Her eyes shrank tight. "As for using power to press others down…"
I let my foot drop and took the sanitizing towel offered by the housekeeper, slowly rubbing my palms.
"You said one thing wrong."
"In Phoenix City, I am that power."
When the surgery lamp came on, the disinfectant smell made me blank out for a breath.
Right then, I clearly pictured Luther at eighteen.
He always chose the front seat, back straight.
The neckline of his shirt was bleached pale, threads sticking out fine.
Once, he burned with fever and skipped class for three days. When I found him, he was hauling cement at a building site.
I slipped five thousand dollars into his backpack.
He chased behind me across three streets to return it, voice rough. "Classmate, Vera, please leave me some dignity.”
After that, I just "accidentally" carried extra breakfast, and "casually" loaned him review notes.
During the Winter Solstice evening, he held two baked sweet potatoes, stood out in minus ten degrees until dormitory lights-out, and once he saw me, the first line he spoke was, "Vera, can you wait for me?"
Years later, he rose from nothing until his company got listed.
He held me close the entire night, voice tight.
"In those times, I slept only three hours each day, scared I couldn’t stay beside you, scared you’d notice I needed a whole week just to manage one cup of coffee with you."
One day, when he visited my parents, the moment he spotted my dad in the living room, he finally realized.
The "Kelly" in Vera Kelly was the Kelly of the Kelly family.
Luther told me afterward, at that second, his thoughts were full of. "So the goal I chased with everything I owned, couldn’t even touch your starting place."
After knowing my background, he became known for his harsh ambition.
He pushed himself near collapse to grab deals and funding, to squeeze into Phoenix high circles.
He later used ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine gold roses to build a rose field to ask me to marry him.
Back then, what line did he speak?
He said the purpose of his life was to grow good enough for me.
As anesthesia faded bit by bit, a prick spread across my chest.
The affection Luther once gave me was grand and shining.
Sadly, it was quick to vanish.
Vows were only most lovely right when they were spoken.
The talk of “forever” didn’t last past seven years.
"Miss?"
I jolted awake, fingertips brushing the wet edge of my eye.
My chest ached endlessly.
The housekeeper spoke softly, "Mr. Campbell has come back."
Head lowered, the skin over my chest had been neatly changed.
Slightly pink, but smooth and clean, no sign left behind.
Luther walked in holding shopping bags, his face wearing that once-gentle smile.
He set the brand-marked bags aside and reached out toward my cheek.
"Vera, Faye crossed the line today."
"I bought you a fresh necklace. Don’t bother fighting her, okay?"
The surgeons had already gone; only a few guards stayed.
Luther noticed nothing strange.
He smiled while opening the jewelry case; the stones shone brightly. "I swear she won’t pull nonsense again."
When he said Faye’s name, even he didn’t hear the softness in his tone.
Quietly, I stared at him.
The Luther standing here wore a watch priced in tens of millions.
The shirts, once worn thin, now had pearl-like buttons.
Even the light gardenia smell on him matched the scent in Faye’s hair.
Seeing the upscale air settled around him now, I suddenly recalled that Winter Solstice when he was eighteen.
