The Seventh Miserable Bride

She ran all the way to the beach. Sure enough, she saw Sebastian's upright back.

She walked up to him, step by step, and stood next to him. She said, "Don't think that I'm here to apologize to you. I don't feel sorry for you."

Sebastian looked at her and said coldly, "I don't think that you should appear in front of me now."

"I have a reason to show up in front of you."

"No matter what your reason is, I can choose not to listen to it."

"You don't have other choices! And you have to listen to me clearly!"

Yasmine looked at him coldly, and she emphasized, "Yes, you've been greatly hurt. You've been abandoned by the woman you love. You have enough reason to be sad, but you have no reason to be depressed. Take today as an example, so what if it's the day that woman abandoned you? Your life is given by your mother, not by that woman. What right does she have to destroy such an important day? Our birthday is the day of our mothers' suffering. How can we forget the person who brought us to this world, just because we are hurt by others? How can we forget the pain they went through when they were giving birth to us?"

"You've never been betrayed, so don't talk like you understand everything. It's always so easy to talk about others, but it's different if it actually happened to you yourself. My life is not as precious as you think. It can pass just like that, or it can even disappear at any time."

Yasmine did not expect that he would say such impetuous words, so she was aggravated. "Well, since your life is so worthless and you don't care about it, you're here at the ocean. End your life here so that your family won't waste their time caring about you!"

"You think I won't dare do so?"

A cruel smile appeared on the corner of Sebastian's lips as he walked towards the sea. Yasmine watched him walked further and further away. The seawater level reached his legs, then his waist, and was about to reach his back. Yasmine suddenly lost control, and chased after him, rushing over to embrace his waist while crying sadly.

"Well, since you want to die, I'll die with you. I had the thought of ending mine years ago anyway..."

Yasmine's tears streamed down the curve of his back and into the sea. Her tears carried with them an immense burden of internal suffering.

Sebastian stopped and turned his eyes to her, saying, "When can you stop being foolish, you silly woman? Isn't it a pity to die with a person like me?"

"To you, Sebastian, we're just a fake couple who have a marriage certificate with no real feelings towards each other. But to me, you're like family. Even if there's no love between us, I will not abandon you. I'll always stay with you, regardless of my status."

Sebastian was deeply moved by her words. He turned around, combed her hair which was wet with tears, and solemnly said, "Silly woman, do you really think I'm so vulnerable? The loss of love indeed caused me an indelible pain. But not to the extent that I can't live. Even if I couldn't bear to live, it would have been one day three years ago, and not today."

"Then why did you do this? Why did you make me think that you wanted to end your life?"

"I just wanted to sober myself up. I can't deny that you were right. Our lives don't belong to us, so we can't give it up for no reason."

"Do you really think so? Really?"

The tears at the corner of Yasmine's eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Seeing Sebastian nod, she finally broke into a smile.

"Thank you, thank you for listening to me."

She was really happy, almost ecstatic.

Sebastian wiped the corner of her eyes gently and said emotionally, "You're a warm soul. I should be the one thanking you. Thank you for tolerating my bad temper. Thank you for not giving up on me like all those other women."

"I don't want you to say thank you. If you really want to thank me, can you promise me that you will overcome your PTSD just like how you helped me overcome my claustrophobia? It may be a little difficult, but like you said, when there's a will, there's a way. Everything that happens to us in our daily life is determined by our feelings. If our hearts feel hurt, we will be hurt. But if our hearts don't feel that way, then we won't be so easily hurt."

Sebastian stared at her and was speechless for a long time. After a while, he suddenly raised one of her hands and put it on his wet chest. "Up until last year, this place had always been cold at this time of the year, but it's not the case today."

He unfastened the buttons on his shirt one by one, and exposed his own chest. It was not the first time Yasmine saw his bare chest, but to her surprise, she found that there was a word tattooed on the place where his heart was beating. To be exact, it was a person's name, Abigail.

Be it in the swimming pool of the hotel in T City or previously, Yasmine had never noticed that there was such a word at that place.

"How much love did you have for her and you had to tattoo her name on your heart?"

She asked with great disappointment and sadness.

"You'll understand when you really fall in love with someone one day."

"So, there's no way to forget her?"

"I'll try hard to do so. Because of what you said, I now want to be a normal person, so I will try. In the days to come, I will gradually forget this word on my chest, and the person in my heart."

It was not an impulsive decision, and Sebastian had made up his mind. The next day, he went to the same parlor where had his tattoo done. He felt a slight pain in his heart, standing in front of the shop and looking at the familiar signboard. Five years ago, he came here with Abigail for the first time. Now he was back again, but everything was not the same as before.

The person who was by his side back then, was now missing.

The tattoo artist recognized Sebastian and greeted him warmly, "Master Sebastian, what a surprise. Why have you come today?"

In B City, anyone would recognize Sebastian.

"If it's convenient for you now, please remove this tattoo for me," Sebastian replied.

The tattoo artist was stunned, and he nodded blankly. "Of course, I have the time, but why do you want it to be removed?"

"It has no value to me now."

Sebastian gave a bland response.

"Oh, alright."

The tattoo artist did not probe further into Sebastian's private matters, but he clearly remembered the expression the hot-blooded young man had on his face when he was getting the tattoo with his girlfriend back then.

"Young Master Sebastian, what about your girlfriend? Did you break up?"

The tattoo artist asked tentatively as he removed the letters on Sebastian's chest.

"Yes."

"It's a pity. For the past 20 years, I've helped countless couples get matching tattoos, but I've never seen a pair like you two, who were willing to tattoo each other's names on their own chests."

"Each other?"

Sebastian frowned slightly. "What do you mean?" Although Abigail went to the parlor with him, Sebastian was worried that it would hurt too much for her to get a tattoo too, so he changed his mind and did not let her get a tattoo.

"Didn't you know? Your girlfriend came to me alone and tattooed your name on her chest too."

All of a sudden, Sebastian froze. "When was this?"

The tattoo artist pondered for a moment and said, "About three years ago. I remember it was on the 9th of September, because the next day was my wife's death anniversary."

Sebastian suddenly sat up and grabbed the tattoo artist's shoulder, demanding, "Are you sure?"

The tattoo artist was startled by him and nodded in a hurry. "Yes, I'm sure..."

Sebastian's hands fell, and his expression was indescribably pained. He took out a few hundred dollars from his wallet and handed them to the tattoo artist. Then, Sebastian got up and left in a daze. "Young Master Sebastian, don't you want to remove your tattoo?"

The artist chased after him.

Sebastian waved his hand and said nothing. He opened the car door, started the engine and left.

He drove aimlessly around the city. The word on his chest was only half removed, but it felt more painful than the day he had it tattooed. For the first time in three years, he felt confused and did not understand what that woman had done.

The day after the 9th of September was the artist's wife's death anniversary, but alas, that was also was also the day of Sebastian and Abigail's wedding.

If Abigail wanted to leave him, she must have planned it long ago. Then, why did she tattoo his name on her chest the day before their wedding?