Who's Crying Now, Ex-Husband?

Chapter 315

And then, there was that name-Mimi.

It sounded so familiar.

"What did you just call me?" she asked, dazed.

"Mimi," Forrest replied.

He let out a soft sigh, a shadow of sadness flickering across his otherwise striking features. "After all this time, you still don't remember me?"

Mimi?

Mila's face went blank as she stared at the man before her, really looking at him for the first time. Slowly, his delicate features began to blur and merge with the memory of a boy she hadn't seen in years.

It was the summer she turned twelve.

Her parents were strict and neglectful; there were days she barely had enough to eat. Her classmates had all started raising silkworms, but good mulberry leaves were hard to come by. So, Mila would sneak out to an abandoned factory near her house, climbing the old mulberry tree there to collect fresh leaves. She'd trade them to her classmates for a bit of pocket change or a few bites of candy- anything to curb her hunger and satisfy her cravings, if only a little.

was an ancient mulberry tree

someone

on

up just then, and through the dappled sunlight filtering through the branches, she

than the heroes on TV. For a moment, the scruffy little girl

up in his eyes. Mila panicked, worried she'd hurt him. What if

monkey king from her favorite cartoon, she bounced on her toes and called out in a loud, cheerful voice, "Look! The Great Monkey King is here! No more

boy stopped crying, staring at the skinny, shabby little girl before him, jumping and grinning in the sunlight, doing her best to make him laugh. She looked ridiculous, but to him, she shone

if the monkey king himself

their divorce and left behind at his grandmother's house, the boy had felt lost and alone. But that

up, Mila grinned too,

under the old mulberry tree in the abandoned factory.

Mila adored him.

she saw him, she knew she'd get to eat her fill-and when she was full, she was

childhood. But, as with all good things, it ended too soon. When summer vacation was over, the boy vanished

missed him for a