When she saw the gauze wrapped around my leg, her eyes went red all over again.

"Oliver, I'm so sorry. I raised that ungrateful girl and clearly didn't raise her right, and you're the one who's paid for it."

"And these engagement gifts—we can't keep them. Won't you give Annie another chance?"

I was still puzzling over that when my phone lit up. A voice message from my father.

The room was quiet, and I didn't want it playing out loud, so I switched it to text.

Every line of it carried his warmth, and underneath the warmth, a steadiness that felt like solid ground.

He said he would always respect whatever I decided. He would always have my back, no matter what, and the house would always be there if I ever needed somewhere to fall back to.

The warmth of it settled in my chest. I looked up at Aunt Darlene, my voice steady now.

"Aunt Darlene, you don't owe me anything."

"I just wasn't lucky enough to be your son-in-law."

"If my mother were here, she'd make the same choice my father did."

At the mention of my mother, Darlene went still.

The two of them had been friends since they were girls.

Work had pulled them to opposite ends of the country for years.

Then, by some twist of luck, they'd both married into the same city, and the friendship picked up right where it left off.

The year I started high school, Darlene's husband had an affair.

Darlene came to my mother, broke down, and asked her to come along and catch him in the act.

In the middle of the shoving, something went wrong. He put a knife into my mother, and her kidney ruptured.

She survived the surgery, but she was never the same after that.

She died the year before I finished college.

All these years, Darlene had carried the guilt, and she'd loved me like a son of her own.

Once she learned Annette and I were together, she stood by me, right or wrong, every single time.

In the end she let out a long breath, her eyes tired.

"Oliver, I won't push you."

"But the engagement gifts, I have to return them to you. It's not a small sum of money."

"I just hope your mother won't hold it against me."

She pressed the bank card into my hand.

"Get your rest."

Then she turned and walked out of the room, shooting Annette a hard look on her way.

Once Darlene was gone, Annette came in. Seeing nothing changed in my expression, she took my calm for surrender and made herself patient.

"Yesterday was my fault. From now on I'll always pick up when you call."

"Once you're discharged, we'll go shoot the wedding photos and lock in the venue."

"My mother and your father are getting old. They can't take this kind of strain."

As she spoke, she reached for my hand, and her gaze froze on the bare stretch of my middle finger.

"Where's the ring, Oliver?"

I looked down. There was a pale band of skin where it used to sit.

"Threw it out."

Annette's hand hung in the air, her lips pressing into a flat line.

"Oliver, what exactly do you want from me before you're satisfied?"

I lifted my eyes to her.

"Fire Leigh Delgado."

"No."

The refusal came almost before I'd finished.

"Why not?"

"He's worse at his job than anyone you've fired before him."

I held her eyes and laid out the plain fact of it.

Something uneasy flickered across her face, and her voice picked up heat.

"Oliver, you're thirty years old. Can you stop acting like some sulky college boy?"

"Ten years together, six living under the same roof, every friend and relative we have knows we're getting married, and you have to pick now to throw a fit?"

"If we break up at this point, how am I any different from a divorcée?"

Even with my mind made up, the words still landed wrong, and something inside me dropped.

I couldn't make myself believe that the girl who once cried in my arms the day I told her I loved her was the same person as this face in front of me, flushed and furious at being humiliated.

"Ms. Sullivan, please don't fight with him over me."

"He's right. My work just isn't good enough. I've already turned in my resignation. Please review it when you have a moment."

Leigh walked into the ward with his eyes rimmed red, and as the last word left his mouth, the tears spilled over, his cheeks flushing again as he turned to look at me.

"Mr. Lyons, I swear I never meant to come between you and Ms. Sullivan."

A cynical smile touched my lips.

"You already have."

My gaze dropped to their arms, pressed close together, and I let out a soft laugh.

"Since you two are so into each other, just be together."

Leigh froze, then looked at Annette with a wounded face.

Her face darkened completely. When she spoke, her voice was full of anger.

"Oliver Lyons. You'll regret this."

She grabbed Leigh by the wrist and walked out without looking back.

She'd just reached the door when I called her back.

"Annette."

