"I'm sorry. I've wronged you."
The guilt was in her voice, but I'd already seen straight through the smugness in her eyes and her mouth.
Guy and my father both rushed to lift her up, but she refused to rise.
Guy rounded on me at once. "Celine, that's enough."
"Isn't this whole thing your own doing, always so desperate to win? Besides, Cecily didn't burn your restaurant. How can you take it out on her?"
"Don't yell at my sister. She's already suffering enough."
"I'm just kneeling for a while. It won't kill me."
"If this helps calm her down, I'll kneel until my knees give out. It's worth it."
The meaning was clear: unless I told her to get up, she wouldn't dare.
My father had already seen it too, so without a second thought he slapped me across the face.
"Enough! If you have to hate someone, hate me!"
"None of this has anything to do with her. Do you really have to make a scene for every passerby to laugh at?"
That slap knocked away every last hope I had of family from him.
Cecily scrambled up and stepped in front of him. "Mom, what are you doing!"
"My sister is already suffering enough..."
"She's suffering? And you think I'm having an easy time?"
"Please don't do this. You're making me out to be some contemptible person."
I didn't expect it, but right then Cecily's morning sickness hit and she started retching.
My father froze for a moment, as if something had just dawned on him.
I let out a bitter laugh. "What else could you possibly be unhappy about?"
"From the day you came into my family, you successfully stole my father's love, and then my boyfriend."
"You used your so-called depression to push my father into burning my restaurant, you got my boyfriend into bed and carried his child. Tell me, what else is there left to be unhappy about?"
Guy flinched hard. He hadn't expected me to know that Cecily was carrying his baby.
In the end I couldn't bear to stay a moment longer, and I left with the most broken heart, quietly and alone.
I didn't go back to that suffocating house. I was ready to sever ties, right on schedule.
I stayed a night in a hotel, and I didn't sleep at all.
By the time dawn came, worn to the bone, I went to the bank to withdraw the money for my employees' wages.
But the fifteen thousand, the only money left in my account, was gone.
Just then, my father called.
"I took the money out of your account for Cecily to use. She's opening her bubble-tea shop, isn't she?"
"She needs money for the tables and chairs and everything..."
"Dad!!!"
I shouted into the phone, panic rising with it.
"That fifteen thousand was everything I had. I was going to use it to pay my employees."
"Why did you take my money without asking me?"
"Have you ever once thought about me..."
"What are you yelling for?"
"I only took fifteen thousand. Is that really worth getting this worked up over?"
"If you don't have money for wages, then go borrow it from your friends."
"Either way, Cecily's bubble-tea shop is going to open smoothly, no matter what."
He hung up before I could get another word out.
Right after that, Cecily called to gloat.
"Sister, well, well, well."
"Last night I just happened to mention I wanted to buy a tea set but didn't have the money, and that lowlife father of yours stole your money and gave it to me."
"And guess what I was doing right then? I was in bed with your fiance."
"Ha ha ha. I told you. Your mother drove my mother to her death, so I swore I'd tear your family apart until nothing was left standing."
"You know what? Your father really is useless. He couldn't even get the fire going. In the end I gave him a hand and splashed on plenty of accelerant..."
"South Harbor Street. Come on over. My bubble-tea shop opens today."
"Your father sold your house so I could open my shop."
I clenched my fists so hard they ached, and I carried a flood of hatred all the way to South Harbor Street.
Cecily stood at the door, greeting the lion dance troupe and their blessings.
She was smiling, radiant with happiness. So was my father.
It was in that exact moment that I chose to cut them off for good.
I took out my phone and called the police.
"Hello. I want to report a crime."
"Someone deliberately set fire to my restaurant..."
The call to the police was barely over, my phone just back in my hand, when I looked up and saw Guy had come too.
He'd brought his friends, and every one of them was circling Cecily.
"Cecily, you really pulled it off."
"Love and business, both winning at once, huh!"
"Hold on, though. Things between you two are still a mess. How's that going to end?"
That one line dropped, and Guy and Cecily went quiet.
The others traded glances, but nobody blamed the one who'd said it, because this was a reality they had to face.
After a moment, Guy let out a sigh.
"Once Cecily has the baby, I'll go back to Celine."
"I still know the difference between love and marriage."
"I'll say it straight. In this whole world, only Celine can truly love me the way I need. Nobody else."
Every eye turned to Cecily, waiting to see how she'd take it.
Cecily walked over and slid an arm around Guy's shoulder. "I'll respect your choice."
The mood didn't turn stiff at that. If anything it got livelier.
Someone put it to Guy, "Well, since you've already made up your mind, you should spend more time with Cecily until then."
"Right, right! You have no idea, Guy's got a huge appetite in that department, hahaha!"
"She's already pregnant and you still dare—"
"All right, enough. That's just what you two want. Celine might not even take you back, Guy!"
Guy smiled, all confidence, certain no one understood me better than he did.
"She can't live without me. Otherwise she'd never have changed her college plans and stayed in the country."
"Wait, what? Which school did she apply to back then?"
"Oxford, top schools like that. She could've gotten in. But for me, and for her father, she chose to stay."
The words had barely landed before someone laughed and called me an idiot, laughed at me for putting myself through it.
They weren't wrong to laugh. I was mocking my old self too.
If it hadn't been for those two men, I would have accepted Oxford's offer.
It was my father who couldn't bear to let me go, afraid I'd be all alone once I left.
And Guy held me and cried the whole night, saying he was afraid some other man would want me once I was gone.
I was such a fool back then. I believed their lies.
Because the next thing Cecily said was, "It was because I couldn't get into a top school, so I locked myself up and wouldn't eat or drink. Her father was scared I'd do something to myself, so he wouldn't let Celine go to a top school either."
That line turned into a knife all over again, and it wouldn't stop until it had cut me to the bone.
My father came over and took Cecily's hand. "Come on in and help me with the guests. There are so many people."
The group went in together, talking and laughing, like a close, happy family.
Only I, from beginning to end, was the outsider.
And that was when the restaurant manager called.
"Celine, the staff are waiting on you for their wages."
