Ends and Beginnings

He did not come back for three days. On the morning of the fourth day, he sent me a location for the wedding ceremony.[Have you reflected on your mistakes yet? I arranged the wedding ceremony this afternoon, especially for you. It's the same place, so don't be late.]Every time we fought, I would be the first to offer him an olive branch. This was the first time he reached out instead, though his tone sounded like he was doing this out of pity.I reacted with an OK emoji and nothing else. Cyrus must think I would be in tears with gratitude because he agreed to make up for the wedding. However, I was leaving that noon, and I did not want to see him even once before then, so I did not want him to come home and confront me.On the other hand, Serena would not let me so easily. She purposely used his phone to send me a voice message.In the audio clip, I could hear that Cyrus was buying her a new necklace. His soft and tender tone sounded so far away to me. He used to speak to me

“That sounds good.” Charlotte nodded. “But you can just tell me if you ever want to switch jobs. I'll keep a lookout for you.”“That won't be necessary for now.” I smiled. “I'm pretty confident in my current position.”Charlotte patted my shoulder. “Then you gotta tell me if you get into any trouble. Don't keep it to yourself.”My heart felt warm inside. “Anthony, keep an eye on my sister at work, you hear me?” Charlotte turned to Anthony.“Don't worry, I'll take good care of her.” His tone was sincere, and his gaze friendly. My face heated up a bit at his promise. After a while, the car arrived at a restaurant. Charlotte ordered a table full of food and kept putting more into my plate. Meanwhile, Anthony sat across from me and looked up at me every so often.After dinner, we exchanged contacts. Charlotte said she had something to take care of, so she asked Anthony to send me home.Upon arriving at my new quarters, I was utterly exhausted. I threw my luggage into a corner and

Many people approached Anthony for some small talk. I quietly waited in a corner.As I expected, it was not long before Cyrus walked up to me. “Why are you here? I looked everywhere for you.”I took a step back and said coolly, “Why were you looking for me? We broke up.”My resolute attitude gave him pause. For once, Cyrus put on a pitiful look. “Marilyn, don't be mad at me. I can explain my relationship with Serena. Do you remember the time I went out of town for work?“I got into some trouble back then, and Serena was the one who bailed me out. Since then, I swore to repay her…”I looked at him silently. “I'm no longer interested in your relationship with Serena. I don't care to know your reasons, either.“I'll say it again: We broke up. We're through.”After that, I turned to Anthony, who was looking at me through the crowd. His smile was encouraging. At that moment, I felt fully relaxed. See? Breaking up was not that difficult, after all.I walked toward Anthony, but