Chapter 2

Even though I did not sleep a wink from the overwhelming sadness, I still appeared at my work desk the next morning with two dark rings under my eyes. I was just an employee, after all, and there was no excuse to be absent from work.

When I handed over my current projects to my team, my superior, Martha Waller, teased me, "Your girlfriend is so clingy and calls you several times on the phone if you're ten minutes late to go home. Now that you're leaving for Lunshire for three years, you must have spent the entire night trying to pacify her."

I lowered my head to look at my phone. Since Rose left the night before, she had not texted me even once. I smiled bitterly. "Something happened, and we're not getting married anymore."

Martha was surprised, and the smile disappeared from her face. She did not ask any further questions but patted me on the back. "It's still a good thing to find out something is wrong in a relationship before getting married."

It would have been a good thing if the man Rose cheated on me with was not my best friend, Alan, but it did not do anyone any good to explain my situation further. All I did was force an ugly smile in reply.

After I was done handing over all my work, it was almost 8:00 pm. I dragged my exhausted body home and saw Rose and Alan sitting on the couch the moment I opened the door. They were holding hands and sitting shoulder to shoulder against each other.

The sight enraged me, and I got dizzy from the anger. I had to lean against the doorframe to steady myself. When I calmed down sufficiently, I turned to leave. I had finally finished work for the day, and did not want to spend the remaining hours of the day being mad about them.

"Walden!" Alan ran up to me and grabbed me by the sleeve. "I made your favorite ribs and stew. Come on. Stay and have dinner."

Before I could reply, Rose came over as well. She held onto Alan gently and frowned. "Alan spent the entire night in the hospital and only managed a few hours' sleep earlier today, but he insisted on coming back here to make you dinner.

"Don't waste his effort, Walden, and let's have dinner together."

I looked at their faces. One of them was hesitant, while the other was insistent. This meal was not an apology to me. They had something to say.

"Fine." I pushed Alan's hand away from me and walked to the dining table.

When the three of us used to have a meal together, I would always sit next to Rose, while Alan would sit opposite us. Tonight, Rose took her seat next to Alan instead, and I sat alone opposite them.

The dishes were quickly served, but I did not touch anything and went straight to the point. "Just say whatever it is you want to say."

Alan forced a smile. "It's really nothing, Walden…"

Before he could finish, Rose grabbed his hand to stop him from continuing. After that, she looked up at me. "Alan and I will be having a civil wedding tomorrow. After we get our marriage license, I plan to let Alan and the baby move into this house so that it would be more convenient for me to take care of them."

I was so stunned that I dropped my fork onto the table.

Rose and I had been fixing up the house for two years to make it a place for both of us after we got married. We made all the renovation and decoration decisions together, and when we moved in, she even joked about Alan and me.

"I know you and Alan are so close that you probably are practically inseparable, but this house belongs to both of us, and you're not allowed to make him a permanent tenant in this house."

That was why, when Alan suddenly had the baby and could not cope on his own, I decided to spend more time traveling between two locations rather than inviting him to stay at our house. However, the person who was inviting him now turned out to be Rose.

I clenched my teeth to stop myself from yelling at them. "Fine. He can move in. I'll be moving out."

Rose did not agree. "Do you really need to make things difficult for me, Walden?"

I almost laughed in anger at her words. She was the one who slept with another man and had his baby, and now she wanted them in our house. Was I really the one who was making things difficult?

"It isn't safe or convenient for Alan to take care of the baby on his own out here. He's a new father, and he might miss out on something if he did this alone." Rose frowned and continued indignantly, "He's your best friend. Can you bear to let him be?"

I looked up at Alan. He still looked pretty good despite spending a night by the baby's side. In fact, he looked even sturdier than a month ago. It was proof that I had taken very good care of him and the baby in the past 100 days.

As for me, I lost over twenty pounds in just three months because I had to work during the day and help him take care of the baby at night.

I laughed sarcastically. "You gave him the baby, not me. If you're so worried about him, shouldn't you return the money I paid for his hospital bills and the nanny?"