Chapter 3

I refused outright, saying I needed to get back to the office.

Ignoring me completely, he pulled me into the back seat.

Hester sat up front in the passenger seat, for all the world like the lady of the house.

"Alison, just let Luke drive you. He's been skipping work lately just to keep me company. He's got plenty of time on his hands."

Eight years together, and no matter how important the occasion, Luke had never once set the company aside for me.

Yet the moment Hester came home, she got to bask in his special kind of doting.

The thought made me glance at the two of them up front.

Just then I heard Hester cry out, "Luke, I think I got your car dirty."

There it was on the passenger seat, a faint smear of dark red.

Luke's gaze went soft, and without the slightest concern he said, "It's fine. A quick wash and it'll be as good as new."

The words had barely left him when, without thinking, he flicked a look at me in the rearview mirror.

Seeing that I wasn't looking his way, he turned his eyes aside.

We reached the foot of the office building.

The moment I opened the car door, I saw my boss.

He asked me, "Alison, have you really thought this through? Once the application goes through, there's no reversing it. Weren't you planning to get married and go on your honeymoon next month?"

I was just about to answer.

But Luke rolled down the window, his expression cool and remote.

"Alison, Hester wants to travel next month. Let's push the wedding and the honeymoon back a month."

I gave a small nod. "Fine."

The instant I said it, Luke froze.

He'd expected me to kick up a fuss, and instead I was being unnervingly agreeable.

He was about to say something.

But Hester tugged at his arm and cooed, "Luke, don't push the honeymoon trip back next month. Let's all go together."

The corners of Luke's mouth lifted, and without asking for my opinion, he agreed at once.

"Alison, we'll just book our honeymoon trip separately."

I didn't refuse.

After all, we weren't even planning to marry anymore, so there was no need for a honeymoon either.

Watching the car pull away.

My boss looked at me with concern. "The application takes a week to process. But if you need it, I can push it along. You could be gone the day after tomorrow at the earliest."

At the end of the workday, for once in his life, Luke came to pick me up.

The moment I got in, he handed me a bowl of brown sugar peach-gum soup, saying he'd made it specially for me.

No sooner had he spoken than the phone he'd set aside lit up.

A message from Hester.

【Luke, you big dummy, boiling up this much brown sugar peach-gum soup, are you trying to turn me into a little piggy?】

The car fell silent.

Luke broke the quiet first. "Why are you reading up on an overseas project? Are you planning a business trip?"

I shook my head. "My boss wants me to study it."

Seeing I was in low spirits, the man who was usually so cold went so far as to say, almost coaxingly,

"Take the day off tomorrow. I'll take you to a movie. Weren't you always going on about wanting to see that new one that just came out?"

"No need. I don't have time tomorrow."

It had been his favorite movie to begin with.

But he'd already seen it with Hester.

There was no point in seeing it again.

Luke, however, misread what I meant, and his face darkened.

"Alison, what's that supposed to mean?"

"I just let Hester stay at the house for a few days, and you won't let it go, is that it?"

I was a little speechless, and was about to explain that I hadn't done any such thing.

The man sneered.

"With an attitude like yours, once I marry you, who knows how much Hester will have to put up with!"

"Let me make this perfectly clear. I'm the one who calls the shots in this house. Never mind letting Hester stay a few days, even if I let her live here for the rest of her life, you have no right to point fingers."