West Coast East Heart Chapter 03
And now, he was using this crystal sculpture to remind me.
*You can finally go to Europe.*
He had no idea. That sculpture wasn’t a gift to me. It was a knife.
I didn’t engage with his words. I just quietly packed up our things.
The trash bin was filled with miscellaneous items.
Our wedding photos. Samples of our wedding invitations. Pictures from our honeymoon in Hawaii…
“You’re throwing all these away?”
He looked puzzled.
After all, I used to treasure them like precious jewels.
I replied flatly, my hands not stopping.
“There’s too much stuff. Some things have to go. You can’t keep everything.”
He frowned slightly. It seemed like he sensed something behind my words.
But he didn’t move. He didn’t pull anything out of the trash.
I pointed to a storage box in the corner. It held things belonging to him and Clara.
Their old photos. A scarf she gave him. Letters she wrote him…
“Should we toss those?”
He panicked instantly. He rushed over and clutched the box to his chest.
“These can’t be thrown away!”
Realizing his reaction was a bit extreme, he gave an awkward laugh.
“These are Clara’s things. I’ll take them to return to her.”
When he said that, he looked at me expectantly.
It was as if he was waiting for me to ask, “Return them where?”
But I didn’t ask. I just gave a simple, “Oh.”
After a long pause, he grew uneasy and probed cautiously.
“Eve, our employment applications… did you follow up on them?”
“I did.”
“And… did you submit all your personal documents?”
“Submitted.”
He exhaled in relief and smiled.
“That’s good.”
I still gave no reaction.
I just threw more things into the trash.
We began dealing with our property in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Adrian started sharing photos of apartments in Geneva on Instagram.
Quite a few friends commented.
“Already picked out a place? We’ll come visit you guys in Europe sometime.”
I didn’t like the posts. I didn’t comment.
That house—we had lived there for ten years. Every corner held a memory.
On the living room wall hung a huge map of the United States. We put it up when we first moved in.
Back then, he put his arm around me and said:
“Once we join Nexagen, we’ll go visit all these places.”
He had marked many spots on the map with red tacks.
“Palo Alto, San Jose, San Francisco… This is our home turf. One day, we’ll walk every single street here.”
Now the map was still there. The red tacks were still there.
It was just that the person who said those words no longer remembered them.
“Eve, take a look at this apartment. It’s right by Lake Geneva. You can see Mont Blanc from the balcony.”
He looked at me, testing the waters.
I gave a soft “Mhm.”
“California’s probably not bad either.”
He froze. A confused look crossed his face.
“Eve, don’t you like Switzerland?”
“I do.”
His expression relaxed.
“Going there for a vacation, maybe skiing, sounds pretty nice.”
He froze again.
Just as he was about to speak, his phone rang.
It was a video call from Clara.
“Adrian, my foot hurts so much. I can’t move…”
She was sobbing in a delicate, pitiful voice. Her face was a mess of tears.
“What happened?”
Adrian shot to his feet, his voice tense.
“I missed a step going downstairs… I fell down the stairs…”
“I’m all alone. I’m so scared. No one can take me to the hospital…”
Clara’s tears fell even harder.
“Don’t move. Whatever you do, don’t move. I’ll book a flight right now.”
Adrian panicked. He looked at me.