Xavier's breathing went ragged.

"Didn't Lauren just want to come witness the happiest moment of our lives?"

"I could hardly drag her along to the hospital with me, so I checked her into the hotel first."

When Xavier lied, he talked faster.

For a while I said nothing.

That was when Xavier finally caught the wrongness of it.

He was sick, and I hadn't asked after his health.

He was late, and I hadn't pushed him to hurry.

Instead, the first thing out of my mouth had been Lauren Simmons.

I'd never been the jealous, suspicious type. I rarely went looking for things to resent.

So if I'd brought her up, I already knew.

Xavier lit a cigarette, almost lazy about it. "Since your friend saw, I won't keep it from you anymore."

"I did sleep with Lauren!"

"But I swear, Lauren's just for fun. You're the one I'm serious about!"

"Don't worry. Five years between us, I won't forget that. The wedding and the marriage license are still yours!"

I'd always told myself we were happy. Devoted, even.

Xavier had been at my beck and call for years.

"Why?"

"Crystal, no matter how good you are, five years is five years. A man gets bored!"

Bored. That was the whole of his explanation.

My long silence put him on edge.

His voice dropped. "A lifetime is long. You've got to let a man glance out the window once in a while!"

He'd cheated with his whole body and his whole heart, and he called it a wandering eye.

Not a flicker of guilt.

"They say a man's heart goes where his money goes. You of all people should know I've given you everything!"

Xavier dropped the cigarette and ground it out underfoot. "An hour, tops. I'm on my way."

"I promise, I'll get you your big night. Lights lit, vows done, the whole show!"

I gave a cold little laugh.

The Xavier who had cheated had long since lost the right to light my lantern.

But I wanted a clean end to five wasted years.

From tonight on, whoever I married, whatever child I bore, none of it would have anything to do with Xavier.

I spoke slowly. "Xavier, I'm giving you ten minutes."

He didn't like that. "The wind off the water's brutal at night. You want me to speed?"

The old Xavier had once driven five hundred miles through a night of rain just to see my face for a moment.

And now he was worried about speeding.

I tipped my head back and looked off into the distance.

The moon over the sea was the same moon in the sky. The man in front of me was not the same man.

"You're not here in ten minutes, I'll find someone else to light my lantern."

Xavier laughed outright. "Crystal, can you not throw out childish threats like that to scare me?"

"Tonight's your forty-ninth lantern. Whoever lights it is your groom. Who exactly are you going to dig up on the spot to light it for you?"

Xavier knew our customs inside and out.

It wasn't that he didn't know how to love me. He just loved himself more.

One phone call, one easy chance with Lauren, and he'd thrown me aside on the most important night of all.

Just to crawl into a hotel bed with her.

A man like that, I didn't want anymore.

"I mean every word."

I cut the call. There was less going back in that than there had been in his betrayal.

Robert found me fast. "Crystal, give Xav one more chance. He really does care about you!"

"Right, right, he made one little mistake. Just pretend he went on a business trip and now he's home!"

"The whole lantern ceremony's set up. Xav bought this, bought that, decorated the entire town for tonight. That shows you his heart!"

"Exactly! Xav's a huge creator, tens of millions of followers, the pressure to keep posting is no joke. He earns all that money for you to spend, you ought to be a little gracious about it!"

My best friend, Janice, pushed up her sleeves. "Does any of that sound human to you? Xavier cheats and now he's the victim?"

"Without Crystal, how do you think Xavier ever became a creator with tens of millions of followers?"

Robert sneered. "That's what I can't stand about you women. The second a man makes it, you slap your name on it, the woman behind the successful man, like half the credit's got to be yours!"

"Sure, Crystal pitched plenty of ideas, and the videos she planned all blew up. But take her away and Xavier still couldn't have made it big?"

"She's not the money behind it. You telling me she's the one who turned Xavier into a star?"

One taunt after another from Xavier's buddy crew, until Janice was past her limit.

I caught her by the arm and announced it then and there.

"In ten minutes, we light the lantern."

"Crystal, you should never have stopped me back there!"

"If you hadn't been propping him up behind the scenes, do you really think Xavier could've hit ten million followers off a few videos he thought were so clever?"

"You even pulled in your family's resources for him! And he actually treats you like you're nobody, like your family just sells seafood balls!"

Janice was so furious she looked ready to flip the table.

"My family does sell seafood balls."

We just kept selling them until we became the world's largest fish-paste supplier.

My father wanted me to come home and take over the seafood business. I didn't want it.

I liked the new culture industry far more.

So I started an influencer-incubator company of my own.

But my father wouldn't let me trade on the name of the fish-paste heiress.

So I hired Janice to be CEO.

And I stayed hidden at her side, just a lowly incubation handler.

Xavier was my first product.

He worked hard. He was willing to try any style.

He was good-looking, so I pushed him as a heartthrob lifestyle influencer and helped him shoot a few artsy little romance clips. But online, good-looking men are everywhere.

Xavier didn't break through.

I really did pour resources into him, handed him traffic that made every other influencer green with envy, and only then finally lifted him onto his throne as everyone's dream man.

I never imagined Xavier's love would be a tide.

At high tide, fierce and overwhelming.

At low tide, nothing but wreckage left behind.

I stood by the window, flowers in my arms.

I took in the gilded lights running from beneath my window all the way out to the sea.

This was the path of stars Xavier had paid a fortune to lay for me.

He'd built a giant wall of flowers down by the water. He'd planned to propose to me there, loud and grand, inside a heart ringed with romantic candlelight.

When the moment came, hundreds of little boats would sail in from offshore to wish me a happy marriage.

Since Xavier wasn't coming...

This million-dollar lantern ceremony he'd labored over, I would graciously accept.

"The lantern ceremony begins now."

The music started.

The young women danced and sang, and the older men and women lifted their voices in the wedding song for me.

The whole scene came alive.

But Xavier's crew of buddies panicked, and one after another they came to talk me down.

"Crystal, stop this nonsense. Xav said it'll be another hour before he gets here. Starting the music and the singing now isn't right, is it?"

"Exactly. The groom isn't even here. Who's going to light the lantern for you? When this falls apart, you're the one who'll be humiliated!"

"Xav said if you'd just be reasonable, he'll come as fast as he can. Hurry up and call the whole ceremony off!"

The buddies' shameless nerve came straight from Xavier.

Xavier was convinced he had me by the throat.

That was why he'd dared to admit the affair to my face, on the very night of the lantern lighting.

He was betting I didn't have the courage to walk away.

I was the one who'd walked beside him from nothing to everything.

He was certain I couldn't bear to lose what we had, certain I'd choose him over myself.

Even if he never showed, I'd put on the flower comb and stand at the window, waiting and waiting for him.

That was the only choice Xavier had left me.

And I refused to take it.

I lifted my eyes toward the edge of the village.

Rows of headlights flared on, like envoys from outer space, gliding in slowly along Oceanfront Boulevard.

"That's not right."

The crew was bewildered.

Robert had just called Xavier.

He'd told him the lantern ceremony had begun.

Xavier was still getting dressed, taking his sweet time getting over here.

Even if he hit the road and drove like a madman, it would still take him fifteen minutes.

There was no way he was here this fast.

And they hadn't even arranged a motorcade.

"The groom's here! Throw the petals!"

A car door swung slowly open, and a tall, striking man stepped into view.

The lively song and dance cut off all at once.

Every eye went wide.

Why was it him?