"I beg you! Neil, don't go to Mars! I'll do anything! Please, come home!"
Keira's near-hysterical plea echoed through the empty house, her voice hoarse, carrying a sudden, frantic affection. Yet, for Neil, this love, this late-dawning panic, only felt like endless irony.
Just a month prior, their lives had been a different kind of desolate.
Keira returned past one in the morning, a strange scent of tobacco and cologne clinging to her—a smell that wasn't his. She had a man's jacket, deep blue and expertly tailored, draped casually over her arm; it clearly belonged to Simon.
Neil stood like a statue in the dim living room.
"Oh, I spilled a drink. It's Simon's, so I just borrowed it," Keira explained with dismissive nonchalance, her tone filled with an impatience that suggested speaking another word was an act of charity to his tedious existence.
【Comments: Tsk, tsk, Simon? That finance scion who packages his manipulative charm as pure innocence?】
【Comments: Does she think Neil is a fool? I can smell that scent from here!】
Then, she became a sharp knife, carving into his heart inch by inch: "You useless house-husband! Living off my money, what right do you have to put on a face? What in this house isn't paid for by me?!"
Neil's breath hitched. In that instant, he felt as if he wasn't listening to his wife's accusations, but to a judge pronouncing his death sentence.
The next morning, Neil clutched the printed divorce papers, his knuckles white, the paper feeling as light as his teetering life. In the living room, Keira's laughter, like a blunt knife, pierced him again.
"Norway was amazing! That aurora photo is absolutely perfect!" she cooed into her phone, her voice brimming with a joyous sweetness Neil hadn't heard in five years.
【Comments: The female lead is truly love-struck. To see the aurora with Simon, she just cancelled the anniversary trip Neil worked so hard to plan.】
【Comments: Don't be naive, Neil, you're not in her heart at all.】
He barely registered anything else she said, until a name, like a bullet, struck him—"Simon said naming Mom's comet 'Star of Solace' was so romantic, I was really touched..."
At that moment, Neil's eyes snapped open, his pupils sharply constricted. He felt a silent scream lodged in his throat, rattling his very being. He had spent countless nights hunched over his telescope, scanning the starry sky sleeplessly, solely to find that star for her mother, one that would bring her comfort. It was meant to be his most private, most profound gift to her.
【Comments: Holy sh*t! *This* is the ultimate betrayal! Neil gave up his Mars mission to become an astrophysicist, all for her mother!】
【Comments: Simon just stole Neil's efforts and his heartfelt gesture! How vicious!】
【Comments: My heart aches for Neil, he was the *real* seeker of the 'Star of Solace'...】
Just as his heart shattered, his phone rang abruptly—it was NASX.
The Mars Mission. The dream he had put aside for Keira, for her mother's dying wish, for five long years, was suddenly back on the table. One year, completely cut off from Earth. He had paused his life for her for five full years.
Neil closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they held an unshakeable resolve.
"I accept," he said into the phone, his voice low and calm, as if the heartbreak of moments ago had never happened.
When Keira, finally in her last moments, realized the true cost of her cruel betrayal, she wept, hysterically begging him to stay.
Neil, the future astronaut, did not turn his gaze to her tear-streaked face. He looked out at the deep night sky, and at that distant, red-glowing planet. His heart was broken; his dream, however, was in this moment, reborn from the ashes.
