Faye and Zayn were now face-to-face.
She frowned slightly… and that was the extent of her emotional response. She backed away from him. Her voice was slightly strained with exasperation when she warned, “Please respect the distance between us, sir.”
Zayn was startled. He had envisioned every possible scenario in his head—how he would be happily reunited with Faye—over a thousand times. He thought he had predicted every alternate ending.
He thought she would be moved, overjoyed, happy, or even angry; anything but cold.
She was so steely, so distant. She acted like they were complete strangers.
It was not even an affectation of any kind, because Zayn could not detect any emotion or yearning for him at all. When he looked into her eyes, he saw nothing but a soulless pit. She was looking at him like he was a stranger she had never met before.
Zayn could not understand what happened. She was fine, right? No blunt trauma to the head, no nothing, so why was she acting like an amnesiac? She retained everything else besides Zayn’s existence and everything about him. It was just illogical.
Heck, he had an easier time believing that Faye had attained the superior class through consuming the Aeon Karpos!
Zayn’s lips parted to form a reply, but nothing came out. His head was a mess. He was panicking, even more so than when he was being hounded by more than forty superior class elite fighters back on Mount Leo. He had not felt so much dread and anxiety since he faced a very livid Ezra some time ago.
Zayn was completely at a loss of what to do. He felt as confused as the first time he was caught making a mistake as a child. Still, he tried.
“Don’t scare me like that, Fifi! Everything I’ve done… I’ve done to save you, because I wanted to be with you forever. We… We’re supposed to grow old together! Live our twilight years together and everything!” he blabbered, clearly losing his composure. His face was as white as a sheet. His forehead was matted with cold sweat.
“Y-You can’t do this to me, Fifi! Unless… Unless this is a practical joke! This must be a prank, right? You’re still mad at me, aren’t you?”
Faye regarded his dread-strewn face, her eyebrows furrowing. Hints of inquiry dotted her eyes, as if she finally recognized Zayn.
Seeing the spark in her eyes lit up a beacon of hope in Zayn’s chest. “You do remember me, Fifi! I know you do! It’s me, Zayn! You know, your husband, Zayn Larson!”
He was so excited by the hint of recognition that he was flailing and prattling about like a madman. If anyone saw Zayn in his current state, they would have been dumbstruck by his lunacy.
However, his efforts proved futile. Faye remained unfazed, and whatever sparks of recognition in her eyes had disappeared as soon as they had appeared.
Shaking her head, she replied with the same cold, even-keeled tone, “I’m sorry, but I cannot go with you. I am Wang Que, not Faye.”
Zayn’s face was drained of all its color.
“No! No, no, no! You don’t… don’t actually plan on joining a Buddhist convent or something like that, right?”
“Y-You’re my wife, Fifi! We made promises to live the rest of our lives together! You promised me we would g-g-grow old together!” he fumed.
He was livid. But at what? At whom? Himself? Faye? Or just how cruel and unforgiving reality turned out to be?
Faye watched his outburst with unchanging apathy. She paused for a moment before replying, “I apologize. We might have been lovers, but I don’t remember you at all now.”
“I’m just a nun devoted to the path of Buddhism. Worldly matters do not concern me. Please understand, sir, and leave me be.”
As if to emphasize her point, she saluted Zayn with her clasped palms.
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