I handed her the small velvet box, my hands trembling.
"My love… I want to spend the rest of my life with you," I whispered.
Her eyes flickered with something I couldn't read.
Then she said, cold as ice,
"You're sweet… but you don't have a future."
I froze.
"What… what do you mean?" I stammered.
She smiled—not the warm smile I loved, but a cruel, distant one.
"I mean… I need someone who can give me security, comfort… everything you can't," she said.
"And I'm sorry… I just can't love you like that."
Time stopped.
The people around us blurred.
All I could hear was my own heart shattering.
I opened my mouth to beg, to plead, to do anything…
But she turned, walking away.
Every step she took away from me felt like a knife.
And in that moment, I made a silent promise to myself:
"I will return… stronger, richer… unstoppable.
And when I do, she will regret leaving me."
The bell of the café rang, the world moved on…
But I stood frozen, broken, and burning with a fire I didn't know I had.
This wasn't the end.
It was just the beginning.