Chapter 70 Extra Chapter 2: Twenty-Second Birthday Gift
Chloe's marriage to Nathan had come so suddenly that, even afterward, it still felt a little unreal.
At the time, she had just graduated, started an internship in the city, and rented a small apartment downtown. Nathan, meanwhile, was still in his combined bachelor's-master's programme, so he hadn't graduated yet.
But the moment Chloe moved out on her own, Nathan grew restless. He hated the idea of her living alone and kept insisting on moving in with her.
Chloe refused every time.
She had heard it often enough growing up: if you wanted to marry someone, you absolutely shouldn't live together beforehand. Once you did, all the mystery disappeared. For a woman especially, living together before marriage was practically a romance killer.
And by then, Chloe was already deeply attached to Nathan. She couldn't bear the idea of living with him for years, only for them to break up in the end.
So she drew a firm line.
Nathan was allowed to visit her apartment, but he was never allowed to stay the night. No matter how late it got, she would always send him back to campus.
One night, rain poured down outside in sheets.
After dinner, Chloe started urging him to leave.
Nathan slumped against the sofa and refused to move. "Just let me stay one night."
"No." Chloe didn't budge. "My dad said no men are allowed to stay overnight."
"Chloe..." Nathan looked at her with shameless, pitiful eyes.
"Pretending to be pathetic won't help," she said mercilessly. "Hurry up. If you leave now, you can still catch the last bus."
Nathan let out a long sigh, pushed himself to his feet, and walked over to her.
"Then when I graduate, can I move in with you?"
"Don't even think about it." Chloe kept her eyes on the computer game she was playing. "No living together before marriage. Unless we're married."
"Yeah," Nathan said after a pause. "You're right."
Chloe barely registered his answer.
A moment later, she heard the door click shut behind him.
Then he vanished.
He didn't come by the next day.
Or the day after that.
On the third day, he suddenly appeared at her apartment carrying two documents and a stack of papers. He set them on the table and said, "I went back to my hometown the day before yesterday and got everything ready for our marriage registration."
Chloe stared at him. "Why are you preparing this?"
Nathan looked at her as if she were the unreasonable one. "Didn't you say you wanted to get married?"
"When did I say that?" Chloe asked, completely baffled.
He frowned faintly. "The night before last, you kept pressuring me to marry you. And now you're pretending you never said it?"
"When did I pressure you to marry me?" Chloe felt genuinely wronged.
"You said you wouldn't let me live with you unless we were married," Nathan said, pouting slightly. "I wasn't planning to get married this early, but if you want it that badly, I guess I can agree."
"I didn't say that!" Chloe protested, now starting to doubt her own memory.
She had only said she wouldn't live with him unless they were married.
Had he seriously misunderstood that?
Just as she was about to explain, Nathan cut in first.
"I don't care. I already went through all the trouble of preparing everything. Are you really not coming with me to register at City Hall?"
Chloe hesitated. "It's not that I won't register with you... but shouldn't we tell our parents first?"
"It's fine," Nathan said at once. "We can register first."
And before Chloe could sort out her thoughts properly, Nathan had already taken her hand and pulled her out the door.
By the time she walked out of City Hall, marriage certificate in hand, she was still in a daze.
She stared down at the paper and asked blankly, "So... we're married now?"
Nathan's smile was dazzling. "Yep."
Then, as if he had just remembered something, he added, "Hey, today's November 26."
Chloe looked up. "Which happens to be your twenty-second birthday."
"Yeah." Nathan's grin widened. "So I guess this counts as a pretty amazing birthday present."
Chloe turned to look at him, still feeling as though she had somehow fallen straight into a trap.
She just couldn't figure out exactly when it had happened.
That afternoon, she stood in the apartment and watched the moving truck Nathan had rented carry his belongings upstairs.
Only then did she finally ask the question that had been bothering her all day.
"Nathan... did you marry me just so you could move in?"
The moment he heard that, the bright happiness on his face faltered.
"What's wrong, Chloe?" he asked softly. "Don't you want to marry me?"
"It's not that I don't want to," Chloe said quickly. "I just didn't expect us to get married this soon."
Nathan lowered his head, and when he spoke again, there was a trace of quiet insecurity in his voice.
"But Chloe... you wouldn't even let me move in. I was scared that once you started working, you'd meet someone better and leave me."
Her heart softened instantly.
"How could that happen?" she said at once. "You're already wonderful. If I gave you up, I'd be the idiot."
Nathan looked up at her. "Then what difference does it make if we register a little earlier?"
Chloe blinked.
That... actually made sense.
If they got married sooner, then she could hold him legally, openly, properly.
Her gaze drifted from the freshly made bed to Nathan's handsome face, then to his tall, well-built frame.
She swallowed.
Honestly, this arrangement seemed pretty good.
That night, Nathan held the sleeping Chloe in his arms, a childish, triumphant smile tugging at his lips.
He had waited so long for her to move out of the dormitory and into a place of her own, and now that he finally had her, he didn't want to be apart from her for even a single day.
Besides, she had already stepped into the working world, while he was still stuck on campus. There were too many people outside, too many temptations, too many smooth-talking men.
What if someone swept her away?
Nathan couldn't even bear the thought.
No matter what, I had to make her my wife first.
Thankfully, she was willing to spend forever with him.
His heart felt so full it almost hurt.
Chloe would never know just how deeply he loved her.
She had always believed she was the one who pursued him first, that she had chased him for a year or two, and that her feelings must have been stronger.
It wasn't until many years later that she finally understood the truth.
She had been completely wrong.
This man had loved her far more deeply than she had ever imagined.