At graduation, Liam and I broke up. His eyes were full of hatred as he said he would definitely find a girl a hundred times better than me. Eight years later, because of my husband’s project, our old classmates gathered again. But Liam came with his girlfriend and handed out wedding invitations to us. Our classmates all looked at me with sympathy, because back then, he and I had loved each other like our lives depended on it. When the wedding invitation reached me, Liam gave me a half-smile. “I heard that all these years, you were so afraid of thinking about me that you didn’t even dare contact our old classmates.” “But now I’ve found the girl who belongs to me, so you should forget me.” Just as I was about to speak, a little boy suddenly ran in from outside the door and threw himself at me. He shouted, “Mommy.” 1 “Mommy!” The entire private room went silent in an instant. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned toward me all at once. I looked at the little boy throwing himself at me, with his round face and big eyes, and he was completely unfamiliar. This was not my child. I was just about to speak when the door to the private room was suddenly shoved open. A young woman rushed in, her face full of apology. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry! Leo, I told you not to run around!” She scooped up the child and kept bowing to everyone. “I’m sorry for interrupting you.” The woman hurried away with the child in her arms, and everyone let out a breath of relief. “I knew it, how could Lena already have a kid?” It was Zoe, who had sat behind me back then, and she had always loved gossiping. “If she got married, how could none of us old classmates know?” Someone immediately chimed in, “Exactly, Liam isn’t even married yet, so how could she get married first?” As soon as those words came out, everyone’s eyes swept back and forth between Liam and me again. Liam and I dated for four years in college. During those four years, he skipped required courses from the entire department for me and played guitar under my dorm building while singing off-key love songs. I waited for him for three hours in heavy snow just to give him a scarf I had knitted by hand. We squeezed into the cheapest rental near campus, shared a six-dollar bowl of beef noodles, and still thought it was the best food in the world. But on the eve of graduation, I broke up with him. I remembered his bloodshot eyes as he gripped my wrist tightly and asked, “Why?” I could not give him a reason. In the end, he flung me away, and the love in his eyes was swallowed by hatred. “Lena, in this lifetime, I will definitely find a girl a hundred times better than you and make you regret it.” Now, he had done it. He brought his fiancée and handed me that gold-embossed wedding invitation in front of all our old classmates. How was that a wedding invitation? It was clearly a slap to my face. Before I came, my roommate quietly told me that Liam had specifically asked in the group chat, “Is Lena coming?” All his setup was prepared for me. In the silence, Willa, who was beside Liam, suddenly stood up. She held a glass of wine and smiled warmly and gracefully, but there was a faint hint of provocation in her eyes as she looked straight at me. “What happened in the past is all in the past.” “I’m very grateful that someone took care of Liam for me during those years.” She said the words “for me”very lightly, but they stabbed like needles. She paused, looked around the room, and finally turned her gaze back to Liam’s affectionate face, her voice firm. “But from now on, the person who can stay by Liam’s side can only be me, Willa.” “Well said!” Someone started it first. Thunderous applause instantly rang through the private room, and someone even whistled. “Liam is so lucky!” “Willa said it perfectly!” Liam took the chance to pull Willa into his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head with a doting expression. He raised his glass toward everyone, smiling with total satisfaction. “Thank you, everyone.” I picked up the coffee cup in front of me and calmly took a sip. This situation had nothing to do with me. The scalding coffee slid down my throat. I lowered my eyes and pretended to study the delicate pattern on the rim of the cup. But from the corner of my eye, Liam’s gaze kept drifting, intentionally or not, past the fiancée in his arms and landing on me. 2 Liam’s gaze was like a net, and there was hatred in that look. There was also love that had burned itself to ashes. And there was a trace of confusion that even he himself had never noticed. He did not understand eight years ago, and now, he understood even less. My thoughts were instantly pulled back to that muggy summer night. In the study room of the university library, I was clutching an acceptance letter from an Ivy League school. It was the dream I had earned by staying up countless nights and giving up all entertainment. “Lena, what are you looking at so seriously?” Liam’s voice came from behind me. He pressed a bottle of ice-cold Coke against my face, and I snapped back to myself with a jolt. “You scared me.” “What are you thinking about, future big designer?”he asked with a smile as he sat down beside me, his eyes bright as if they were filled with stars. He had never doubted my talent, and he believed even more firmly than I did that I could stand on the world stage. “When we graduate, I’ll open a tiny architecture studio.” “You’ll be my chief designer.” “We’ll rent a small apartment downtown, and it doesn’t have to be big, just big enough for your drawing board and my models.” “Then we’ll get a cat, a fat one, like a little pig.” He rambled on about our future, and every word crashed into my heart and into the acceptance letter in my hand. Silently, I folded that piece of paper and tucked it into the deepest part of my book. It was like burying a grand dream. I turned to meet his gaze and said with a smile, “Okay.” “It’s a deal.” But in the end, I still broke that promise. “Lena?” Zoe’s voice dragged me out of my memories. “Liam is asking you a question, where are you working now?” Her tone was barbed, and everyone’s eyes focused on me once again. Some wanted to watch the show, some were waiting for me to embarrass myself, and some were gloating. Liam let go of Willa, held his wineglass, and strolled over to me. He looked down at me from above. “What, you can’t say it?” He let out a soft laugh, with seven parts mockery and three parts satisfaction. “Then again, the top student in our department back then had such high standards, so how could an ordinary job be good enough for you?” “Maybe you married some incredible man and got hidden away at home.” With every word he said, the laughter around us grew louder. Willa leaned against him and added another cut at the perfect moment, her voice soft and innocent. “Liam, don’t talk about Lena like that. Maybe she’s just low-key.” I raised my eyes and calmly looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar face in front of me. Eight years was enough to grind a sunny young man into a man covered in thorns. I picked up my coffee cup and lifted it toward him with composed movements. “Sorry to disappoint you.” “I’m just making a living at a small company.” My calmness seemed to make him even angrier. “A small company?” He sounded as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, and his pitch rose. “Lena, that wasn’t what you said back then.” He took a step forward and pressed closer to me. “Didn’t you say I couldn’t give you the life you wanted?” “What, eight years have passed, and now you’re willing to ‘make a living’ at a small company?” 