered, “It’s pretty late. Should I send you
back to your hotel?”
“Just feigning ignorance, huh? Tell me. Why did you lie to me?!” Bertha shouted at the top of her lungs.
Samuel could tell that she was crying. Her tears fell on his wrist, and he looked up in a panic. It was only then that he realized
Bertha’s face was covered in tears. Feeling anxious, he hurried to comfort her, but he refused to talk about what had happened in
the past.
Honestly, he was not trying to hide it. He simply did not know where to start and what to say.
Was he supposed to tell her that his family was ruined because of a painting, or tell her that he left the country from disappointment, or that he had been crushed by far too many problems when he was young and had not intentionally broken his
promise with her?
When he still refused to speak, Bertha pushed him away.
“Since you still won’t say anything, just pretend that we’re strangers.”
She wiped away her tears and left on her own. However, she did not realize that Samuel’s eyes were fixed on her until she entered
the hotel.
That year, Bertha had worked hard to save up on tuition fees so that she could keep her promise. She had treated Samuel as her savior and believed everything he said. She trusted that he would take her away from her home and give her a bright future. But after working hard and almost dying to get into university, she heard that Samuel had left to study abroad ahead of her. He did
not even leave a message behind for her.
Every night after that, she wrote more than one hundred emails to Samuel, but all of them went unanswered. Thus, she locked up her heart and stopped believing in other people so easily.
