3: 3

Joanna paused, a flicker of displeasure crossing her face.

"The company keeps me busy all day, and I still have to look after Reg. Who has the spare energy to remember what other people can't eat?"

"Besides, you know what you can't have. Couldn't you have said so ahead of time?"

Right. So now I was "other people."

I didn't feel like saying anything more. I got up and went to the spare room to pack.

Joanna came in just as I was closing the suitcase.

She frowned, disappointed. "Toby, how long are you going to keep this up?"

"You walk out at a time like this, aren't you afraid Reg will think you don't like him? That it'll hurt his feelings?"

I answered flatly. "If anything, my staying here is what makes him uncomfortable."

I stepped around her and left without another word.

As the door shut, Reg's injured voice drifted out from inside. "Joanna, is it me being here that set Toby off? Maybe I should just go."

"Ignore him. He's just the spoiled young master, temper and all, acting like the whole world owes him something. His parents ruined him. Let him go wherever he wants."

By then my parents would already be asleep, and I didn't want them worrying, so I booked a room at a hotel.

The next day, just past noon, I'd barely woken up when Joanna called.

"Tonight's your mother's sixtieth birthday dinner. I'm taking Reg for a follow-up this afternoon, so let's just meet at the restaurant."

Joanna was always like this. Every time we fought over Reg.

The next day she could act as if nothing had happened at all.

She never once dealt with what was actually wrong. It was like skimming foam off a pot instead of turning down the heat.

I was about to say she didn't have to come, but she cut in first.

"Toby, that's enough. It's an elder's birthday. Don't pick a time like this to upset the family."

I thought it over and decided to wait until after Mom's birthday to tell them everything, slowly.

But I never expected that she wouldn't just arrive last. She'd bring Reg along too.

My father asked, taken aback, "Joanna, and this young man is?"

Joanna answered without missing a beat. "He's a very important friend of mine. His family's all passed away, and his health isn't good, so I've been the one taking care of him."

"Today's the anniversary of his parents' deaths. He's been low, and I was afraid he wouldn't eat properly, so I brought him along for a warm meal."

At that, my parents' expressions turned a little awkward.

Joanna had Reg sit in the seat beside her own.

At every family dinner, the arrangement was fixed. My father sat on Mom's left, I sat on her right, and Joanna after me.

Joanna knew this perfectly well. Even so, she let me stand off to the side like an outsider.

The relatives all wore odd, unreadable looks.

Mom glanced at me, her smile thinning, though she kept her composure. "Joanna, wanting to look after a friend is understandable, but that's Toby's seat. Have the server bring another chair for the young man."

It was a family dinner, only relatives invited, and we'd reserved a single large private room.

The relatives' seats had all been settled long ago, and it wouldn't do to ask anyone to move.

The server squeezed in a chair near the door.

Reg started to rise, flustered. "I'm sorry, that was presumptuous of me. Let me move."

He said it, but his eyes had gone red, as if someone were pushing him out.

Joanna pressed a hand over his. "It's fine. Sit and don't worry."

She turned to me, and it sounded like an order. "Toby, Reg only knows me here. If he's not beside me he'll feel unsafe."

"Be reasonable and take the seat by the door tonight. Don't make people think the Harding son has no manners."

The moment she said it, my parents' faces went dark.

The looks they turned on Reg carried weight.

But with guests present, they held it in.

In the end, Mom pressed me down into her own place at the head of the table and sat by the door herself.

I felt sick with guilt.

Today was her birthday dinner, and because of Joanna, she'd been made to look like someone who'd wandered in to mooch a meal.

My father patted my hand and murmured in my ear, "Your mother's holding the room together for you. Steady now."

Sensing the mood, my aunt stepped in to smooth things over. "Oh, we ought to give the birthday girl her gifts first."

Everyone brought out what they'd prepared.

Expensive tonics, fine tea, designer cashmere shawls. Mom took each one, smiling and thanking them.

Soon only Joanna and I were left.

Everyone waited to see what the daughter-in-law would produce.

But she rose with a glass in hand and said to Mom, "Mom, I'm sorry. I spent the day taking Reg to his follow-up and didn't have time to prepare a proper birthday gift."

"I'll make it up to you next time. Let me raise this glass to you instead. Happy birthday."

The words landed, and Mom's expression froze on the spot.

The relatives exchanged glances.

Their mother-in-law's birthday, and neither the son nor the daughter-in-law had so much as brought a gift?

The reproach and mockery in the looks around us all but scorched through me.

But I knew the shame wasn't only mine.

It was my parents' too.

I called Joanna out into the hall and asked her, "The custom jade Buddha pendant I had made for my mother, the two-hundred-thousand-dollar one. Why is it hanging around Reg's neck?"

4: 4

If it hadn't been for what happened when everyone was presenting their gifts.

Reg had deliberately tugged that pendant out from under his collar and looked at me, taunting.

