"Oh my, what's my little sister-in-law hiding here? Let me have a look!"

Maggie snatched the envelope while I wasn't paying attention, and I flew at her in a rage.

"Why so nervous? Don't tell me some secret lover sent it to you."

"Maggie, unless you want your dirty little business dragged out for everyone to hear, give that back to me."

She hesitated for a second, but my tone was too frantic. She could tell whatever was inside mattered a great deal to me, and the more it did, the more curious she got.

"Trying to scare me? I'm not afraid of you."

With that she started to tear it open. I lunged and ripped the envelope back, pulling out what was inside and stuffing it into the lining of my clothes. The instant she saw Nolan, she flung herself backward and dropped.

"Gwendolen, have you lost your mind?"

Maggie crumpled boneless into his arms, trembling all over.

"It's all my fault. Some man sent her a letter, and I was only worried she'd do something foolish. I just wanted to show it to you. But she got so nervous she shoved me."

He narrowed his eyes, his gaze lingering on me for a moment.

"Apologize to Maggie."

"I didn't shove her!"

"If Maggie says you shoved her, then you shoved her. Apologize!"

I didn't give an inch.

"Why should I apologize to her? I've never owed her a thing. You're the ones who owe me. I won't apologize to her. She's the one who should apologize to me, and I'd take that just fine."

Nolan hadn't expected the weak wife he knew to be this hard, and for a moment it threw him.

"You shove someone and you think you're in the right?"

"I told you I didn't shove her. Believe it or not, that's up to you."

There was no point wasting explanations on them. Two days left. I meant to make my final preparations.

Nolan saw me packing, and something about it sat wrong with him. He checked and rechecked, only to find the relocation roster was still the original one, untouched.

I knew he'd been watching me the whole time, but I ignored him. After all, the only use Nolan had to me was being Edward's father. The day he lost even that use, he could vanish from my world completely.

"In two days we leave. Here's some money for you. As long as you don't cause trouble, I'll send you money every month."

I opened the bankbook and looked. Of the original three thousand dollars, only a hundred was left. Maggie walked up to us holding the two thousand-odd she'd taken.

"Nolan, why not just leave it for her?"

I looked at the two thousand-odd in her hand. I had saved that up over eight full years.

"No need. A hundred dollars will feed the two of them a long time, and I'll send them money every month too. You're more delicate, you have more expenses. Keep it."

"Nolan, you're really something."

I hurled the bankbook straight at his face, and I threw it so hard it landed with a loud crack. A man like him could never stand that kind of humiliation.

"That's enough. Otherwise you won't even have grocery money each month. If you were smart, you wouldn't fight me. The only one who loses is you."

"Nolan, I hope you can comfort yourself the same way once you get to the Capital."

He watched me walk away, teeth grinding, and yet a strange unease crept over him, though he couldn't say where it came from.

Since being reborn, my attitude toward him had changed completely. All these years I'd had nothing but him, and it was exactly that which had emboldened him to treat me this way, certain I couldn't live without him.

He glanced at my luggage, gave it a kick as if the sight of it offended him, and only then did the knot in his chest loosen a little.

By evening Edward still hadn't come home. Not only him. Maggie, Curt, and Nolan hadn't come back either. My heart kept pounding, and I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen.

"Eddie's mama, hurry, your man's lost his mind!"

I shot to my feet and ran out after the older woman.

I heard Edward's terrified screaming before I even reached the door of the community clinic.

"No, let go of me, I want my mama, Mama come save me!"

My heart dropped, and when I rushed inside, I saw something that made my blood run cold.

"Get away from him, don't touch him!"

The moment Edward saw me, he finally had someone to cling to, and he burst into tears.

"Nurse Matthews lost too much blood, and the blood bank is out of stock."

"You've got the nerve to cry? You put your aunt in this state, and now we're only drawing your blood to save her."

"I didn't, I didn't push her, she was the one trying to push me, I just got out of the way."

Nolan reached over and yanked Edward out toward him.

"Have you lost your mind? Your son already explained."

"I don't believe it. Maggie doesn't lie. Since he's the one who did wrong, then he takes responsibility. He's the only one here with the same blood type."

"No. He's only eight. Are you even human anymore?"

Nolan wasn't hearing a word of it. He ordered the nurse to insert the needle, and Edward struggled the whole time, terrified.

"Nolan, let go of him, do you hear me?"

"The doctor said there won't be any problem, but Maggie's condition can't wait."

I looked at Nolan, and the hatred in my heart hit its peak. I shoved him hard and grabbed Edward and ran for the door, but the men he'd stationed there blocked me.

"Saving the people is my duty, and since you're my son, you carry that same obligation. Draw the blood. Hold her down."

"Nolan, if that needle goes in, I'll make sure you never get promoted again as long as you live."

He only shot me a vicious glare.

"My promotion is decided by the top brass. We leave the day after tomorrow. If you won't fall in line, then the two of you stay here for the rest of your lives."

The instant the needle went in, Edward's crying drove me completely out of my mind.

"Nolan, you'll get what's coming to you."

I was so worked up my body was shaking, and my voice shook with it.

"This is madness. He's just a child."

An officer rushed in and put a stop to all of it. Nolan tried to explain, and the officer waved him off.

"No matter how desperate you are to save someone, he's just a child, and your own child at that. With all the people in this compound, I refuse to believe you couldn't find one."

I gathered Edward up and hurried home. The officer said only one thing to Nolan.

"You've lost your head. I only hope you won't regret it when the time comes."

I got back to the compound, soothed my son until he calmed, and set about the last of the packing. Nolan didn't come back with Maggie until the evening of the fifth day, and Edward trembled at the sight of them.

I chalked up another mark against them in my heart.

At dinner, Nolan caught sight of the luggage piled in the corner and knit his brows.

"I told you, I can't take you with me. What are you packing for?"

"None of your business."

Four words shut him down cold. Meeting my indifferent gaze, he felt something clog up tight in his chest.

"Gwendolen, in these eighties, without me as your backing you won't get anywhere."

"No need to trouble yourself. Better mind your own affairs."

My tone was far from pleasant, and he was too angry to even eat.

I slept badly that night. My dreams were full of every little moment from my past life in the Capital.

Nolan had everything ready first thing in the morning. He glanced at me, expecting me to make a scene, but I just sat quietly eating breakfast with Edward, a faint trace of a smile at the corner of my mouth, whether I meant it or not.

I was smiling, yet there was a vague unease about it, because he could tell I was very different today. My mood was good, with the illusion of someone about to break free of a cage.

Before he got in the car, he shot me a look. I was busy talking with the neighbor lady, and just before leaving he made a point of telling me to stay here, behave myself, and do some reflecting.

I didn't so much as glance his way, which left him vaguely rattled, as if something was slipping out of his grasp.

The very moment he drove off, a car pulled up at the gate of my compound.

"Professor Henson, please, get in!"

I took Edward and left the compound I'd lived in for eight years. My train wasn't the same as Nolan's, but they left only a few minutes apart, and from the platform right across from his.

Edward and I had just boarded the green-skinned train when the departure whistle sounded from the opposite platform.

The instant Nolan looked up, he froze.

"Gwendolen!"