My Runaway Groom Came Back I Became His Aunt! novel Chapter 23

Chapter 7

After traveling for days, I finally returned to the hometown I had left for so long. Nothing had changed.

Here, time seemed frozen, as if the years never moved forward at all. Even after so many years away, everything looked exactly as I remembered.

Mrs. Anderson, the neighbor, nearly jumped with surprise when she saw me.

Overjoyed, she hurried over to help tidy up my grandmother’s old house.

“When you got into an Ivy League school back then, we were all so proud of you. Looking at you now, you must be doing wonderfully in the big city, right?”

“You didn’t waste your grandmother’s efforts after all.”

Her warm, motherly smile made my chest tighten. But instead of pride, I lowered my head in shame. I was

the pride of this godforsaken town.

Everyone, included myself, believed I was destined for a brilliant future. I would buy my grandmother a

comfortable life. I would marry well. I would build a happy home.

But fate was unpredictable. At a crossroads in my life, I chose Leonardo. And with that choice, I lost seven

years of youth and two lives.

Mrs. Anderson and I chatted for a while, and I briefly told her what had happened. When she heard that my

grandmother had passed away, grief clouded her face.

And I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore.

“I keep feeling like I killed her. If I had noticed her declining health sooner, if I had hidden the news about the

baby… if I hadn’t married Leonardo, none of this would have happened.”

Mrs. Anderson gently patted my shoulder and pulled me into her arms.

“Your grandmother called me once, years ago.”

“She knew you weren’t happy after getting married. She cried and told me she felt sorry for you, that she was

the burden weighing you down…”

“Sofia, you’re an adult now, so I won’t pretend to comfort you with empty words. But no elder truly stops

loving their child.”

“Your grandmother wouldn’t blame you. All she ever wanted was for you to be happy.”

I broke down in her arms, cried until the salt stung my eyes and my lungs felt like ash, wishing I could pour

out every ounce of grief and humiliation I had endured over the past seven years.

When the storm finally passed, my heart felt lighter. The past couldn’t be undone. But at least, even stripped to the bone, I had escaped that golden cage.

Chapter 7

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