Chapter 2

Back home, I felt my way through the dark, and my toe caught on something hard. The pain shot through me and I flinched.

I flipped on the light. It was the wedding-prep materials, along with the invitation list I'd sorted before heading out.

I rolled up my sleeves, box and all, and threw the whole lot into the storage room.

Then I dropped onto the couch and stared up at the light Marlin and I had installed together six months ago.

The moment that light first came on had been one of the happiest of my life.

But right now, I actually found myself wishing it had never lit up at all.

Restless in my own skin, I went and showered. As I reached for my skincare, the jar of face cream slipped and hit the floor.

A shard flew up and scraped across the top of my foot. A bead of blood welled up.

I went to the living room for the first-aid kit. I'd just finished disinfecting the cut when Marlin came home.

He crossed the room in quick strides, bent down, gripped my chin, and kissed me.

The unfamiliar feel of it, the cloying sweetness of perfume, flooded my nose.

My stomach heaved. I shoved him off hard and doubled over by the trash can, gagging.

The temperature in the room dropped. Marlin's brow knotted tight, plain anger in his eyes.

"Sophia, am I too dirty for you?"

I looked up, my view half-blurred by the film of tears.

"What? Weren't you the one who said the mouth is one of the highest bacteria-density spots on the human body?"

He paused, then reached over and pulled a sheet from that stack of oral-health reports on the table.

"Report's clean. It's fine now."

"From now on, do whatever you want."

Listening to those words, I dug my nails slowly into my palm, my voice gone hoarse.

"Six years. Not too soon, not too late."

"But once you'd kissed Edith, then it was fine. Is that it?"

Marlin frowned, his tone cold.

"Sophia, it was just a game!"

"Edith had heart surgery. She can't drink!"

"In a setting like that today, it was the only thing I could do!"

"But you could clearly drink those three shots for her!"

My chest was heaving. I dragged in a breath and shouted it at him.

I stared straight at him and let the mockery out.

"Or have you been waiting for that moment for years?"

Marlin's body went rigid, his face darkening in an instant.

"You're never going to let this go, are you?"

"Do you even know that after you left today, Edith scraped her hand raw trying to get the ring back!?"

He pulled the ring from his pocket and tossed it on the table.

Along the outer edge of the diamond, faint traces of blood.

I pulled out a tissue, wrapped the ring in it, and threw it out the window.

I met his eyes and mocked him.

"She loves picking things up so much, you can send her downstairs to pick it up."

"This time she'll probably break a leg."

"You are absolutely impossible!"

"How did I ever end up with you!?"

The words were barely out before he snatched up his coat, grabbed the car keys, and headed for the door.

The door slammed shut.

In the huge apartment, there was only me.

The top of my foot throbbed, and the tears kept spilling over, unstoppable.

Those few words echoed in my ears, and my heart felt gripped in a huge hand, squeezed hard, as if even my breath had frozen.

My eyes fell on the date circled on the desk calendar, and the emotion crashed over me harder still.

In another two weeks, it would be our seventh anniversary as a couple.

Senior year, Marlin and I met through a competition.

Out of ten students school-wide, only the two of us made it to the finals, teaming up to represent the school in an international contest.

Three months, side by side day and night, two people so alike and so in sync, drawn to each other as if it were the only thing that could happen.

The night the competition ended, Rothenburg got its first snow of winter.

I'd forgotten my scarf and stood there hunched against the cold, watching it fall.

He took off his coat and wrapped me up snug in it, then gently brushed the snow off me.

Once we were back home, Marlin started pursuing me.

Maybe it was just his nature, but the way he courted a girl had nothing to do with romance.

He'd meet me at the library, take me to eat in the dining hall, and the only things he talked about were the competition or work.

My roommates all called him a blockhead.

But I thought his way was far more interesting than all those clichéd tactics for chasing a girl.

The day we took our graduation photos, he brought me a bouquet of sunflowers.

My roommates egged us on to take a picture, and the instant the shutter clicked, our hands, hidden under the loose folds of the graduation gowns, were laced tightly together.

After graduation, we each got solid job offers, one after another.

But Marlin said he wanted to start his own company, to take his own ideas and make them real by his own hand.

The problem was, he couldn't find a suitable partner for the company.

Knowing the way he operated, I figured that even if he did find a partner, they'd probably clash somewhere down the line.

So without a second thought I started the company with him, working every kind of dinner and negotiation.

For a single point I'd argue a client into the ground until my throat gave out into bronchitis, drank until I perforated my stomach.

The investments I pulled in for him grew larger each time.

Two years later, the company went public.

The app we launched broke eighty million downloads on day one.

In one stroke it became a rising force in the regional tech industry.

We stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top-floor office, looking down at the crowds streaming below.

He held my hand, his eyes reddening, his voice trembling.

"Sophia, the luckiest thing in my life is meeting you."

And yet today, he didn't understand why he was even with me.

The phone screen lit up with a notification: 【A user whose profile you've visited has posted an update.】

I tapped it open. It was Edith.

【Eight years on, I've finally kissed your lips. This time it isn't a game.】

The attached photo was a live shot of a window view, and the location tag was the city's largest luxury hotel.

The image played on a loop, and the man's familiar, tender voice bored into my ears again and again.

"Edith, I finally have the right."

Scrolling down, the comment section was a handful of familiar handles.

【Eight years later, the couple I shipped is finally real.】

【Edith, whatever you do, don't go soft on him tonight!】

Edith replied.

【Of course not. After everything I gave up back then, I'm collecting every bit of it from him tonight!】

【And honestly, he's as good as I imagined. Nearly finished me off.】