Chapter 1

"Vivi, sweetheart, is Marcus not coming today either?"

My father sighed, and the gray at his temples looked painfully bright under the restaurant lights.

I followed his eyes to the empty seat we had set aside at the round table, and my throat tightened.

Three full years of marriage, and Marcus, his son-in-law, had met my parents only through a phone screen.

Every holiday there was a place setting for him at their table, and he never once showed up.

Worse still, last year on my birthday I hadn't told him in advance that my parents were coming.

He pushed open the door of the private room, and the second he saw them his face went cold. He turned around and walked out without a shred of hesitation.

He left my parents standing there, not knowing what to do with their hands.

That night I chased him through street after street in heels, coaxing him in the smallest voice I had.

Under the dim streetlight, Marcus looked at me with nothing but irritation.

"Vivian, you know I can't handle social situations. Why do you insist on forcing me into an environment that suffocates me? Have you ever once thought about how I feel?"

Back then my head was full of nothing but guilt.

But now there were the photos: Marcus sipping tea with Chloe's mother, playing chess in the garden with Chloe's father.

The man who could barely bring himself to speak to my own parents was effortlessly charming with hers.

And all that was left inside me was a long, dead flatness of disappointment.

"Vivi?"

My mother leaned in, worried, and patted the back of my hand.

"What are you staring at? If Marcus isn't coming, he isn't coming. His situation is special, we understand..."

"Dad. Mom."

I came back to myself and swallowed down the copper taste in my throat.

Watching the two of them tiptoe around making excuses for him, I suddenly found the woman I used to be absolutely ridiculous.

"You don't need to save him a seat anymore."

The rest of the meal tasted like sawdust.

After I settled the check, I walked out of the restaurant with an arm through each of my parents' arms.

We had just reached the curb when a burst of laughter broke out behind us.

"Marcus, could you be any more obvious? People come over to toast her and you won't let Chloe touch a single glass, you drink every one for her!"

"Seriously. After all these years, we're still stuck watching you two make the rest of us feel single!"

I looked up without thinking. Marcus and a whole group were coming out of the revolving door not far away.

Marcus let the corner of his mouth curve and let them tease him.

"Oh? Isn't that Marcus?"

My mother followed my eyes, and her face lit up. She hurried toward him.

"Marcus, you came! That girl of mine, honestly, you should have told us you were coming, her father was just talking about you."

The smile on Marcus's face went out instantly.

His gaze went past my mother and landed on me, and his brows drew together fast.

"Vivian, I have told you before. I reject all unnecessary socializing. It makes me extremely uncomfortable."

"So what exactly is this, bringing your parents here to corner me?"

I watched the color drain a little from my mother's face.

The men and women who had been laughing a second ago were now watching the scene with open interest.

He wasn't rejecting socializing.

He was only rejecting mine.

The night wind slid cold down my collar, and a fine, prickling ache spread through every inch of me.

Before I could open my mouth, my father was already waving his hands in a panic.

"No, no, Marcus, don't misunderstand Vivi!"

"We didn't know you'd be here. It's my birthday, that's all, and Vivi took the two of us out to dinner. We really weren't trying to corner you."

Chloe, on his arm, gave him a playful little smack.

"Marc, that's no way to talk to your elders."

She turned to me with a sweet smile. "You must be his wife. I'm so sorry, Marc missed your father's birthday because he was throwing me a welcome dinner. You don't mind, do you?"

"We're heading out to a karaoke place next. Would you like to come along and join the fun?"