**15**
The coffee shop across from the flower shop was in disarray. I suppressed my anger and walked up to Julian. Julian also had bruises on his face, and he smiled foolishly at me. “See, Mia? Noah is useless; he can’t protect you at all.”
“Only by staying with me are you truly safe.”
I slapped him, wishing I could kill him. “What kind of psycho are you?!”
“He’s
my husband, Daisy’s dad! Do you want to go to jail?!”
Julian suddenly grew agitated too. “You’re my wife too, how can you abandon me?”
“You’re Caleb’s mom too, aren’t you abandoning him too?”
His voice was hoarse with tears by the end. He clutched my hand tightly. “Mia, back then, so many things were beyond my control. The Celeste family was good to me, and they have deep roots. I… I had no choice…”
*So you were perfectly fine with your divided attention. Don’t give me such pathetic excuses.” I calmly cut him off.
“But I…”
*Julian, your feelings are worth less than dirt now. The moment you indulged Celeste in
breaking my boundaries over and over, we could never go back.”
His grip on my hand tightened, and his face slowly paled. “What if I told you
left, I realized how terribly wrong I was…”
that after you
“After you left, all I could think about was you. I… I couldn’t eat or sleep…”
I interrupted his self–pity again. “Mr. Julian, you can’t even distinguish your own feelings,
I think your company is headed for bankruptcy.”
He closed his eyes. “Mia, do we have to talk like this now?”
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I stared at his face, as if trying to find the Jules I used to know. I spoke each word clearly. “This is what you taught me before. Just bear with it. Some things, they’ll be over soon.”
**16**
On the Lantern Festival, the snow was quite heavy. For some reason, I knew Caleb was leaving.
Well, as the young master of the Julian family, it was time for him to go back and learn things.
When Caleb left, he stood in the yard, soaking in the snow, wearing a black trench coat, silent. Noah couldn’t bear it and took an umbrella over to him.
“Uncle Noah, my mom… she really doesn’t want me anymore…”
Noah was silent for a moment, then replied, “A mother’s love endures all, but you hurt her too deeply back then.”
Caleb seemed to break down upon hearing this. “But… but I was still young… Celeste told
me what to say, and I said it…”
“She said if I said those things, Mom would let go…”
“If Mom let go, she’d give me lots of toys and have lots of people play with me.”
“Mom loved me so much… she wouldn’t blame me…”
Noah pulled out two bottles of fruit beer from somewhere and gave one to Caleb. Caleb drank and cried. Watching from afar, an inexplicable feeling of vulnerability washed over
- me.
the
“Celeste is a liar. She lied to us, saying she couldn’t have children, but she got pregnant
year after Mom left…”
Noah paused, “Julian is disgusting. He claimed he couldn’t let go of Sister, yet he has a five–year–old with her.”
Caleb froze then nodded blankly “Yonh my dad’a a lork”
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With that, the two clinked bottles and took a swing almost laughed, hugging Jose There Noah for you, no matter how painful things were, seeing him always brought a touch d
humor
