’And you must remember, the Leona Grant of the next life won’t hurt you again.’

’Farewell, the one I once loved.’

"Leona Grant! Leona Grant!" Annabelle Linton watched his pupils lose focus and frantically grabbed the first-aid kit to give him first aid.

Seeing him like this, her heart clenched painfully, and tears streamed down her face.

’Leona Grant, if not for our tragic end in our last life, for the death of our child, perhaps I would have tried to accept you. We have over twenty years of history, after all.’

’Those feelings are carved into my very bones. How could a fortress, built up piece by piece over all that time, crumble so easily?’

’But the iron-clad evidence before me makes it impossible for me to approach you. Why are you so fixated, so much so that you’d even kill yourself...?’

’Wouldn’t it be good to just live?’

Annabelle Linton used the first-aid kit to stanch the bleeding and minimize the blood loss. Just then, the paramedics arrived.

She got into the ambulance with Leona Grant. The paramedics put an oxygen mask on him, hooked him up to an ECG monitor, and performed other basic procedures.

Annabelle Linton helped while trying to distract him and keep him from passing out.

"Leona Grant, I have to tell you something. Don’t you dare pass out."

Whether it was the oxygen or her words, Leona Grant’s unfocused pupils seemed to sharpen slightly.

He looked at her weakly and reached a hand out to her.

Annabelle Linton quickly grasped it, as if to give him strength, and said through her tears, "Do you know why I loved you for so many years? Why I held on for so long?"

Leona Grant looked at her and shook his head. He didn’t know, but he desperately wanted to.

Annabelle Linton gave a small laugh, wiping her tears and forcing a smile that looked more painful than her crying. "’You idiot,’ she said. ’Do you remember that little handmade notebook I had when we were kids? I could never figure out what to write in it, and then you snatched it away. Do you remember?’"

’He remembered. She had made that notebook herself.’

’The cover had Chibi Maruko-chan on it, and all the drawings inside were done by her. It took her a month to make and was incredibly exquisite. When you opened the first page, it was like a greeting card, with a pop-up Chibi Maruko-chan.’

’She treasured it, keeping it in her school bag to look at all day long.’

’Later, he got so jealous. He snatched her notebook, demanding that she give him back the attention the little notebook had stolen from him. He even scribbled all over it, making her cry for days.’

’He had been so ridiculous, getting jealous over a mere notebook.’

Leona Grant gave a weak laugh. "I remember..."

Annabelle Linton laughed again. "Later, when I was sadly inspecting the notebook, I stumbled upon a whole page filled with my name. Underneath it, there was a sentence..."

’He remembered scrawling her name over and over again to vent his frustration; he hadn’t realized he’d filled the whole page. He knew what sentence he’d written at the end, but he thought he’d torn it out. Hadn’t he?’

He played dumb. "What... what was it?"

Remembering how she felt when she first saw that sentence, Annabelle Linton felt the urge to cry again. "It said, ’Annabelle Linton, you little brat, one day I’m gonna make you my wife. You can only be nice to me, and only care about me. If you’re nice to anyone else, I’ll get rid of ’em! I’m gonna kiss you and kiss you and kiss you, and hold you when we sleep every night, and be with you every day. No one’s ever gonna take you away from me!’"

Even as a child, he was that domineering and arrogant.

Tears streamed down both their faces as they laughed.

Leona Grant smiled, his face pale, and then asked, "Annabelle... do you still love me?"

[PS: How will Annabelle answer? The first reader to post the correct answer + their reasoning in the comment section will get 100 book coins! Remember, only answers in the comment section count!]