The Vow of Sunflowers

My name is Penny Stafford, and I work at a bookstore in City A. I was just 23 when I met Erik Cooper. He's the young heir to the Cooper Group, never short of women around him. But he chose me, saying he loved the scholarly aura I carried. We'd been together for a year, and our love was so solid that everyone was jealous. Everything changed on a rainy day. That day, I went to pick him up from work, and as we crossed the street, a runaway truck came barreling toward us. Without thinking, I shoved him out of the way, but the truck's wheels grazed me. When I woke up, the hospital's white ceiling was spinning, making my eyes ache. Erik Cooper sat beside me with red, puffy eyes, gripping my hand tightly. The doctor called him out, and I caught bits of a conversation—words like "uterine damage" and "unlikely to conceive." My world fell apart in an instant. I knew that Erik's parents had always hoped their daughter-in-law would give the Cooper Family a child soon. I grabbed Erik's hand and, my voice trembling, said, "Let's break up." But he pulled me into his arms and said, "I won't marry anyone else but you in this life." And in the days that followed, he truly fought against his parents. More than once, I overheard him arguing on the phone with Erik's mother, his tone firm. Once, I couldn't help but tell him that maybe we really weren't meant for each other. He covered my mouth and said I was forbidden from saying things like that again. Not long after, he came to me holding a medical checkup report. The report said he had undergone sterilization surgery. I looked at the report, tears instantly flooding down my cheeks. He smiled as he wiped my tears away, saying that now we wouldn't have to worry about having children anymore. I asked him why he did it, and he said I was more important than any child. That winter, we held our wedding. The wedding wasn't grand, but every detail was infused with his heartfelt care. At the wedding, Erik Cooper promised everyone he would love me forever. After we got married, he truly followed through on his promises. Every morning, he would wake up earlier than me, make breakfast, and then head to work. No matter how late he came home at night, he always brought me a bouquet of my favorite sunflowers. On weekends, he would cancel all social plans just to spend time with me at bookstores or watching movies. Everyone in City A knows that Erik Cooper treated Penny Stafford like a princess. Sometimes, I would stare at his busy back, lost in thought, feeling incredibly lucky. Even though I can't give him a child, having his love like this is more than enough. I thought this kind of happiness would last forever. But on that wedding anniversary, everything began to change.