I took Tommy's remaining body to the crematorium and came back with a small box of ashes.
The once lively and playful Border Collie was now sadly confined to this tiny box.
Holding the box, I returned home feeling heavy-hearted, only to unexpectedly find Charles there.
Seeing me, he frowned in displeasure.
"Where have you been messing around? The house is a mess, and you haven't cleaned it.
"Do you still want to live like this?"
He sat at the dining table, which was still littered with trash just as I'd left it.
Yet even so, Charles showed no intention of cleaning up.
Even though my heart felt cold, I still smiled submissively.
"I went to send Tommy off for the last time. Bear with me for a bit."
Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise, seemingly caught off guard.
He knew how much I cherished Tommy.
I never spared any expense when it came to Tommy's care, tending to him meticulously.
All because I saw Tommy as a symbol of our love.
Since my whole heart was set on Charles, I naturally treated Tommy like a treasure.
Now that Tommy had died because of him, my continued docile demeanor unsettled Charles.
At the very least, I should have been hysterically questioning him.
But now, there was only a dead calm in my eyes.
Charles, a little flustered, reached out to stop me from cleaning the table.
"Cora, it's not necessary, is it? It was just a dog.
"We're about to get married. We can just get another one, right?"
He truly didn't understand why I was making such a big deal out of it.
What he didn't know was that my interest in him had all begun with Tommy.
Now that the source of my love was gone, how could anything last?
I smiled without revealing my thoughts and avoided his hand.
"After all, I had him for five years. I need to send him off properly."
My face remained calm, as if I truly didn't care about Tommy's death.
But it was precisely my attitude that made Charles feel even more uneasy.
Like performing a magic trick, he pulled out a glass bottle from behind him, filled with shimmering sand.
"Cora, I got this sand from the beach just for you. You love the beach, don't you?"
I looked at the bottle, with tiny seashells scattered inside. It was indeed beautiful.
But I was overwhelmed by a sense of bitter irony, and tears began to fill my eyes.
He only knew that I used to love the beach, unaware that it was because Tommy loved playing in the water.