He did not pick up the first time.

He did not pick up the second time either.

Cecil called again and again, and it was only at the ninth call that Cleo finally picked up.

She could hear his heavy, rhythmical breathing from the other end of the phone.

She suddenly recalled a similar incident when she was in high school and was also accused of plagiarism.

At the time, she felt ostracized and helpless, and that was when she decided to call him for help.

He had assured her immediately after picking up the call, “Don’t worry, I have your back.”

But now, she was the one who started the dialogue with a swift accusation, “Were you the one who gave Amelia my first draft?”

Cleo confessed without a second thought.

“I did.”

The response from Cecil was a long, heaving sigh.

“Why did you do it?”

After a brief silence, Cleo answered.

“That painting should have never existed in the first place, especially not with your name attached to it. What part of this don’t you understand?”

So that was it. He was afraid of someone noticing.

He was still worried about Cecil having scandalous ideas about him.

Cecil grinned ironically, then she shut her bloodshot eyes.

“Still, it wasn’t me who plagiarized the piece, it was all Amelia! If you give her my first draft, how am I going to clear my name and beat the accusations?

“My entire career as an artist is going under!”

“Amelia made a blunder. She didn’t mean it. Why can’t you take the backlash just this one time?

“Back when I first taught you how to paint, I only intended for it to be a healthy hobby and a way for you to kill time. There’s no need to be so serious about it.

“Either way, I am going to take care of you for life, so you don’t have to worry about finances.”

Then he hung up without another word.

Cecil continued clutching onto her phone and stared blankly at the mirror in front of her.

She observed her reflection, particularly noting her red and swollen eyes from crying for so long.

She looked so haggard that she could barely recognize herself.

Was that her in the mirror?

More than anything else, she felt like she could not recognize Cleo anymore.

Was this the same man who would go against the entire world for her sake?

There was no telling if that very man was still there.

The exhibition turned out to be a complete flop, but that only made her more determined to return all the money she owed Cleo.

A few friends introduced her to various part-time jobs for her to bring in some quick cash. The jobs ranged from working as a caddy at a golf course to part-timing as a waiter in high-end clubs.

Since she had to raise the money as soon as possible, she was not picky and would take up any job that was offered to her.

She would work from morning until night and was rarely seen at home.

A week before she was set to fly to Vinland, she managed to put together the remaining sum.

After she had changed into her waitress uniform, she opened the door to the private room and prepared herself for her final shift.

As luck would have it, she just had to run into someone she knew on her final shift.

There was a group gathered and playing some sort of game.

Cleo lost in the very first round.

The host of the game proceeded to read out the punishment from a card.

“You have to kiss someone of the opposite gender for three minutes!”

The group burst into excited cheers at the dare.

They all turned to Amelia, whose cheeks had turned stark red.

Meanwhile, Cleo confidently got up and filtered past the group. With every step he took, he drew closer to Cecil.

Everyone in the private room was stunned by what they were seeing, and there was a round of commotion.

Just as they were still trying to figure out what was happening, Cleo produced a phone from his pocket and handed it to Cecil.

“Record it with my phone.”

Cecil felt a subtle quake inside her heart. She had a feeling of what was to come.

What surprised her was that the realization no longer stung her the way it did in the past, perhaps because she had truly given up on him.

There was no way this could ever hurt her feelings anymore.

She took the phone calmly and swiped to the camera.

Then, she angled the camera and hit the record button.

The camera was very high quality and managed to capture every detail inside the private area despite the dim lighting. The footage was clear as day.

After Cleo returned to his seat, he pulled Amelia into his arms and kissed her.

The time was indicated on the display.

Three minutes. A hundred and eighty seconds. No more and no less than that.

That was not the end of it.

After they were done kissing, Cleo got on his knee and produced a diamond ring from his pocket.

He spoke in a voice filled with tenderness.

“Amelia, will you marry me?”

He had proposed to Amelia!

Cecil could not catch what Amelia said.

It did not take long before the rest of the group crowded around the couple and shielded them from the view of the camera.

