Every carefully composed photo had Quinn in it.

The comment section was buzzing too.

"Congrats, class president. You and our campus heartthrob finally made it official."

"True love wins in the end. Wishing you both the best."

"I always said you two were the perfect match."

"Madam President, when do we get to toast at your wedding? We've been waiting so long our necks are sore."

"…"

Back home, I sat on the couch watching the snow drift past the window, and I stayed like that, still, for the whole afternoon.

After dark, a key turned in the front door.

Quinn was home.

He froze for a second when he saw me on the couch.

"Miriam, it's pitch dark. Why haven't you turned on the lights?"

I lifted my eyes to him and said nothing.

Quinn kicked off his shoes and came to sit beside me.

"What, still mad at me?"

As he leaned in, I caught the cloying scent of women's perfume, not the kind I ever wore.

His thin lips came down, warm with liquor, and I drew back half a step without a flicker of expression.

Quinn stopped short.

Every quarrel before this, no matter how furious I got, always crumbled in the end against his tenderness and his kisses.

But now I didn't just refuse him. He could see the disgust in my eyes.

Quinn's brows knit together. "Miriam, how long are you going to keep this up?"

"It's New Year's. I don't want to fight with you."

I pressed my lips together and still didn't speak.

His face softened a little. "That night I left you two on the road, I know it wasn't right of me."

"But Lorraine's stomach was acting up. I couldn't just leave her."

"And I said back then I'd apologize to your mother myself."

"Over one small thing, you and your mother actually blew us off."

"Do you have any idea how long my parents spent preparing that New Year's dinner?"

"Or how disappointed they were when they knew you weren't coming? How angry?"

"If Lorraine hadn't gone out of her way to explain things for you, the wedding would've been off already."

Quinn pulled a gold-embossed red invitation from his bag and set it on the coffee table.

"My parents already arranged the engagement banquet. It's set for the night of the New Year's lantern celebration."

"I'll call your mother right now to tell her. I'm sure she'll be thrilled."

I drew a deep breath and made myself steadier. "There's no need. We've already broken up."

"And she won't answer your call."

Quinn's brows drew tight again. "Miriam, you're a grown woman. Can you stop throwing a childish tantrum?"

"Do you know how much your mother dotes on me? How much she spoils me?"

"She once told me she dreamed of the day I'd marry you and bring you home."

"How could she possibly not answer my call?"

Hearing all of this, my heart felt gripped by an unseen hand, clenched so hard I couldn't breathe.

Quinn wasn't wrong. My mother truly doted on him, spoiled him, had long since thought of him as her son-in-law.

One word from him that he wanted soup, and she'd be up at four or five in the morning, hurrying to the market for the freshest ingredients.

When he complained the hired help didn't clean well enough, she came every single day, right on time, to tidy up for us, rain or shine.

When he ran a high fever and I wasn't home, the moment she heard, she rushed over and got him to the hospital, and from the sleepless night and the strain she nearly collapsed from a heart attack…

Seven years of living together, and the love my mother poured into Quinn was no less than what she gave me.

So when the Swansons invited us to New Year's dinner, she agreed without a second's hesitation.

To make the best possible impression on her future in-laws, she started getting ready first thing that morning.

Doing her hair, putting on foundation, penciling in her brows…

She had even taken out the qipao she'd treasured for over a decade.

I told her the weather was too cold, that it wasn't the right dress for New Year's.

She smiled and said it was fine. She'd just throw a coat over it, and since she'd be driven door to door, she wouldn't catch a chill.

Besides, that dress had been a gift from my father when they married.

Wearing it, in a way, meant carrying a piece of him along.

As she spoke, tears glistened at the corners of her eyes.

I fell silent for a few seconds, and let it go.

On the way to the old Swanson residence, my mother chatted and laughed with Quinn the whole time.

Then Lorraine's call came, and Quinn's smile vanished in an instant.

He suggested the two of us take a taxi ourselves. I refused.

In that heavy snow you couldn't flag down a cab, and my mother couldn't be out in the cold.

My mother saw the anxiety and urgency on Quinn's face, and shot me a look.

Dutiful as always, I didn't dare go against her wishes, and in the end I got out of the car.

But I never imagined that less than a minute after we stepped out, the cold triggered her illness, and her heart stopped.

The more I thought about it, the colder my heart went, the more it ached.

I wanted to slap myself across the face.

If I'd only stood my ground a little harder back then, maybe my mother wouldn't have died.

Seeing that I kept saying nothing, Quinn lost his patience.

"Miriam, you've disappointed me so much."

"Fine. If you insist on splitting hairs, then let's bring Mother in to weigh in, and see who was really right and who was wrong."

Just as he picked up his phone, it started ringing.

A very particular, dedicated ringtone.

Exactly the same one I'd heard in the car on New Year's Eve.

Quinn's expression shifted slightly. He strode quickly out onto the balcony before answering.

Fragments of the conversation drifted back.

"Who is this? What, Lorraine's drunk, passed out on the side of the road?"

