The caption read: "Taking off on a spur-of-the-moment trip with the best brother in the whole world! Wives are like clothes, brothers are like limbs. Thanks to a certain someone for being so understanding~ heart you!"
Plenty of people had liked it, all mutual friends.
Someone had commented underneath: "Huh? So where's your brother's wife, Peggy? She didn't make a scene about this?"
Victoria had replied with an innocent little emoji: "No idea~ maybe she's working overtime."
I scrolled past the post, my face giving nothing away, and closed the app.
Another message came in from Brendan.
"Did you see Victoria's post? She wants to hit 999 likes as a little challenge. Peggy, go give her a like too."
I didn't respond.
Five minutes later, Brendan sent a few more.
"Why aren't you answering? Did you fall asleep?"
"Okay, well, get some rest tonight."
"I'm not there to pour your water and soak your feet for you, so remember to run yourself some hot water and take care of yourself."
"Love you, wifey."
He even tacked on a cute little cartoon sticker at the end.
I just found it laughable.
In the past, I never had the heart to let him down. Every message he sent, I answered without fail.
But this time, not only did I not bother to reply.
I went straight to his pinned chat and unpinned it, then tossed my phone aside and went to shower.
After all, tomorrow I'd be touching down in Bali by helicopter.
Off to a trip that was mine and mine alone.
As for whether anyone would pour my water and soak my feet, that had always been a trivial little thing that didn't matter.
Just as I burrowed under the covers, my phone buzzed again.
This time it was Katherine James, my father's assistant.
"Peggy, the helicopter route's been approved. We take off from the city at ten tomorrow morning, expected to land at Denpasar Airport in Bali around four in the afternoon."
"The pilot is Bryan. He's flown this route several times, so you can rest easy."
I replied, "Good."
Not even five minutes later, Katherine sent another.
"The boss asked me to check with you, are you serious about pulling the investment? Over eighty million is already in Mr. Harding's project. If you withdraw now, the upfront capital might…"
"Pull it."
I replied with just two words.
My father's call came through right after.
"Peggy, what's going on?"
"I was in meetings all day, didn't get the chance to ask you. The investment was doing perfectly fine, so why pull it out of nowhere?"
Two years ago, when Brendan's cross-border e-commerce venture hit a cash crunch.
I was the one who went to my father for the funding.
At the time, my father didn't want to do it. He said Brendan was unreliable, the kind of man who started strong and fizzled out, not someone cut out for anything big.
That flat refusal, to his face, made Brendan's eyes go red as he said:
"Peggy, your father looks down on me. That's fine. I'll earn this investment on my own merit and bring the company back from the dead."
He turned and walked out, throwing himself into the schmoozing, working contacts even to the point of bleeding ulcers, all to reel in investors.
It was me, aching for him, who went to my father again and again to put in a word for Brendan.
I said how hard it was for someone just starting out, and asked my father to give him a hand for his son-in-law's sake.
My father couldn't win against me, and he couldn't stand to see me cry.
With a sigh, he put in eighty million under the identity of a mysterious investor, on the condition that Brendan had to show real results within three years, or there'd be no follow-up funding.
After that, Brendan was unstoppable.
The returns rolled in like a snowball, growing bigger and bigger.
Just last month, Brendan urgently needed to scale up operations and came asking for another three hundred million.
My father agreed to that too.
But now…
I lifted my head and looked out at the lonely moon beyond the window. Right at this moment, Brendan was off in Bali with Victoria, watching the sea. Or maybe clinking glasses, laughing the night away.
