The Genius and His Shadow

After Nathaniel and I divorced, I thought we'd never see each other again.

Then I ran into him at the flower shop downstairs.

That's how I found out he was back in town.

I'd ducked in to escape the sudden rain, and when I saw him, I managed a polite, Hello.

Nathaniel asked how I'd been all these years.

I just gave a vague, "Fine."

We didn't say much else. Maybe he felt awkward too. After a few stilted pleasantries, he turned to leave.

Right before stepping out, he suddenly looked at me and said, "Vivian Taylor, you seem... different than you were three years ago."

I just smiled without answering.

Truthfully, nothing was really different. The only difference was, I no longer loved him anymore.

A cool draft slipped through the flower shop door, sending a slight chill through the air.

We stood there, the silence between us heavy and uncomfortable.

The shop owner finally broke the silence, arriving with a bouquet of blue irises.

"Mr. Southwell, you're so thoughtful. Even in this rain, you remember to buy flowers for your wife..."

Nathaniel accepted the flowers. Almost unconsciously, his eyes darted toward me.

It sounded like an explanation to the shopkeeper, or perhaps a message meant for me.

"Yolanda's been quite emotional during the pregnancy. She's always loved blue irisesthey lift her mood..."

I offered a thin smile, my gaze drifting toward the window.

Seeing the rain lighten, I prepared to leave.

Just as I reached the door, Nathaniel caught my hand.

"Do you still live over in Northwood? Let me give you a lift."

"No, thank you."

Instinctively, I stepped back, creating space between us.

"I wouldn't want your wife to misunderstand."

I turned and walked away. Before I was out of earshot, I thought I heard Nathaniel say something else.

But the wind and rain drowned out his words.

Around the corner, I glanced at my rain-dampened breakfast and tossed it into a nearby bin.

Raindrops traced the faint scar on my arm, and a bitter smile touched my lips.

It had been eight years since our divorce. Three years since I'd truly let him go.

Seeing him again didn't bring the heart-wrenching pain I'd felt in the early days.

It felt more like running into a distant acquaintance.

The rain finally stopped.

I looked down the street and headed towards the diner.

Sunny, helping out at the diner, saw me and hurried over with a bright smile.

"Viv! You're here! I was cleaning up earlier and found this."

"See if you want it? If not, I'll toss it. We could use the space for a new juicer."

On the counter sat a metal box. The first thing I saw was Nathaniel's familiar handwriting.

"To Vivian Taylor."

Noticing my fixed gaze, Sunny got curious.

She grinned. "Viv, who gave you this? Looks like someone put real thought into it."

But when she noticed the signature at the bottom, her expression shifted.

"Southwell?"

"That legendary Dr. Genius?"

"The super famous one who made international headlines for discovering that B-2 asteroid? Dr. Nathaniel Southwell?!"

Sunny's eyes widened in disbelief, practically sparkling with excitement.

"Viv, who are you? How does a celebrity like that know you?"

I opened the box without a word. "I was his wife," I said flatly.

"The one everyone called unstable. The one who ended up in the psychiatric ward."

"The wife Nathaniel considered his greatest personal failure."

Sunny froze for a moment, then practically pounced, buzzing with curiosity, demanding to know the whole story about Nathaniel.

Under her relentless questioning.

I finally opened those long-sealed memories.

Nathaniel and I met when we were just kids.

Back then, he wasn't the boy genius everyone knows now. Just a quiet, withdrawn child.

In my memories, he seemed to have no friends or family.

Later, I found out his divorced parents had been tossing him back and forth like a football.

Winters in our town were brutally cold.

I remember that day, finding Nathaniel huddled in the stairwell, shivering in just a thin shirt.

I took pity on him and brought him home.

His parents never came looking for him. It was like they'd forgotten he existed.

Everything changed when my dad discovered his astonishing talent for math.

By fourteen, his gifts were getting wider recognition, and he was fast-tracked into MIT.

At sixteen, a paper he published sent shockwaves through academic circles. Overnight, he was famous.

Suddenly, the parents who'd abandoned him came crawling back, fighting over custody.

But Nathaniel knelt in front of my parents.

"Without you, I would have starved on the streets all those years."

"From now on, you are my real mom and dad."

"And I'll take good care of Vivian for the rest of my life."

True to his word, as Nathaniel's star rose, he never ofrgot that promise.

