By noon, I was still at work.

I'd arranged to meet a real estate agent to look at apartments. The moment I stepped into the elevator, I ran straight into Rodney and Amelia.

Amelia's hair was loose and tangled, and Rodney was tying it back into a ponytail for her.

The instant she spotted me, Amelia planted her hands on her hips, stuck out her lower lip, and started tattling.

“Minnie, you're just in time. Look at Rodney, would you?

He pulls my hair all day long, like some little boy who never grew up. He's such a pain.”

Before I could say a word, Rodney pinched the tip of Amelia's nose, all flirty teasing.

“Careful, kiddo. Your nose grows when you tell fibs.”

Once he'd teased the color into Amelia's cheeks, the man finally deigned to glance my way.

“Minnie, it's not often we run into each other. Come grab lunch with us.”

Same building, different companies, for five years.

Rodney had never once asked me to lunch on a break.

And yet every single day, Minnie used to post on social media about every lunch Rodney had ever shared with her.

The memory surfaced, and I gave a small smile.

“You two go ahead. I've got things to do.”

He hadn't expected me to refuse. The displeasure had barely crossed his face when the elevator lurched hard and plunged into darkness.

I switched on my phone flashlight and saw Rodney with his arm around Amelia, murmuring softly to calm her.

Before long, the elevator came back to life.

When we reached the ground floor, Rodney offered to give me a ride.

Before I could answer, Amelia suddenly fainted.

At that, the man shoved past me without a second thought, hauled Amelia onto his back, and rushed her off to the hospital.

I quietly picked up my shattered phone, hailed a cab, and went to look at apartments.

That evening, Rodney personally delivered a box of dessert to my desk.

Half an hour earlier, I'd seen Amelia's latest post.

【Loving someone is like keeping flowers. Baby can't finish it all, just can't finish it】

The photo showed an entire table of French pastries.

I thanked him and left the dessert box unopened.

A flicker of confusion crossed Rodney's eyes.

“Minnie, why are you being so polite with me?”

I didn't answer him directly. I only said,

“If there's nothing else, I need to go print some documents.”

By the time I came back with my printed resignation letter, Rodney was already gone.

He'd left a sticky note.

Telling me to come find him upstairs once I'd wrapped up.

I peeled off the note and tossed it out along with the dessert.

I walked into my boss's office and handed in my resignation.

He tried to talk me out of it for a long while, but seeing that my mind was made up, he finally accepted the letter.

By procedure, once I finished out the week, I'd be free to go.

At ten that night, Rodney called me while I was out at a dinner.

A male coworker picked up by mistake.

When the phone was passed to me, Rodney's voice was terrifyingly cold.

“Minnie, where the hell are you this late at night?”

I answered him, “Out.”

“Send me your location. I'm coming to get you now.”

With that, he hung up on me.

I sent the location and stayed until the place closed for the night.

Rodney never showed.

I opened Amelia's feed, and sure enough, there it was: a post about her being sick and hooked up to an IV.

I took a cab home alone, washed up, and went to bed.

A little after three in the morning, Rodney came in worn and travel-stained and shook me awake, hard.

He said to me coldly,

“Minnie, I'm hungry. Make me a bowl of wontons.”

He didn't like shepherd's purse, and he hated wontons even more.

I knew the one who wanted them was Amelia.

I went to pry Rodney's hand off, and my fingers brushed the scar on the back of it.

The year the school auditorium caught fire, if it hadn't been for Rodney, I'd probably be a corpse by now.

Trading a life debt for one bowl of wontons. If anything, I was the one coming out ahead.

Seeing me change my clothes without a word and get ready to head out, Rodney grabbed my arm.

His voice carried a rare hint of unease.

“Actually, maybe just wait till morning to make it. It's not like……”

I cut him off and asked quietly,

“Besides the wontons, is there anything else she wants to eat?”

He was silent for a moment, then let go of my hand.

He said, “No.”

The sky was just beginning to pale when the man appeared at my door, a thermos of food in his hand.

"Minnie, I have to fly out of the country next week.

I'll squeeze out some time this Saturday to have dinner with your parents, talk about our marriage—"

I cut him off before he could finish.

"No need."

Rodney went visibly still. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I smiled and lied. "They're traveling out of state. They're not back yet."

He kept his eyes fixed on me, like there was more he wanted to say. Lucky for both of us, his phone rang.

He couldn't shut that door fast enough.

Friday. My last day.

