Horace stalled for a moment.
The guilt of a second ago curdled into the cold laugh of someone caught out.
"Break it off? Melinda, are you out of your mind?"
"You clung to my side like a leech for eight years and wouldn't leave. And now you want to break it off? Who's going to want you?"
Lillian let out an open sneer.
"Country girls really are the scheming type. She's even learned to play hard to get."
"I heard you nearly got defiled saving Horace back then. A woman like you, leaving the Gilberts? They'll probably run you out of town in disgrace."
What I'd done for Horace back then went far beyond that.
I'd climbed the nine thousand steps of the temple stairs on my knees. I'd prayed in hundreds of shrines.
Anything that might save him, no matter how bitter or hard, I was willing to do it.
Everyone said I'd throw away my own life for Horace.
A few con men heard that and set their sights on me.
In the end I slit my wrist and threatened to die before they finally backed off.
I'd thought all of that was proof of how I loved him.
I never imagined that in their eyes it was only leverage to use against me.
The memories tightened around me like a halter until I couldn't breathe, until I couldn't stand one more moment in this place.
Just then a message from my father came through on my phone.
"We've settled on someone for you to marry. A man from the village, someone we know inside and out."
"He knows you love peach blossoms, so he reserved half a hillside of peach trees just for you. Come home and we can hold the wedding right away!"
Horace looked down and caught the word "marry."
Whatever guilt he'd had drained away, and he grew bolder still, laughing coldly.
"See? You can't actually leave the Gilberts."
"That little village of yours is so backward and superstitious. Where can you go, besides marrying me?"
Anywhere.
Anywhere was better than here.
When he saw me still walking toward the door, still refusing to come to my senses, Horace lost the last of his patience.
Staring at my back, humiliated and furious, he shouted.
"Melinda, take one more step and I'll chop down the peach tree in the yard right now!"
My foot stopped. I didn't turn around.
"Do whatever you want."
That tree was tied to Horace's own fate, not mine.
I moved out of the Gilbert house, and a cold war began between us.
In eight years, it was the first time.
Before, the moment he was unhappy, the moment he used the peach tree to vent his temper at me, I'd bow my head right away.
But this time, no matter how many threatening messages Horace sent, I didn't waver.
In the end, Horace sent me one line.
"Melinda, you'll regret this."
I thought he was going to bring up the peach tree again.
I didn't expect that not long after, I'd get a call from my father.
"Melinda, your mother's not going to make it. Come quickly, come see her!"
"Somebody sent your mother a video. I don't know who."
"It said the Gilberts' peach blossoms haven't bloomed for years because you've broken your marriage vows. Your mother couldn't take the shock, and her condition suddenly took a turn for the worse…"
Who else could it be.
The only people who could have gotten that video were Lillian and Horace.
By the time I reached the hospital, my mother had barely a breath left.
She clutched the bridal gown she'd embroidered with her own hands and looked at me.
There was bitterness in her eyes, and heartache.
And I didn't even have the strength left to cry.
Kneeling at my mother's bedside, I wept and told her everything that had happened lately.
In the end, we agreed to hold the wedding early.
To cut every tie with Horace, once and for all.
There was no time, so the wedding was set near the hospital.
Apart from the closest family on both sides, there wasn't a single extra guest.
I had just changed into the bridal gown and was ready to go out and be married when Horace suddenly burst in.
