Chapter 2

The moment I quit the group chat, my mother only came at me harder.

She fired off one voice message after another in our private chat.

"That's your own aunt. She held you when you were little."

"All you know is how to cozy up to your father's side of the family."

"Pushing away my family like this. Do you have any conscience left at all?"

I listened to them come one after the other.

That feeling of loss inside me.

It sat there like something jammed in my throat, hard to bear.

In my last life, all I ever wanted was to please her.

I always felt she'd gone through so much to bring me into this world.

So I owed her gratitude, obedience, good behavior.

That was why, the second her sister opened her mouth, I said yes without a word.

Sell the apartment, save my cousin.

And what came of it? What did I get in return?

I pressed the record button and answered her.

"From the time I was little, it was Grandpa, Grandma, and my uncle who always looked out for me."

"What has your side of the family ever done for me?"

"Except when you needed something from us, coming over with a thick face to say a few sweet words."

"When something good came along, did any of you ever once think of us?"

My mother went quiet for a few seconds.

Then a voice message came through, thick with outrage.

"You heartless little thing!"

"You ungrateful brat!"

"All these years I raised you for nothing!"

Her voice was shrill in my ears.

I tossed the phone aside and didn't reply again.

That evening I came home from work.

The moment I pushed the door open, the smell of cooking hit me.

Horace Gilbert already had dinner ready.

He stood in the middle of the living room, smiling at me.

"Nina, guess what today is."

I blanked for a second.

He came over and pulled a velvet box from behind his back.

He opened it. A necklace.

The pendant was a tiny little star.

"Three years since we met."

"Happy anniversary."

He leaned down and fastened it around my neck.

"I made us a candlelit dinner too."

I looked up at him.

His eyes were full of tenderness, of the care he'd always poured into keeping this love safe.

The thing I regretted most in my last life.

Was that I couldn't hold on to what we had.

The right time, the right person.

And I lost it all, to my own soft heart, to that family and their guilt-tripping.

All of it ruined.

Back then he'd protected me so fiercely.

Trusted me without condition, even stood against his own family for me.

And in the end it all came to nothing, because I was a coward.

Horace waved a hand in front of my eyes.

"What is it, Nina?"

"Too moved to speak?"

I came back to myself and nodded.

Gave him a small smile.

And swore to myself, quietly.

This life, I would never let the old story play out the same way again.

He turned and tied on his apron.

Went into the kitchen to reheat the food he'd already made.

I stood to the side and watched him bustle around.

He warmed the dishes and chatted with me the whole time.

About some blunder the company's new intern had made.

About old Dave from his office fighting with his wife again.

I leaned against the doorframe and listened.

Answered here and there.

Days like this, warm like this. So good.

He switched off the lights and lit the candles.

Setting the mood.

But he'd just poured the wine and was handing me my glass.

When the front door was suddenly pounded, hard.

The two of us stared at each other, both startled.

Horace frowned and set down his glass.

He got up and went to answer it.

When I saw the figures standing at the door, my face dropped in an instant.

Christine stood at the front.

Behind her were my uncle's wife, my youngest aunt, and a handful of other relatives.

All of them crowding my doorway.

I never thought she'd actually dare to bring a crowd to my home to make a scene.

The moment she saw me, the wronged-victim act began.

Her eyes went red, and she made sure to wail to the people behind her.

"You heartless little thing!"

"Clive is lying in a hospital bed, and here you are enjoying a candlelit dinner!"

"Go on, tell me, can you even look him in the eye?!"