Their rabid screams echoed across the private room and were so loud that Cecil felt her eardrums would burst.

With that, she stopped recording.

Her manager showed up just in time to instruct her to head to another private room to attend to a new group of customers.

She handed the phone to her colleague next and turned to leave the room.

She did not linger a second longer than she needed to.

After Cecil was done, she dragged her exhausted body back home.

Cleo got home before her and was sitting on the couch in the living room. He called out after her as soon as he saw her.

“Stop!

“Why were you working in a place like that? Don’t I give you enough money already?”

Cecil braced an arm against the doorway while she changed her shoe.

“I’m bored at home, there’s nothing to do, and I figured I should experience other dimensions of society.”

Cleo’s anger seemed to have visibly deflated, but his tone was still very icy.

“You’re not allowed to go to places like that again in the future.”

Cecil was not going to go anymore anyway.

She nodded faintly, then went back upstairs with her head down.

Over the next few days, Cleo was rarely home at all.

If anything, Amelia was the one who constantly bombarded Cecil with pictures.

Pictures of rings, their wedding shoots, giant bouquets.

Every picture was filled with joy and enthusiasm for their upcoming wedding.

Cecil did not reply to any texts since she was busy packing her luggage.

It was only three more days until her departure when she bumped into Cleo at the stairway, just as he was heading out.

She called out after him.

“Uncle Cleo, are you free in the next few days? Could you take an hour out of your day to celebrate my birthday?”

Since he had brought her up for so many years, she figured she should properly say goodbye to him.

To Cleo, the request sounded like she was trying to rile him up.

Over the last few years, Cecil would always use her birthday as an excuse to hurl a string of unruly confessions at him.

With that in mind, he refused her without even considering it.

“How many times do I have to tell you? Stop making such unreasonable requests!”

Noticing that he was upset, Cecil hurriedly explained.

“No, I wasn’t trying to upset you. I’m not going to confess my feelings for you the way I did in the last few years, I just wanted to…”

To say goodbye properly.

Unfortunately, Cleo failed to catch the last part of her sentence but agreed to her request with a quiet nod.

On her birthday, Cecil waited from morning till night, but Cleo was still nowhere to be seen.

Seeing as it was about time for her to get to the airport, she reached for her phone and called Cleo.

It took ten seconds before someone picked up.

It was Amelia.

“Hello? Cleo is taking a shower, he can’t answer the call right now.”

She said it in such a suggestive tone that Cecil felt her heart skip a beat.

She glanced at her watch and then decided to be firm about her intention.

“How much longer is it going to take? I can wait.”

Amelia responded with a mocking snicker.

“Cecil, what are you doing all this for? He's already in the shower.

“I’m just going to put this bluntly. We’re at a hotel now.

“You’re an adult, so you should know what we’re going to do after he showers. Were you hoping to watch?

“He's your uncle! You may like him, but you shouldn’t stay at his house when he’s about to be married. You should stop pestering him all day. Don’t you realize how shameless…”

She went on a long rant to humiliate Cecil. Every word she spoke stung right where it hurt.

Cecil bit her lips tightly to prevent the tears from falling.

After Amelia was done, she hung up right away.

Cecil looked at the display in silence.

After what seemed like forever, she extracted the candles from the cake box.

The cake had been inside the box for a while, and the icing on top had begun to melt.

When she poked in the candle that spelled out “21”, it stood crooked.

After lighting the candle, she leaned over the cake and made a wish.

Her birthday wish was to spend the rest of her life without Cleo.

She wished him a long, healthy, and prosperous life.

She wished that he would live peacefully without her.

Then she blew out the candle.

She cleared out the final traces of her existence in the house.

All that was left behind in the house she had spent more than a decade in were three items: a bank card with ten million dollars deposited inside that was meant to repay Cleo’s kindness over the years, a wedding gift meant to wish him a wonderful life with his lover and at last, a letter of farewell.

“Uncle Cleo, I give up. I wish you nothing but happiness.”

With that, she grabbed her suitcase and took one last look at the house before walking away.

She did not turn back for another look.