The moment I stepped out of the office, Rodney hauled me into his car without a word of explanation.

Inside an upscale restaurant, he cut my steak for me as he asked, "Which wine do you want?"

I scrolled through my phone, bored, and answered carelessly, "You decide."

My indifference darkened his handsome face.

"Who are you texting?"

"No one."

Even with my answer, he snatched the phone right out of my hand.

He flipped through it for a while, his eyes unreadable, then asked, "When did you change your lock screen?"

For all the years we'd been together, my lock screen had always been a photo of the two of us.

Now it was a picture of the little dog my parents kept.

I didn't feel like answering, so I simply got up and went to the restroom.

By the time I came back, Rodney was gone.

All at once, the lights in the room cut out.

A server wheeled flowers and a cake slowly toward me.

The cart had barely stopped at the table beside mine when my phone lit up.

A birthday wish from my phone carrier.

As I walked out of the restaurant, I heard a familiar, cloyingly sweet voice.

"Ahh~ Rodney, you're so strong, push me higher—"

It was Amelia, perched on the swing outside the place, shrieking with delight for Rodney to send her up high.

Too greedy for her own good, she tumbled into his arms after only a couple of pushes.

They smiled into each other's eyes and clung together, reluctant to let go, and only then did they notice me standing there.

A clear flicker of irritation crossed Rodney's eyes. He looked at me, expressionless.

"Minnie, this swing is so much fun, come ride it with us—"

Halfway through, Amelia's cheeks went bright red, and she shyly lowered the hand she'd had hooked around Rodney's shoulder, as if she could have stayed there forever.

"Minnie, please don't let your mind run wild. Rodney only held me to save me—"

Rodney ruffled Amelia's black hair with doting fondness and gazed at her tenderly.

"Silly. What is there to explain? As long as you're not hurt."

Done soothing her, he packed away every trace of warmth and turned a cold look on me.

"You're full already?"

I didn't bother answering him. I walked toward the Ferris wheel a short distance off.

They say if you make a wish on a Ferris wheel on your birthday, it's guaranteed to come true.

Watching my back, a sneer flickered in Amelia's eyes. She quickly tugged Rodney along after me.

"Wow, a Ferris wheel, Rodney, I want to ride this too—"

When the attendant said there were only two seats left,

Rodney didn't even glance at me. He took Amelia's hand and grabbed the seats first.

Twenty minutes later.

Back on the ground, the man searched the entire mall and never found me again.

Eight o'clock that night.

I walked out of the bedroom with my luggage.

I slipped a note that said just one word, 【Breakup】, under the keys.

And I left without looking back.

……

At eleven that night, my phone rang.

It was Rodney.

I was in the living room talking with my parents and didn't see it.

An hour later, he called again.

I darkened the screen, powered it off, and went to sleep.

I slept straight through to noon the next day. When I turned the phone back on, I was startled by more than a dozen missed calls.

Some instinct made me open my messages.

Rodney, always so cold, had for once sent one message after another.

【What's the meaning of the keys and the note?】

【So I forgot your birthday, big deal. Not answering my calls, ignoring my texts—is playing hard to get fun for you?】

【Minnie, you have one hour to get your ass back here, or don't ever come back.】

When I saw the timestamp on that last message, it was three hours ago.

From the bottom of my heart, I let out a breath. I moved my finger and deleted Rodney outright.

A knock came at my door.

After I said to come in, my mother carried in a glass of milk.

"Sweetheart, your stomach's sensitive. Drink it while it's warm."

Last night I'd come home suddenly with my bags, and my parents hadn't asked a single question. They just looked after me and cared for me the way they always had.

I hugged my mother's arm, sniffled against the sting in my nose, and said, "Mom, I found an apartment I like. It's small, but it's enough to keep the wind and rain off me."

She smiled warmly. "Then buy it. How much are you short? I'll make up the difference."

Even though I shook my head with a smile and told her I had enough,

my mother still transferred me two hundred thousand.

A girl with her own home and her own savings, she said, is the only one who truly has the confidence to stand on her own.

So I called the landlord right then and set up the signing for next Monday.

That evening, my father not only cooked a whole table of good food, he also bought a cream cake to make up for the birthday I'd missed the day before.

Facing the lit birthday candles,

I pressed my palms together and made my wish with all my heart.

That my parents stay healthy, and that everything turn for the better.

But not long after I blew out the candles, I received a message I never could have expected.