Daryl's lips moved. Nothing came out.
“I asked you a question!” My mother's voice went up a notch.
“It was……Dad gave it to me.”
“And you called the police on my daughter?”
“I didn't——”
“You didn't call them? Then who did, a ghost?”
Daryl shut his mouth for good.
My father stood up.
“Three days. You have three days to get out. The house, the car, the company——all of it comes back. Don't like it? Sue me. I'll be right here.”
Daryl lifted his head, looked at my father, then at me.
His eyes were red.
I didn't look at him.
My mother pulled me into the bedroom and shut the door.
“Good riddance. I never liked him.”
“Why didn't you say so earlier?”
“Would you have listened? Back then you thought he hung the moon. Like I could've stopped you.”
I said nothing.
My mother pulled out her phone and started showing me photos.
“This one is Minnie Chavez's son. Came back from the States, works in finance. And this one is Uncle Li's nephew, started his own company——”
“Mom, I'm barely divorced.”
“Exactly why you need to start planning ahead.”
I stared at her, caught somewhere between laughing and crying.
The front door opened and closed.
Daryl was gone.
I opened the bedroom door. My father was still sitting in the living room.
“He left?” I asked.
“He left.” My father looked at me. “You're sure about this?”
“I'm sure.”
“Then get it done.”
Three days later, Daryl came back to collect his things.
He hired movers. They packed two boxes.
I stood in the doorway and watched.
When everything was loaded, he stood on the sidewalk below and looked up at me.
I didn't go downstairs.
He stood there for a while, then turned and left.
The lawyer sent over the signed agreement while I was eating dinner with my mother.
“He signed?”
“He signed.”
“Good. Clean and quick.”
My mother placed a spare rib on my plate.
“So, how about meeting Minnie's son?”
“Mom——”
“Just a meeting. Nobody's making you marry him.”
I gritted my teeth.
“Fine.”
The next afternoon, I was sitting in a café.
Across from me was a man in glasses and a white dress shirt, speaking in an unhurried, measured tone.
“Ms. Henson, Minnie has told me about you.”
“What did she say?”
“That you're exceptional.”
I gave a polite smile.
He slid a business card across the table.
“I'm a financial analyst at a major investment bank. Salary's around four hundred thousand a year. My parents are both back home, retired, fully covered by insurance and savings. They don't need me to support them.”
I picked up the card and glanced at it.
“If you're that much of a catch, why do you need a blind date?”
He smiled.
“Too busy for dating. And.”
He paused.
“I don't want someone who's too materialistic.”
I set the card down.
“Do you think I'm materialistic?”
“Not at all.”
“Then you're wrong. I'm very materialistic.”
He froze.
I stood up.
“Sorry, I have somewhere to be.”
Outside the café, I texted my mother：Not a match.
She replied instantly：How is he not a match?
I thought for a second, then typed two words：Too pretentious.
After I got in the car, a text came in from an unknown number.
“Cicely, I was wrong. Can we talk?”
Daryl.
I deleted the message and blocked his number.
Halfway home, Gloria Fox called.
“I heard you got divorced?”
“Word travels fast.”
“Drinks tonight? My treat.”
“Sure.”
Ten o'clock. I walked into the bar, and Gloria already had a glass going.
