Chapter 3

I sat in the darkness, staring coldly at him.

"Mason, two years ago when George was four, you canceled a pre-meeting for a merger contract just to teach him a card trick."

"You said then that childhood only happens once, and if you miss it, you can never get it back."

"Now he's practiced for two months just so you'd sit in the audience for half an hour, and you think it doesn't matter?"

Mason's breath caught. He tugged at his tie again.

"That was because of an emergency! Daisy doesn't have a father. She was hiding in a corner crying alone, and Mia was beside herself with worry. What was I supposed to do, ignore them?"

As he spoke, he walked over and reached out to put his arm around my waist, trying to pull me into his embrace.

"Come on, be good."

He lowered his voice coaxingly. "I came back, didn't I?"

The moment he touched me, nausea rose in my stomach. I turned my head away in disgust and forcefully pushed his hand away.

Mason's hand froze in midair. He snorted in displeasure and muttered something about me being unreasonable.

He turned to grab his suit jacket from the sofa, preparing to take a shower.

Just then—thud.

A small box fell from his jacket pocket and rolled to my feet.

It was a bottle of men's cologne with sweet notes.

Mason stopped. He immediately came over and picked up the cologne. "Mia insisted on giving this to me to thank me for helping today. I wasn't planning to keep it."

"Does it feel good playing the man of someone else's house?"

I looked at him with a mocking, cold laugh.

That sentence hit Mason's sore spot precisely.

His expression changed. He stepped forward and grabbed my wrist.

His five fingers gripped tightly. I could feel the slightly hot temperature of his palm.

"Annie, can't you understand me? That child doesn't even have a father. I just helped out once. George has you—what do I have to worry about?"

He paused, sighing with a trace of exhaustion. "You're my wife. You're the one I trust. As long as you're there, I can rest easy."

I looked at his face. Pain shot through my wrist, but my heart had gone numb.

I didn't struggle. I just looked at him with the dead, desolate eyes one gives a stranger.

Mason met my gaze and suddenly froze.

He immediately released my hand and, right in front of me, threw the cologne bottle into the trash.

"I don't want her stuff!"

He said in a panic, "I only use the woody cologne you buy me. Is that okay now?!"

With that, he turned and fled into the bathroom.

The next morning, I took George to the photography studio in the city center.

"Hello, I'd like to cancel this weekend's sixth birthday family photo package."

I handed the receipt to the receptionist.

George pressed against the studio's display window, staring at the Ultraman-themed family portrait poster.

He'd saved half a year's allowance and stubbornly insisted the whole family take this photo together. He looked at it for a long time but said nothing.

Just as we left the studio, my phone rang. It was Mason.

His tone was unusually hesitant. "Annie, this weekend the company has an urgent acquisition. I... I have to go on a business trip."

I held the phone, listening to Mason's guilty voice through the receiver, feeling utterly absurd.

Rewind half an hour.

I'd just come out of the bathroom. Passing by the study, I heard voices inside. Mason's phone was on speaker. Mia's crying voice was especially clear in the quiet room.