“Go make a few of the dishes Lillian likes.”
“I want pork and potato stew, crab-stuffed meatballs, and steamed fish. And no scallions or cilantro in any of it. Lillian doesn't like them.”
He didn't care how I felt, but he knew every last one of Lillian Summers's preferences by heart.
To him, his fiancée was nothing more than a maid who'd never be fit to show in public.
I pulled the blanket up over me and refused to look at Horace.
“I need to rest. I don't have time to cook.”
Beside him, Lillian pursed her lips and looped her arm through Horace's, all wheedling charm.
“How is it that the moment I show up, Melinda always feels unwell?”
“She wouldn't be faking it to avoid me because she can't stand me, would she?”
Losing face, Horace started to lose his patience.
He grabbed my arm roughly and dragged me off the bed.
“Quit putting on an act. Everyone knows you mountain folk are sturdy as oxen. You can do hard labor all day and be fine. So why are you suddenly so delicate?”
“Get up and cook. The Gilberts don't keep idle mouths around. I didn't get engaged to you so you could play the lady of the house!”
My bones cracked under his grip.
A sharp pain shot through the arm that had been injured all those years ago.
At my breaking point, I snatched the pillow from behind me and hurled it.
“Horace, you know full well why I can't stand her!”
The pillow grazed Lillian's cheek, leaving a faint red mark.
It was nothing serious, but it was enough to set Horace off.
He froze for three seconds, then seized the crystal ornament off the table and flung it hard at me.
“Melinda, you just won't stop, will you!”
“I'm talking to you nicely, and this is how you treat a guest?”
“Do you know who Lillian is? If you leave a scar on her face, you'll see exactly what I do to you!”
The ornament struck my head.
A thread of blood trickled slowly down my forehead.
Horace realized he'd gone too far.
He hurried to take my hand, wanting to tend to the wound.
I shook him off, no patience left for any of it.
“I don't need your help. I can walk on my own.”
“From this day on, I will never set foot in the Gilbert house again!”
“That's not what I meant……”
Horace started to explain on instinct.
But when he glanced at Lillian beside him, he pulled his hand back.
“I know there's some misunderstanding between you and Lillian, but what happened back then wasn't all her fault.”
“It's been so many years. Do you really need to keep clinging to such petty things?”
Back then, my mother was gravely hurt saving old Simon Gilbert.
To repay the debt, the Gilberts brought me into the city for schooling.
They treated me with courtesy at every turn, yet there were always those who bullied me on purpose for where I'd come from.
Lillian was the worst of them all.
She cut off my hair. She pushed me down the stairs.
She even tried to tear off my clothes and take photos to ruin my future.
At the last moment, it was Horace who stepped forward and shielded me with his own body.
He faced Lillian and said, his voice ringing with conviction,
“Where someone is born doesn't decide everything.”
“Melinda has done nothing wrong. Her birth is no excuse for you to bully her.”
That day, the setting sun fell across Horace and stretched his shadow tall above me.
From that moment, I fell hopelessly in love with him.
I would rather give up half my own lifespan than fail to save him.
But how could the girl I was back then ever have imagined it.
The one who had once stood up for me.
Now stood on the other side, against me.
Too exhausted to argue anymore,
I let out a sigh and said, flatly,
“Horace, let's end the engagement.”
“Since you care about Lillian this much, I'll let you have her.”
