Love Began with the First Meeting

"I am leaving now... please take care!" And without another word, Molly walked out of the room, leading Mark by his hand. Mark was confused but he could feel his mother's pain and could empathize with her. Mark turned and waved goodbye to all of them, his friends and family, before turning back around and walking alongside Molly. He didn't want to leave everyone behind. He wanted to cry but he knew that him crying would make his mother sadder, and he didn't want to see her sadder.

But not too long after they'd exited the hotel, the door that Molly was staying at opened and a pair of leather shoes made their way inside.

Brian stood in the middle of the room that still had Molly's scent. It made him weak and even more depressed. He glanced around, knowing that she would have left the divorce papers. When his eyes found them, he walked over and was surprised to see the diamond ring that he had given her five years back. Picking it up, Brian could still feel her warmth. Turning it in between his fingers, he remembered the moment that he had pushed the ring onto her finger. That day, he had given her his vow and oath, pledging himself to her for all of eternity. It tortured him to think that she was gone now, out of his life. As he focused back onto the ring and the divorce papers, he looked at Molly's signature next to his own.

How twisted were things that looked so simple? A small thing could start a love that seemed so pure and everlasting, and another thing could see the demolishment of that love, crumbling it to pieces until all that's left turn into ashes. With a heavy heart, he picked up the divorce paper and stared down at it for a long time. With the ring in one hand and the divorce papers in the other, he slowly walked over to the window. Subconsciously, he wanted to look for her, knowing that she wouldn't have gone far yet. He wanted to look at her one last time before she was completely gone.

It didn't take long for his eyes to spot Molly, whom dragging her luggage behind her and holding onto Mark's hand; Mark was walking beside her. The sky was gloomy and the air was cold and windy; it was blowing through Molly's hair, making it fly all around her face. Brian had always been fond of her hair. Then it began to snow as if the god was watching and playing on their tragic love story. As the flakes of snow fell, they covered the ground and they covered Molly's and Mark's hair, turning the air around them as cold and dark as Brian felt, and probably how Molly felt as well.

As the snow fell on and around his wife and son, Brian felt powerless as a sharp pain suddenly struck his heart. He started to heave, his chest rising and falling slowly as tears threatened to come. He held his gaze on Molly and Mark as they became smaller and smaller away from the hotel. Brian couldn't believe it; this was the last time he would ever see Molly. As he continued to watch them disappear into the distance, a memory started to play in his mind of the first time they met, so long ago. He remembered Molly, then a younger, beautiful girl, who almost ran into his car. And he remembered that snowy night, when that girl had confessed that she'd fallen in love with him. She had shown him the snowmen that she'd built, a man and a woman. She'd told him that they were meant to represent them, she and Brian. "They're a happy couple like us," she had said. Brian smiled as he remembered.

He took out his phone and searched for the photo taken that night. Finally, he found the picture of the snowmen, who were standing on a floor of snow. They were smiling at the camera.

While the picture once gave him a surge of happiness whenever he looked at it, now it brought him sadness and even loneliness. It was funny how things had changed into. With a trembling hand, he tapped on trash can icon. Then the screen blinked and a request was displayed: delete permanently? The question sent panic throughout Brian's body. Caught off guard, he thought about what he would do next.

The question had cast doubt in his mind, but Brian knew that ultimately, he could not afford to have any sort of doubt or hesitation because even the smallest doubt or hesitation would break apart his plan of protecting Molly and Mark. Everything he had been fighting for would be moot. With his tears blurring his eyes, he pressed 'yes' and then watched as the photo erased from his phone, disbelieving what he had done. With blurry eyes, he looked out at the backs of Molly and Mark moving slowly into the distance... How badly he wanted to rush to them and keep them at his side! His body shuddered with the strong desire of temptation as the figures of Molly and Mark grew smaller in the distance. He knew that soon, he would lose them forever, and this moment may be his last glimpse of the person he loved the most.

The deletion of the picture was cutting off the very last connection that he had with both Molly and Mark, and as he watched their figures receding into the distance, he felt a strong urge to rush out to them. He felt as though someone was strangling him, knocking breath out of his body.

"Why did you let her go when you love her more than you love your own life?"

His mother's voice came from behind him and it was curious, anxious, and bewildered. Brian didn't respond. Instead, he stared out the window at the snow, each flake falling delicately onto the ground, finally evaporating against the ground. "Brian... why?" Shirley asked again. Her voice was sharp, seeming to cut through the air like a knife, and vibrant like burning fire.

The grasp he had on the divorce papers tightened, causing the paper to crinkle and the ring to be pushed against his skin, poking it. Brian didn't feel it though; he didn't feel the ring or the papers. The pain he was feeling in his heart was more than the pain caused by the ring digging into his flesh. His heart was beating fast and his muscles were quaking and trembling, the dense and exceeding agony swallowing his body and soul. He felt like he was on the verge of breaking down, faced with the reality of his lonely life ahead without his beloved Molly. He sank down into a crouch, still facing the window, staring at nothing.

"Brian!" Shirley cried and rushed over to him, crouching next to him. Seeing her son in so much pain sent Shirley's heart into a fit of insufferable leaps of pain. She wrapped her arms around him.

"Mom..." Brian muttered ever so quietly. "I can't bear the pain. It's too much for me to handle." Tears flowed out of his eyes, finally letting go of all his pent-up sadness, despair, and anguish, not able to hold it inside any longer in front of his mother. His mother was there when he needed her the most, when he needed another person the most. It was a critical thing that she was there, and he could not help but let out his tears and to cry against his mother, feeling her loving arms around him.

Shirley shut her eyes as she held her son tightly against her, enveloped in her arms, as she had done so many times when Brian was a little boy. Her heart felt as though it had a stone or boulder weighing it down. "You two love each other so much," she said softly, rubbing his back. "So why do you have to do this? Now seeing you both in so much pain, I have to ask, what good would come out from being apart?" She desperately wanted to understand. 0000