"...Okay, thank you, I'll be right there!"

Quinn rushed off in a hurry.

He didn't even spare a word to explain to me.

Just as resolute, just as decisive, as the day he abandoned my mother and me on New Year's Eve.

A bitter taste rose to my face.

No matter when, Lorraine was irreplaceable in his heart.

That being so, it was time for me to leave too.

Before she died, the wish my mother longed for most, apart from seeing me married with children, was to take one trip to Luxembourg.

That was where she and my father had first met, a place holding so, so many beautiful memories.

All these years, taking care of Quinn had kept that wish out of reach.

I made up my mind. I would take my mother's ashes and go on a trip around the world.

The final stop would be Luxembourg.

As I was looking up information and hunting for travel guides, Lorraine's social media updated again.

I hadn't meant to look, but my finger tapped it open as if some force were guiding it.

The first photo: Quinn, who had never lifted a finger in a kitchen in his life, cooking noodles.

The second photo: Quinn feeding Lorraine those noodles, his face full of concern and tenderness, an aching softness I had never once seen him show me.

The third photo: Quinn carefully scrubbing the stains from the carpet and the couch.

My heart filled up all over again with bitterness and ache.

Last Thanksgiving, for an important Swanson Group project, I'd drunk three whole bottles of red wine with a client and thrown up until the world went dark.

Quinn had stared at me passed out on the couch, at a total loss, and in the end he'd called my mother to come help.

While she bustled around taking care of me, he stood far off with his nose pinched shut, disgusted by how foul and overpowering my vomit was.

Yet in front of Lorraine, there wasn't the slightest trace of disgust. He was more attentive than any real husband.

...

Quinn didn't come home all night, and he didn't show up for the next several days either.

None of that concerned me. I was busy getting ready for my trip around the world.

On the thirteenth day after New Year's, Quinn Swanson's secretary called to tell me the product launch would be held the next day.

I hadn't planned to go, but this was the fruit of years of my own painstaking work, so I agreed.

Seven years ago, after Quinn and I made our relationship official, I turned down a high-paying position at a Fortune 500 company and joined Swanson Group.

Through my relentless effort, Swanson Group went from a second-rate company to the top high-tech firm in Harborview City.

And it was precisely because of that the Swanson family, who had looked down on me from the start, finally offered on their own to invite my mother and me to spend the New Year at their estate and to discuss the wedding…

The launch was grand, and lively too.

Just as I was about to step onstage to give my speech, Quinn appeared out of nowhere.

He was dressed to the nines, handsome and striking.

But there was something unreadable in his expression.

He didn't explain why he'd been gone for days. Instead, he blocked my path. "Miriam Coleman, wait."

"For this speech, the company has arranged someone else."

I froze.

All this time, I had been the head of the new-product project.

In the whole company, I was the only one qualified to take the stage.

Because no one knew the product better than I did.

From design to development, I had handled every part of it, pouring in endless heart and effort.

You could say it was like my own child.

At that moment, Lorraine Galloway's voice rang out from the stage.

"Happy New Year, honored guests. On behalf of Swanson Group, I welcome you all."

"Now allow me to introduce the features of the new product we're unveiling today…"

Seeing her so triumphant, a small person basking in undeserved glory, I understood everything.

I looked coldly at Quinn. "If it was all arranged already, why bother telling me to come to the launch at all?"

Quinn explained, "As head of the new-product project, of course you have to be present."

"Miriam, the choice of speaker was the company's decision, and mine as well."

"After all, you're already a titan in the industry. You don't need this kind of flashy, empty reputation."

"But Lorraine is different. As a newcomer, she needs the credentials more than you do…"

I watched him quietly as he went on and on.

The longer I looked, the more like a stranger he seemed.

The Quinn of the past had loved me to the bone, with eyes for no one but me.

But ever since Lorraine came back from abroad and joined Swanson Group as the CEO's assistant, he had changed.

He was constantly away on business for no reason, gone all night.

Lorraine spent far more time with him than I did.

Back then I was buried in the project and didn't think much of it.

But my mother, worldly and sharp-eyed, had noticed. She'd warned me: "Miriam, Quinn is your boyfriend, but now he's out and about with another woman every single day. That doesn't sit right, does it?"

I never woke up to it. Instead, I made excuses for the two of them. "Mom, you're overthinking it. Lorraine is Quinn's assistant. It's perfectly normal for them to work together all day."

"Quinn told me Lorraine grew up with him and has always seen him as an older brother."

"The three of us were college classmates. If they had feelings for each other, they'd have gotten together long ago. Where would that have left room for me?"

Looking back on it now, I really was a pure, utter fool.

Seeing me stay silent, Quinn assumed I'd come around, and a smile crossed his face. "Miriam, tomorrow is our engagement day. Are you ready?"

I nodded numbly.

"Aunt Pansy must be so happy, so excited, right?" Quinn frowned slightly. "Though it's strange. I've been calling her these past few days, and her phone's been switched off the whole time."