Her steps stalled, but her hand stayed wrapped around his.

"You've got ten hours. Move out of my place."

Early the next morning, the traffic officer called to say they'd found the driver.

I'm no good at handling things like that, so I left it all to a lawyer.

Kevin came to pick me up from the hospital. Once he heard how things had gone with Annette, he told me to come stay at his place.

I gave him a reassuring smile and asked him to take me home.

He gave me a pained look, and finally gave in.

I keyed in the code and opened the door. Her heels were still in the entryway.

I took out my phone, meaning to call Annette and get a straight answer, when one message after another from our mutual friends started coming in.

【Oliver! Heard you and Annette are getting married next Tuesday? Congratulations, man, ten years of dating and you're finally crossing the finish line. I'll definitely be there.】

【Congratulations! You're a lucky guy, landing a woman like Annie—sharp, capable, and gorgeous too.】

I stared at the phone, not following.

A wedding? Next week?

While I was still puzzling over it, Leigh came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of instant noodles topped with a fried egg and meatballs.

"Mr. Lyons... you're back?"

The moment he saw me his hand jerked, and the broth sloshed, part of it splashing onto his hand, the rest onto the rug.

Annette heard and came hurrying out of the bedroom, taking his hand and pulling him into the kitchen to run cold water over the red, swollen skin.

She never once glanced at the rug.

Annette had paid someone to bring it back from overseas last year.

She'd never let me eat snacks on it, never let me drink coffee near it, wouldn't even let me set a bare foot on it.

And now it was ruined.

But all she could see was Leigh's hand.

Kevin's eyes went red with fury. He wanted to charge in and settle it for me, but I shook my head, told him I'd handle it, and sent him on his way.

Two minutes later they came out of the kitchen.

I leaned back against the couch, looking at Leigh.

"Who told you that you could come into my home?"

Leigh flinched, shrinking back on instinct, his voice small.

"I'm sorry, my blood sugar dropped and Ms. Sullivan said I should come up and eat something. I didn't mean any of it—"

My eyes settled on the knitted slippers on his feet, and the cold crept into my voice.

He followed my gaze and rushed to explain.

"Ms. Sullivan gave me these slippers. I said the disposable ones were fine, but she said the floor was cold and to put these on for now—"

Annette stepped forward, putting herself in front of him.

"They're just slippers. Why are you scaring him like that?"

My throat closed. I let out a cold laugh, and my voice climbed.

"Just slippers?"

"Annette, my mother knitted those for me!"

"When she was dying, what did you promise her?"

My chest heaved, my eyes brimming.

No answer came. When I looked at her, her eyes were calm as still water.

I gave a bitter twist of my mouth, swallowed down the thing breaking loose inside me, and pointed at the door.

"Get out. This is the house my mother left me."

"Or I'm calling the police."

Annette didn't move. She pulled out a purchase contract and tossed it on the table.

"Leigh likes this place. I'll pay three times market value. It'll be our wedding home."

I stood frozen, barely able to believe my own ears.

It took me a long moment to understand what that message I'd just gotten actually meant.

When I said nothing, her tone stayed flat.

"If you'd rather not, that's fine."

"I can buy the unit across from you and have it done up exactly the same."

My phone buzzed. A message from Sheila Lawrence, Annette's friend.

【Oliver, don't listen to Annie's nonsense. This wedding business with the little assistant is just a stunt to force your hand. Don't take it seriously!】

【You two have been together ten years. You're a grown man, just humor her a little. You can't bring yourself to leave her anyway.】

I stared at the screen and felt only how absurd it all was.

In the end, under her astonished gaze, I signed my name.

Then I calmly packed up some of my clothes, booked a moving company on my phone to deal with the rest, and dragged my suitcase out the door.

Over the next two days, those mutual friends kept dropping wedding details to me, casually or otherwise.

I muted every thread and blocked them from my feed.

Tuesday morning, Kevin drove me to the airport and clapped me on the shoulder.

"When you make it big, remember to send for your boy."

I smiled and nodded.

Before I boarded, I took out my phone and sent Annette one last message.

【Happy wedding day. The ten years are yours.】