Chapter 2

02

The room went quiet all at once. A few seconds later, someone let out a low laugh.

Val's face flushed, then drained pale, the easy composure he'd put on visibly starting to crack.

"Ed, what are you playing at?"

Delilah's tone was sharp enough to thin my smile.

It wasn't that I'd never seen her angry.

In lectures she'd shot back at professors who slacked off. At parties she'd calmly called out people's bad intentions.

But this was the first time she'd turned that anger on me.

And over another man.

I breathed in to hide the sting behind my nose and kept my voice soft, coaxing, the way I always did with her.

"He gave me one put-down after another. I said one thing back. How is that me playing games?"

Her voice only came out colder.

"Everything Val said was for my own good. You shouldn't talk to him that way."

If a small part of me had still felt wronged a moment ago, that line finished it. My heart went completely cold.

"I see I had it wrong. He's not your senior partner. He's your mother."

That set her off. Her voice shot up.

"Enough! Edmund!"

"Apologize to Val."

I stared at her, tears gathering fast in my eyes.

My voice came out very soft.

"Not a chance."

The people who'd been watching the show finally started stepping in.

"All right, all right, Lila, don't be upset. Today's the day you came home. You should be happy."

"And you shouldn't take it to heart. Back then, if Val hadn't talked Lila into going abroad to build her résumé, none of this would even involve you."

"Right, honestly, the fact that you got a girlfriend like Lila at all, you've got Val to thank for that."

They talked over each other, one line after another. I only looked at the woman beside me.

She set her glass down on the table, and it gave a small, crisp click.

Like something settling for good.

"Val is my friend. If you can't even show him basic respect when you meet him—"

"Then let's cancel tomorrow. You're not coming back to my parents' place with me."

The whole of me went still.

Before we came home, Delilah had said she wanted to take me to meet her parents.

She'd said that because of me, for the first time, she'd started wanting a family of her own.

That same day I'd called my mother, full of confidence, and told her Delilah was no less than any of the women on those arranged-marriage contracts.

I'd told her to prepare a welcome party for her future daughter-in-law.

And warned her not to make it too grand, so she wouldn't scare Delilah off.

But looking at the cold line of this woman's profile, with that sentence still echoing in my ears,

everything I'd done before looked like the work of a complete fool.

"You're sure?"

Her slender fingertip slid along the rim of the glass, careless.

"You know me. I don't say things I'm not sure about."

Whistles broke out from the corners of the room right away.

"Lila's the boss," "Lila doesn't take anything," rose from every corner of the room.

Each one scraped across my face until it stung.

Things had reached this point. Every extra second I stayed was another insult to myself.

So I grabbed my bag off the seat, stood, and walked out with long strides.

It was only outside the door that I realized my face was already wet with tears.

Three years together. How could it not hurt.

Behind me came a burst of quick footsteps.

I was about to wipe my eyes when a hand caught my arm.

When she saw the state of my face, Delilah froze for a second, then let out a deep sigh.

"Come on. I'll drive you."

She pulled the car door open and looked at me.

"We can talk on the way."

I was hurting, but my reason hadn't left me.

Walking off felt good, but it wouldn't fix anything.

And even if we were breaking up, it should have a clear ending.

I was just about to get in.

"Ugh, Lila, I think my stomach's acting up—"

Val, who'd followed us out at some point, suddenly crouched a short distance away, a hand pressed to his belly.

The words were barely out before the door she'd just opened slammed shut again with a bang.

She hurried over to him, her voice scolding and helpless at once.

"Not feeling well again? You've been staying up late and wrecking your schedule, haven't you?"

Then she quickly pulled off her own coat and tucked it around him.

"Wait here."

She dropped the words and headed for the convenience store across the street.

The whole time, she didn't look back once at me, still standing there.

"Did you see that clearly?"

Val spoke up behind me.

"Even after three years abroad, she still puts me first."

He slowly straightened up, his face full of mockery.

"Want to bet she comes back with more than one thing in her hands?"

"Not just the stomach medicine I always take. Imported painkillers too."

"There's a convenience store next door. She'll buy a thermos and fill it with the warm herbal tea I like to drink."

Seeing my shock, he suddenly broke into a delighted smile.

"She just did all this for you at the start of the month, didn't she?"

"People's memories only stretch so far. Keeping two people's schedules and constitutions straight gets confusing, so that memo in her phone tracking your health? I'm the one who taught her to make it."

He paced slowly toward me.

"That tenderness that won you over is just a leftover I've already played through."

"No one can do what I do for her. No one can outrank me in her heart."

"So be smart. Don't push it until there's no way to save face."

Our eyes met, and when I saw the ambition and hunger buried in his,

I suddenly laughed.

"If the two of you are so in sync, why is she dating someone else?"

"You say you know her better than anyone. Then you should also know exactly where she puts you."

"How about we take a guess. If you confessed to her, would she even spare you a second look."