Until then I'd had no idea she would dare give away the very pendant meant for my mother's birthday.

Joanna frowned and pulled me a little further off:

"Can't you keep your voice down? If your family hears you, they'll take it out on Reg."

"Today is your mother's birthday. Don't make a scene at a time like this and embarrass her."

I laughed.

"When you brought your ex-boyfriend to our family dinner and sat him in my place, you weren't worried about embarrassment then?"

"Get that pendant back. Now."

The moment I said it, Reg came over with tears in his eyes.

"Toby, I'm sorry. I really didn't know it was your mother's gift."

"When it was delivered to your house, the recipient's name was mine. I've been having nightmares lately, and Joanna said good jade calms the nerves, so I thought she'd bought it for me."

"I know you don't like me. I'll give it back to you, just stop making things hard for Joanna."

He lifted the pendant off his neck and made a show of pressing it into my hand.

But he let go before it ever touched me.

The jade shattered into pieces on the floor.

Reg burst into tears at once.

"Toby, is it because you think I'm dirty?"

"I'd rather die than be humiliated by you like this. All I do by living is offend your eyes anyway!"

He ran out, sobbing.

Joanna shoved me hard, and I went down to the floor.

My palm came down on the sharp edges of the broken jade, and my whole hand was covered in blood.

Joanna glared at me, shaking with fury.

"Toby, you knew Reg has depression, and you still provoked him this viciously. Are you satisfied now?!"

"I'm the one who forgot to change the recipient's name, and I'm the one who said to give it to Reg. If you've got the nerve, come at me!"

"It's just a birthday gift. It's not like your family is short one piece of jade. Or do you think your mother won't live to see next year? Nitpicking over something this trivial. You're impossible!"

With that, she rushed out after Reg without a second's hesitation.

I sat slumped on the floor and pulled my mouth into a bitter smile.

So it turned out changing the address had done nothing. The recipient was still Reg.

And for his sake, Joanna could even curse my mother.

That night, back home, my mother dabbed medicine on my palm, aching for me.

Not wanting her to worry, I'd deliberately worn long sleeves so the cuts on my arm wouldn't show.

"Dad, Mom, I'm sorry. I embarrassed you both."

My mother opened her mouth to ask something, but my father stopped her.

He handed me a partnership letter of intent.

"Toby, whether we're embarrassed doesn't matter. What matters is whether my son has been wronged."

"You're not in a good place right now, and there are things you don't want to talk about yet. We won't push you. But whether you still give her this letter is something you need to decide for yourself."

Joanna's small company was expanding this year, and I was the one who'd put in a good word for her.

Only then did my father agree to hand over one of our outsourced supply chains to her.

The plan had been to give it to her today, right after she presented her birthday gift.

Instead, Joanna ground our whole family's face into the dirt.

I said quietly,

"Dad, don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Three days later, Joanna sent me a message:

【Your dad's letter of intent is drawn up, right? I've finished all the prep work on my end.】

【Plenty of friends and clients have heard our two families are partnering and want to come congratulate us, so I'm throwing a reception. Bring it over today for the signing.】

Her way of breezing over everything and smoothing it into a pretty picture was nothing new to me.

I just replied:【Understood.】

When I arrived, the banquet hall was packed with guests.

Reg wore a custom suit, his arm around Joanna's waist.

The two of them kept leaning their heads together, murmuring and smiling, very close.

A mutual friend of theirs teased them.

"If you ask me, after all these years, the two of you still make the best match."

A few clients joined in.

"Ms. Gilbert, this must be your husband? A perfect pair, talent and beauty."

Reg flushed, and Joanna thanked them politely without correcting a word.

When she saw me, Joanna came over and frowned at my casual clothes.

"Why aren't you in formal wear? Even Reg knows to look presentable at an occasion like this. You just keep getting worse."

"There wasn't time. Besides, the formal suit I picked out earlier, didn't you mail it off to Reg? That's the one he's wearing."

Joanna froze for a moment, then uncomfortably changed the subject.

"You brought the letter of intent? Your dad's signature is on it?"

"Yes."

"Then let's go up and hand it over. Everyone's waiting. Oh, and remember to apologize to Reg in front of everyone later."

"That night, you bullied him so badly he nearly slit his wrists."

I said flatly, "Sure."

Joanna hadn't expected me to agree so readily, and she nodded, satisfied.

"Toby, you've finally learned some sense."

Up on the stage, she said a few words thanking the guests, then held out her hand to me.

"Toby, hand over the letter of intent. Once I sign too, the partnership between our families is officially in effect."

I took out a document, but I didn't give it to her.

Instead I took the microphone and spoke slowly to the crowd below.

"Everyone, I did come today with something to hand to Ms. Gilbert in front of you all."

"Only it isn't a partnership letter of intent. It's a divorce agreement."