When he went to MIT, he pressured the school to lower their standards so I could go too.

When he joined the faculty, he made them create a position just for me.

I worried I was holding him back, but Nathaniel wouldn't hear it.

"When I was a kid, no one wanted me. If you hadn't taken me in that day, I'd have frozen to death that winter."

"From that moment, I swore I'd never let you go."

"Vivian, no matter how high I fly, no matter where I go, I won't leave you behind."

That was Nathaniel. Stubborn to his core.

Once he set his mind on something, he wouldn't let it go.

Whether it was his research.

Or pursuing me.

Or even... the affair...

"He... cheated?"

Sunny looked utterly shocked when I said it.

"You grew up together! Childhood sweethearts! And he cheated?"

"Who was she? Some gold digger? A rich socialite?"

I shook my head helplessly.

Nathaniel's mistress? Just an ordinary street musician.

By then, Nathaniel had all the fame and success he could want.

He wasn't chasing material things anymore, he'd become obsessed with flowers.

Especially blue irises. It was a full-blown passion.

"It was this flower that first opened my eyes to botany," he'd say.

"Just this unremarkable little seed, blooming into something so beautiful."

"It's incredible."

Yolanda Austin, arranging flowers nearby, smiled. "I never knew Professor Southwell was such a flower lover."

"Actually, a flower's bloom needs human help. This blue iris? I nurtured it myself."

And just like that, they connected over flowers.

For a long time after that, Nathaniel brought flowers home every single day.

Roses, magnolias, blue irisesour house was overflowing with them.

Of course, I knew exactly where they were coming from.

And I could feel their relationship deepening right before my eyes.

At first, I tried to brush it off, thinking he just loved the flowers.

Until the day he actually brought Yolanda into our home.

"Yolanda's still in her teens, but she's incredibly gifted. It'd be a shame to let that kind of talent go to waste."

Yolanda stood there nervously, head bowed, half-hidden behind Nathaniel.

"Sis, I promise I'll study hard. I won't let Professor Southwell down."

"I used to be at the top of my class. If my mom hadn't... passed away... I wouldn't have had to drop out."

She sounded so pitiful, her eyes welling up with tears.

Her expression was full of helplessness and confusion.

Looking into those earnest eyes, I suddenly saw the young Nathaniel from all those years ago.

Yolanda in that moment was the mirror image of him back then.

In the end, my heart softened.

For a long time after that, I treated her like a younger sister.

I took her shopping for clothes.

Taught her how to navigate the world.

She called me "Sis" constantly, promising to repay my kindness once she made something of herself.

Nathaniel's eye for talent was, as always, spot on.

Soon enough, Yolanda got into MIT, where Nathaniel and I both worked.

That day, I came home early to cook a special meal to celebrate.

But when I pushed open our bedroom door, I found Nathaniel and Yolanda locked in an embrace.

The sight of their bodies pressed together felt like a physical blow.

I froze, completely stunned.

Seconds later, I hurled the cake I'd bought right at them.

Then, like a woman possessed, I tore through the room, destroying every flower, every plant...

Nathaniel just shielded Yolanda firmly behind him, his gaze icy as he looked at me. "When you're done throwing your tantrum, shut the door behind you."

He said I was the one being shameless, that he still had some dignity left.

I never imagined Nathaniel would say such things to me, or that he'd so openly take Yolanda's side.

Tears I couldn't control came pouring out. I sobbed, demanding Nathaniel explain himself.

He looked at me, completely serious. "Vivian Taylor, you will always be my wife. As long as you behave yourself, Yolanda will never threaten your position."

Yolanda knelt down in front of me. "Vivian, I know I've wronged you, but Professor Southwell and I... we're truly in love."

"No one ever really understood me before. But the Professor... he's the one who showed me what I could be."

"Vivian, please, I'm not after your title. I just want to stay by his side."

Hearing that, my entire world view shattered into pieces.

Plus, I was only in my twenties back then. Young and headstrong.

So I wrote a letter to the university administration.

After all, a professor-student affair? That's scandalous anywhere.

But what I never expected was that the university didn't make it public.

Instead, I was the one who got disciplined.

Not just thatNathaniel had other professors "look after" Yolanda.

He even admitted Yolanda getting into MIT involved some behind-the-scenes maneuvering by him.

According to Nathaniel, he didn't care about anything else, he just wanted to give Yolanda a bright future.

