Chapter 3

The next time I saw them was at a Highcloud Group dinner.

Agnes had stepped into the role of Ervin's assistant, taking the place of his real assistant, seated at his side.

"Lawyer Dickerson, Lawyer Swanson. I already told you. You have no sense of commitment. The group won't be working with Swanson and Dickerson again."

Mr. Gray spoke first, breaking the deadlock.

Before Ervin or I could say anything.

Agnes, sitting beside him, flustered, pulled out proposal documents and handed them around to everyone.

"Mr. Gray, I'm truly sorry. Please take a look at this proposal first. I stayed up several nights putting it together. Compare it however you like, no firm suits you better than ours."

I turned the pages slowly. The notes, the layout, all of it was Ervin's shadow.

It looked flawless. A pity the baseline data inside it wasn't complete.

I curved my lips in something like mockery.

"Even the baseline data is incomplete. Swanson and Dickerson's professionalism is genuinely worrying."

"Or is it that Lawyer Dickerson treated the project like a game, just to win a pretty smile?"

Agnes looked ready to burst into tears, choking back a sob. "I'm sorry. The group didn't publish this year's data, I couldn't find it..."

I waved a hand and cut her off, roughly. "The most important thing for a lawyer is precision. Without data to support it, how do you make your case?"

Ervin's brow knit tight. He gave Agnes's shoulder a gentle pat.

"Kathy, that's enough. It doesn't affect the overall decision. There's no need to pick nits like this. It's cold of you."

I turned and looked at him again.

"The law has no feelings. You taught me that."

By now Mr. Gray's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. When he stood to leave, I stopped him.

With a professional attitude and a nearly flawless proposal, I landed the firm's first major deal.

In the small hours, I turned up at the late-night diner outside the university gate.

The owner welcomed me as warmly as ever. "Kathy, how come you're on your own today? Where's Ervin?"

I dragged out a bitter smile that didn't sit right. "He's busy."

Just then, Agnes appeared behind me.

"Ervin said the two of you always come here for a bowl of soup to celebrate whenever you land a case."

The hand holding my spoon went still.

This diner was Ervin's and my secret base.

Back when we were just starting out with no money, splitting one pack of instant noodles between us was a regular thing.

Two bowls of soup, for us, counted as a treat.

This diner had witnessed us falling in love, getting married, watching our business grow. What it meant to me went without saying.

"Kathy... Ervin and I shouldn't have done this. But do you know how low the odds are of finding true love among billions of people? Chasing true love, I did nothing wrong."

I stirred the soup in my bowl and slowly lifted my head.

"Your biggest mistake was making him fall in love with you. Your true love could have been anyone. Anyone but him."

Her voice thickened with tears, and she only grew more stubborn.

"Kathy, you and Ervin were never like a married couple. More like business partners."

"Ervin is an orphan. He's always wanted a whole family. What you couldn't give him, I can."

Then she pressed a hand to the slight swell of her belly.

The spoon dropped from my hand and shattered against the floor with a crisp crack.

"Kathy, just think of all the times I was good to you in the past as me paying off the debt for what I'm doing now. Now we're even."

A cold gust blew through, and Ervin thoughtfully draped a coat over Agnes.

"Kathy, we've been married all these years, and there was never anything in your eyes but work. You even hid it from me and got rid of our child, for the sake of work..."

"Forget it, it's all in the past. Take care of yourself."

Then he turned, his arm around Agnes, and the two of them vanished into the far edge of the night.

I shook my head with a bitter smile.

He would never know I ended the pregnancy because the fetus had a deformity, and that I hid it from him because I was afraid it would break his heart.

I was willing to carry the grief of losing a child alone.

I overestimated how much he trusted me. And he underestimated how much I loved him.