The Question He Answered

My boyfriend was the most devoted man in the world. He always said he wouldn’t marry anyone but me.
Right before our wedding, I found an anonymous post he’d written online, answering a question:
What's it like to be deeply in love with someone you can't be with?

1

I always believed Liam was the best boyfriend in the world.
Until the Fourth of July. I’d gone to find him at his grandmother’s apartment, and from a distance, I saw him shielding another girl behind his back.
Across from them, Liam’s grandmother was pointing a trembling finger at the girl, her body shaking with rage. “What are you doing here? Haven’t you people done enough to ruin our family? Get out! Get the hell out of here and don’t you ever come back!”
The girl hid behind Liam, clutching the hem of his shirt. Her delicate, fragile frame looked utterly pitiful. “Grandma, it’s the holiday… I just wanted to bring you a little something…”
On the ground, a box of artisanal pastries had been overturned, its contents scattered across the concrete.
Liam’s grandmother was sputtering with fury. “Like I’d ever take anything from you!”
She snatched one of the pastries from the ground and hurled it at the girl. The hard edge of the almond biscotti cut her skin, leaving a thin red line.
“Grandma!”
Liam threw himself in front of the girl, just as another pastry struck him square in the chest.
“Liam…” the girl cried out.
He let out a sharp grunt of pain, clenched his jaw, and shot a cold look over his shoulder at her.
“What are you waiting for? Get lost.”
Tears welled in her eyes. She sobbed, “Liam, I… I just wanted to see you.”
In the dim evening light, I saw it clearly: Liam’s eyes were red.
But his voice was still ice.
“Sophia, I’m telling you to leave. No one here wants to see you.”
Sophia turned, weeping. Her vision must have been blurred by tears, because after a few steps, her foot slipped on the edge of the staircase.
She was about to tumble down the stairs when, in a flash, Liam lunged forward without a second thought.
He caught her, wrapping his arms around her and using his own body to break her fall.

2

That night, Liam didn’t come home until after midnight, his torso wrapped in bandages.
He told me there had been an accident on a construction site. A couple of workers got into a fight, and he’d been caught in the middle.
I sat on the sofa, just looking at him as tears streamed down my face.
Panic flashed in his eyes. He fumbled for the tissue box and came over, clumsily dabbing at my cheeks.
“Hey, you’re worried about me? Don’t cry, don’t cry. It doesn’t even hurt, I promise.”
He pulled faces, doing anything he could to make me laugh until a small smile finally broke through. Only then did he seem to relax.
“Look at you,” he murmured, stroking my hair. “When I’m not here, you forget to eat. You’re going to give yourself another stomachache.”
He rinsed a bowl of strawberries for me before heading into the kitchen to cook.
I watched him, a six-foot-two man wearing my Cinnamoroll apron, moving around the kitchen with familiar ease. The spicy, smoky scent of Cajun chicken soon filled the air—Liam could never handle spicy food, but because I loved it, he’d taught himself how to cook it perfectly.
Everyone said I had the best fiancé in the world.
And in that moment, in the warmth of our apartment, I felt it too.
But I couldn’t lie to myself.
I had seen it.
A few hours earlier, hidden behind a row of hedges near his grandmother’s building, I had seen her—Sophia—dabbing ointment on his cuts.
She tended to his wounds, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
“Why can’t we be together?” she whispered, her voice choked with tears.
Liam’s jaw was tight, his face a mask.
She began to tremble uncontrollably.
“What did I do wrong? Why is fate so cruel to us?
“Liam, I just need to ask you one thing. I’ve loved you for eleven years. I’ve never stopped.
“What about you? Do you still love me?”
For a long, long time, there was only silence.
Finally, he turned his face away from her.
And for the first time, I saw the man everyone called cool and composed break down completely.
He said, “I do.”

3

Liam and I had been together for a long time.
I’m a doctor at Metro General. His grandmother was a patient on my floor after her surgery. She would always hold my hand and refuse to let go. “Such a good girl! You should be my granddaughter-in-law!”
I’d glance over at Liam, who would blush and quickly look away.
His grandma would complain to me in a stage whisper, “Honestly, that silly boy is crazy about you, but he’s too shy to say anything. If he doesn’t make a move soon, I’m done helping him!”
From that day on, Liam started pursuing me.
He’d show up with flowers and my favorite cheesecake. He, a six-foot-two man at the height of his career, would kneel on a busy sidewalk to tie my shoe, as earnest and devoted as a golden retriever.
My hours were grueling, and sometimes he’d wait downstairs for three or four hours just to see me for a few minutes, never once complaining.
Even then, Liam was a rising star in his field—young, handsome, and successful, with no shortage of women interested in him.
No one could believe he pursued me with the bashful uncertainty of a teenager experiencing his first crush.
My colleagues were envious. “Claire,” they’d say, “a man like that is one in a million.”
That New Year’s Eve, he made it official.
He took me to watch the fireworks over the city skyline. As the sky exploded in a riot of color, he turned to me, his eyes shining. “Claire, be my girlfriend. I’ll spend the rest of my life making you happy.”
I closed my eyes, tears of joy slipping down my cheeks, and said yes.
In that moment, I thought, I have the best boyfriend in the world.

4

And he was.
His social media profile picture was a photo of me. A snapshot of us was clipped to his car’s visor. He’d video call me whenever he traveled for work and came straight home to me the second he was done for the day.
I never once felt the need to check his phone. It seemed pointless.
If I couldn’t trust Liam, who could I trust?
…
It was 1:30 a.m. Liam was fast asleep beside me.
I took his phone and slipped into the bathroom.
I needed to know who Sophia was.
…
As dawn broke, Liam stirred.
I had already placed his phone back on the nightstand. He didn’t notice a thing. He just leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Morning, honey. I’m heading to work.”
After he left, I opened my eyes.
Silent tears soaked my pillow.

5

Liam and Sophia were childhood sweethearts.
Liam’s father was a construction worker; Sophia’s was the boss. But the class difference never mattered to them. They were inseparable growing up.
Until their junior year of high school, when Liam’s father died.
Sophia’s father had embezzled company funds, cutting corners on a major project. A half-finished building collapsed, and Liam’s father was buried in the rubble.
Liam’s mother had passed away years earlier, so he was raised by his dad and grandmother. With the family’s pillar gone, his grandmother suffered a heart attack and barely survived.
Under a Reddit thread titled, “What's it like to be deeply in love with someone you can't be with?” I found Liam’s anonymous post.
He had documented that dark time, date by date.
[June 5th: She came to our door today, crying, trying to apologize. Grandma hit her with her cane and drove her away. It hurt to watch.
I want to hate her. But the moment I see her, I can’t.
She’s suffering too.
June 21st: She came back. The stress made Grandma sick again, her condition got worse. I had to be cruel. I told her to never come back.
She cried. Seeing her cry broke my heart.
So this is what love feels like.]
After that, there was a gap of many years.
Then, a few winters later, I saw a new entry.
[December 6th: It’s been years since I last saw her. Grandma and I have a normal life now.
I’ve fallen for someone. A girl at the hospital. She’s so good, so gentle and kind. It’s the first time I understood what people meant by an angel in scrubs.
I haven’t even won her over yet, but I can already picture our life together, and the thought of it fills me with a quiet happiness.
It feels so good. I’m finally moving on.]
For a long, long time, there was nothing else.
Until a few days ago, when he edited the post one last time.
He added two lines:
[She’s back.
And I realized I still love her.]

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