Hearing that, I cried until I was completely broken.

What shattered me even more was how everyone around us started pointing fingers... at me.

Like I was the one who was morally bankrupt.

"Vivian Taylor, don't you get it yet?"

"Everything you have came from me."

"Without me, you're nothing."

"I told you, you'll always be my wife. Yolanda won't change that. Be sensible. Stop making scenes."

Every word from Nathaniel was like a sharp knife, shredding what was left of my heart.

But I couldn't accept it...

Especially knowing that the husband I shared my life with was constantly thinking of another woman.

I fought with him. I started retaliating against both of them.

During Nathaniel's lectures, I'd hack the projector to show pictures of him and Yolanda together.

When they gave interviews, I'd crash them, exposing their sordid affair.

I thought heaven was on my side.

Instead, I got handed a diagnosis, schizophrenia.

Nathaniel was smarter than I gave him credit for.

He'd anticipated my outbursts and recorded videos of my "breakdowns" as evidence.

Soon after, I was fired.

My degree was revoked.

In the psych ward, I lost count of how many times I tried to end it all.

Slitting my wrists, bashing my head against the wall, swallowing pills... I tried every extreme method...

As I spoke, I noticed Sunny's eyes were reddening.

I was telling the story calmly, but Sunny was already tearing up.

"Viv, what happened after that?"

I looked into the distance.

Later, in the psych ward, they discovered I was pregnant. Nathaniel had to take me home.

He took my hand. "Vivian, I know I messed up first, but you didn't have to make such a public scene."

"Your parents... because of all this... the neighbors won't stop talking. They're practically prisoners in their own home."

"Vivian, you're an adult now. Can't you just let this go?"

His eyes dropped to my slightly rounded stomach. "Vivian, even if you don't care about yourself, think about the baby. Think about what this is doing to your parents."

That's when the tears finally fell.

And once again, I gave in.

For a long time after that, I moved through life like a ghost, sitting blankly in that house day after day.

He'd come home to me on odd-numbered days.

Even days? Those were reserved for his sweet romance with Yolanda.

Whatever Yolanda wanted, Nathaniel made sure she got it.

That was our arrangement.

But what finally shattered whatever was left of me was the elaborate proposal Nathaniel planned for Yolanda.

Nathaniel had just skyrocketed to fame for a major scientific breakthrough.

Huge news in the States, making waves overseas too.

At the very peak of his career, he decided to share that spotlight with Yolanda.

The night heaccepted his award, he rushed to hold a small, private wedding for her.

Watching them exchange vows under the moonlight, something inside me finally broke.

We never even had a wedding when we got married.

Nathaniel had told me back then that ceremonies were just empty gestures, what mattered was spending our lives together.

I loved him, so I didn't push it.

That love cost me everything.

And now? He was throwing a wedding for another woman.

The irony was a physical pain.

Only then did I truly understand how little I had ever meant to him.

That day, in front of all their guests, I charged forward and ripped Yolanda's wedding dress to shreds.

I slapped her across the face. Twice.

Nathaniel threw a full glass of wine straight at me.

"Vivian Taylor! Haven't you humiliated us enough?!"

He still blamed everything on me.

He filed for divorce on the spot, saying he was taking Yolanda and leaving.

I refused.

I even threatened him, if he left, I'd kill myself and take the baby with me.

Nathaniel didn't leave.

But... he pushed me.

Just like that, I lost the child I'd wanted for so long.

When I woke up, I was back in the psych ward.

The diagnosis this time, severe, treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself.

"Later, Nathaniel sued for divorce."

"I fought it, but with the psych ward records... I didn't stand a chance."

"Right after the divorce, I just... broke. I hurt myself... more times than I can count..."

"My parents... their hair turned white almost overnight. Their health just crumbled."

"To stop them worrying themselves to death, I started coming here, helping out at the diner."

"Slowly... I learned to forget Nathaniel."

I managed a faint smile.

But Sunny was already crying hard, tears streaming down her face.

"Viv, your life... it's been so hard."

"That Dr. Southwell is absolute scum! If I ever see him, I'll give him a piece of my mind!"

As if summoned by her words, the diner door swung open.

There stood Nathaniel.

I froze, confused.

Suddenly remembering what he'd mumbled when we parted ways at the flower shop.

It sounded like...

["...I'm sorry..."]