3 The life I wanted. Ha. I sneered inwardly. Liam, do you really know what I wanted? The air in the private room seemed to freeze. “Why aren’t you talking?” Liam moved closer, and the smell of alcohol mixed with an unfamiliar cologne made me frown. “Did I hit the truth and leave you speechless?” The satisfaction in his eyes almost overflowed. “Or are you really married, and that hidden husband of yours is just an Uber driver, so you’re too ashamed to say it?” Suppressed snickers came from around us. Willa leaned in Liam’s arms and gently tried to persuade him. “Liam, don’t be like this, we’re all old classmates.” As she spoke, she picked up a glass of red wine. “Lena, let me toast you, and let the past stay in the past.” She walked toward me, then suddenly twisted her ankle. “Ah—” A cry of alarm rang out. A full glass of red wine splashed perfectly across my moon-white dress. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Lena!” Willa apologized in panic, but a smug smile was hidden in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to.” Liam pulled her back into his arms without even looking at me. “You’re still so clumsy, like a kid.” There was not a trace of blame in his tone, only indulgence. He looked at me with icy eyes. “It’s just a dress, Lena, you wouldn’t be that petty, would you?” I said nothing. I only looked at him quietly. I looked at the man I had once loved for four full years. So time really could change a person. It could make him completely unrecognizable. I smiled. It was a very soft sound. But Liam’s face instantly darkened. “What are you laughing at?” I raised my eyes, swept my gaze over him, and landed on Willa, whose face had gone pale in his arms. “I’m laughing at you.” “Liam.” I slowly picked up the wet wipe on the table and gently wiped the hem of my dress with elegant movements. “You’re right, it’s just a dress.” Willa clearly let out a breath of relief. The corner of Liam’s mouth also curled back into a mocking smile, as if victory was already his. But then I changed the subject. “It’s just a little troublesome.” “It was a wedding anniversary gift from my husband, and now that it’s dirty, it’ll be hard to explain to him.” In an instant, the entire private room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. All the color drained from Liam’s face, and he stared at me as if he could not believe his own ears. “You’re… really married?” I raised my eyes, met his trembling pupils, and curved my lips into a perfect but cold smile. “What else? Did you think every woman in the world should wait for you, Mr. Harper?” His breath caught, and a storm I could not understand surged in his eyes. Willa clenched her fists and spoke softly, unwilling to give up. “Lena, stop joking, what does your husband do? And why didn’t you invite any classmates when you got married?” That question was very skillful. It sounded casual, but it also hinted that my marriage was something shameful. I turned my head to look at her, my gaze falling on the sparkling diamond ring on her hand. “This dress really isn’t that expensive.” I lowered my head, my tone casual. “It’s only about…” I paused, met everyone’s curious gaze, curled my lips, and said a few words. “Ten times the price of the diamond ring on your hand.” The entire room was shocked. Willa’s face turned blue, then white, then red. Liam’s fists clenched at his sides with cracking sounds, and he took a step forward, his eyes bloodshot. “Lena! Who is your husband?!” 4 When I heard his question, I met his bloodshot eyes and smiled. “My husband…” I deliberately dragged out the ending. “He’s a very petty man.” “He’s also possessive.” “He doesn’t like it when the things he gives me are dirtied by other people.” Willa’s face was as pale as paper. But Liam was like a lit stick of dynamite. “You’re lying!” He growled, his voice full of uncontrollable rage and… a hint of panic even he himself had not noticed. “Lena, you’ll say anything just to piss me off!” “You were like this eight years ago, and you’re still like this now!” Willa tugged at his sleeve, looking as if she was about to cry. “Liam, don’t be like this… Lena didn’t mean it, let’s go…” She acted pitiful and also noticed that something about Liam’s attitude was slightly wrong. I looked at her coldly. “Shut up.” Willa’s crying stopped abruptly, and she looked at me in disbelief. My gaze returned to Liam. “Liam, you’re still the same as you were eight years ago.” “Childish, impulsive, and always thinking the whole world should revolve around you.” “Who do you think you are?” My voice was not loud, but every word cut straight to the heart. “You—” He suddenly stepped forward and grabbed my wrist. “Say that again!” A sharp pain shot through my wrist. Just like eight years ago, he had also grabbed me like this and asked me why. I looked at him, and the last trace of warmth in my eyes faded away. “Let go.” “Who is that man?! What does he have that’s better than me?!” His eyes were bloodshot. The classmates around us were silent with fear, and no one dared to step forward and say a word. I frowned from the pain, but I did not struggle. I only looked at him coldly. “He is better than you in every way.” That sentence completely shattered the last of his reason. He gripped me even harder, almost crushing my bones. “Lena!” Just then, the door to the private room was pushed open from the outside. Everyone’s eyes were drawn to the man at the door. The light outlined the man’s deep, cold features. It was a face so handsome it almost felt aggressive. He did not look at anyone. He only walked straight toward me. “Lena.” It was Julian Sterling, my husband. Liam seemed frozen in place as he stared stiffly at the man who had suddenly appeared, forgetting how to react. Julian’s gaze slowly moved downward. It landed on the wrist Liam had gripped red. His eyes turned cold in an instant. “Who gave you permission to touch my wife?”
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