Chapter 2

I remember one time I caught a whiff of something spoiled, my stomach turned, and I gagged right there at the table.

He was furious. He slammed his bowl and chopsticks down and threw out a line before he left.

"What are you being so dramatic for? I'm exhausted enough running projects with my students. I don't have the time to indulge some spoiled princess act!"

That cold war lasted over a month. In the end I was the one who went to the school where he taught to make peace. In front of the whole department's students, I knelt on the floor and admitted I was wrong, and only then would he come home.

Looking back now, I really was a complete fool.

Every year, the birthday cake Edward bought me either had the frosting scraped into a mess or all the fruit on top picked off and eaten before I ever saw it.

I used to wonder about it.

But every time he'd explain with a smile in his eyes: "Kids are just mischievous. Don't take it to heart."

I thought it was some little kid at the bakery who didn't know better, and I never made a fuss.

What I cared about was always Edward's thought behind it.

Only now do I know that the "kid" he meant was Miranda Holland, the girl I'd rescued out of the mountains.

The pitiful girl who swore up and down she'd work herself to the bone to repay me.

When I said I wanted to sponsor her, Edward flatly refused.

He said, "You help people out of a crisis, not out of poverty. Anya, let it go."

"A girl who came out of some backwater like that, even if you pour everything you have into her, the money will just end up in the hands of her bloodsucking parents and brother. Forget it. People have their own fates."

I lost sleep over it for several nights, and I decided Edward had a point.

So I hurried to Miranda's hometown overnight with two hundred thousand in cash and personally handed it to her parents, buying her freedom for the rest of her life.

I put her through high school and college, signed her up for all kinds of enrichment classes to broaden her horizons and refine her.

Later, when she wanted to go for a master's degree, I begged and wheedled Edward into tutoring her, and in the end she was smoothly taken on as his student.

Little by little, Miranda spent more time at Edward's side than I did, and I was his fiancée.

They'd travel abroad together for field research, then break the trip to stop in Bali for a bonfire party.

The next day they'd fly to Iceland to see the northern lights, the place I'd dreamed of going.

Edward had promised to take me there, but he never once made good on it.

He was always busy.

Papers to publish, projects to run, students to advise.

Last time we went to the courthouse to register our marriage, I waited eight hours in the blazing sun.

All I got at the end of it was: "A student's water pipe burst at home, I'm tied up. Whether we register or not doesn't really matter. In my heart, you've been my wife for a long time already."

"Be good, just grab a cab home yourself. The staff are about to clock out anyway."

He was always like this. Endlessly gentle and attentive to outsiders, cold as ice to me.

My eyes stung all at once. I reached up and touched them. Those were tears of disappointment.

Just then the wedding planner called.

She told me changing the bride's name and the welcome photos in the venue decor at the last minute would cost extra.

In the video he sent.

A handsome man and a beautiful woman walked hand in hand into the wedding hall.

Miranda wore a white veil and an ivory mermaid gown with a long trailing skirt.

It was the final piece from my favorite Italian designer.

To have the chance to wear it, I'd flown abroad several times to earnestly ask him to work with me, until the designer told me himself:

"I'm so sorry, beautiful lady. Not long ago, a gentleman paid a fortune to buy that gown. His wife is lovely, an elegant Eastern woman like you. It was their undying love that moved me."

I came back heartbroken and told Edward about the letdown.

At the table, he was too busy picking the bones out of the fish for Miranda, who'd come to visit.

He brushed me off lightly. "It's just a dress. I'll transfer five hundred thousand to your card later, go pick one out at the mall yourself."

The corner of Miranda's mouth quietly curved up, and she said in a joking tone:

"Anya, don't be discouraged that you couldn't get the gown. Not every woman is lucky enough to find some fool willing to spend a million just to make her smile."

"Edward's always been level-headed. He works hard for his money. You really should be more understanding."

While I was busy blaming myself, the two of them exchanged a smile.

Edward thoughtfully wiped the bit of soup off the corner of Miranda's mouth with a wet wipe.

"We're done eating, we're going to the study to discuss our research. If you don't have anything urgent, try not to come bother us. It'll break our train of thought."