Another Man's Treasure

1. Flameless Lost Love

Two years later

Madison~~

Loneliness is a strange sort of thing.

After this I'm going to be all alone. But it's okay because I've always been alone anyways.

I can't believe this is what my life has come to. Wow, the universe did me dirty. So is this how my story ends? Is this my fate? Hell, I never thought I'd end up here.

Maybe if I pray hard enough this will all disappear, all the pain and loneliness, it will right? Because please, I want it gone. But all I know is I'll never wish this on anyone. I wouldn't wish flameless love on anyone. This is not how things were supposed to be. Not to end up like loveless fools. Please help-

"Ms. Monroe?"

I open my tired dull eyes, look up at the Judge when I heard my maiden name.

"Please Madison, pay attention. We talked about this." Joe, my lawyer whispers next to me. He straightens his suit and buttons up his jacket.
I don't know why it's so hard for me to concentrate.

Judge Cheng continues. "Alright, let's discuss the finalization of shares among Ms Monroe and Mr. Hyde."
She pokes up her glasses and clears her throat. "House belongings: furniture and the house as a whole, as well as bank-"

     "I don't want it." I say in a low toned voice.

"Excuse me?"

     "I don't want any of it." I finally look Judge Cheng in the eye.

"If you let me finish then you'd know what I was about to say next Ms Monroe." She warns. I shut my mouth and let her finish. "Mr. Hyde is offering you thirty-five grand for the white Mercedes ML 7G Tronic." She says in a mouth full. "So it's basically a family car?"

"Yes, your Honour, but we never got to use it. I've got my own vehicle." Christian confidently points out from across the room next to his lawyer- Brian.

Cheng questions him further. "Was something wrong with the car?"

Christian gives me a quick glance before looking at the middle-aged Korean woman. "No. Madison bought it for me as a birthday gift but we never used the family car because we don't have a family. So I sold it."

    "Okay, that's it!" Subtle anger rise inside me, "Do you really have to bring that up? It doesn't matter anymore because it happened two years ago but you're still bringing it up-"

"Because I still care!" He yells. Brian tries calming him down.

    I take a deep breath in, "You don't." I say calmly, "She's gone and she's not coming back."

Then a sudden realization comes down upon me.

We are never going to forgive ourselves for what happened. Maybe this is our punishment? Maybe this is how our story ends, and maybe we do deserve this pain because we didn't try, at least not hard enough.

"Please calm down... So are you willing to take the thirty-five thousand dollars Ms Monroe?"

Do I want it? I mean, I could use the money-