“Sorry, but once you find the original for these designs, please inform us.” Declan gave these photos and left with Kyran. Kyran’s gaze turned to the direction of the bicycle. It prompted Declan to ask, “What’s wrong?” He looked away. “Nothing.”He felt hollow. Not having enough rest only exacerbated his unrest—he frequently looked as though he was a soulless husk wearing a pale, lifeless face. Declan could not watch his friend any longer. “You gotta stop following me around, I think. You’ve only just recovered, and… now is the critical time to rest up.”“I can’t,” Kyran replied candidly. Just the thought that Deirdre might have fallen off the cliff and died broke his heart. “I don’t know if she’s dead or alive! Even if she were dead… Even if she were dead, I would leave only after seeing her lifeless body right in front of me!”The rising tides would gradually bring any flotsam to the shore, would it not? Even a dead body would end up here one day. He simply needed to wait. I

She hurriedly followed Hoyt without the young man ever catching notice. He seemed almost too taken in by the money in his pocket. He stopped by Mrs. Cox’s door.Hoyt immediately noticed Deirdre, who was drying some herbs outside the door. He paced toward her and greeted her. “Hey, morning!”She raised her head at the voice. “Mr. Leigh.”Hoyt scratched his head bashfully before producing all of the money from his pocket. He stuffed the bills into her hands. “Here. 300 dollars from selling your coat.”Deirdre took 90 bucks and gave the rest to Hoyt. “Here. You deserve this.”“D-Deserve what?” Hoyt stammered and inhaled sharply. “I didn’t do anything to deserve this!”“No, you help me a lot. You deserve it.” Deirdre stuffed the money into his hands. Her tone was sincere. “It was you who helped me with my injuries, and it was you who had to spend four hours these days to buy medicine for me. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to liquefy my coat. I’ll give 90 dollars to Mrs. Co

Dogged persistence settled onto Hoyt’s face. “You mean getting some false glory and fortune in exchange for Miss McKinnon’s misery, Mom! I won’t be able to live that down! No matter how good it sounds, I don’t want an ill-gotten opportunity!”“You stupid—” Madame Leigh was about to drop some colorful choice word when a thought snuffed it out. Reeling in realization, she turned back to Hoyt with disbelief in her eyes. “Be frank with me. Hoyt Leigh, have you fallen for that young lady?”The tips of Hoyt’s ears turned scarlet. He became flustered—the way one would be when their innermost secret had been revealed. A mother would immediately understand her son’s character tick, so her disbelief turned into bewilderment. “Have you lost your marbles, son!? Who do you think you are, and who do you think she is? You can’t fall for her!”Hoyt was quiet. “But I did… I do. Not that you need to worry about anything. I have no thoughts on acting upon my feelings.”He lacked many conventional t

Mrs. Cox was just as surprised to see her. “Aren’t you up early, sweetie? Having trouble sleeping?”“I just got up. I am feeling a little thirsty.”“Well, let me get you a glass of warm water. Wait here by the door,” said the kind woman, pouring a glass for her before setting her sight on the pouring rain outside. “Damn, it’s raining again.” She sighed. “The roads are going to be wet and slippery. Straight up a hazard to use.”Deirdre took a sip. “You should stay at home today, Mrs. Cox. You might get hurt if you go out despite the condition. I’ve got 90 bucks you could us—”“Oh no. Heck, no. You can’t see well, it’s not easy for you to get a job, and you can’t afford not to have money with you. You can’t buy anything if you don’t have money!” Mrs. Cox protested. “All you’ve been wearing these days are my old clothes. It doesn’t matter if you’re the goddess of beauty herself. These rags are bringing your shine down, sweetie. No, you should go to the market with Hoyt and buy at leas

“Damn straight, but… It’s different for him. He directs it all to himself, thinking that if he could just be better somehow, the girl of his love wouldn’t have ended up with that fat cat. The more he dwelled on that thought, the more he hung his head and just… couldn’t straighten his spine and look ahead no more.”Pity colored Deirdre’s eyes. “Money is the Devil, ain’t it? You can do whatever you like when you’re rich, but live by your shoestrings if you don’t have ‘em.”Mrs. Cox continued. “That’s why I’m happy to see Hoyt this happy when he helps you. Maybe you won’t date each other, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you brought him out of the shadows. That’s the point of these relationships, isn’t it? Forgetting the pain of the last one is a blessing. Finding a new person to try again is another.”The rain stopped. Mrs. Cox went back to sleep while Deirdre sat on the edge of her bed, her eyes blank. ‘Try again with a new person, she said.’That was not what Deird

They finally reached their destination, though neither of them expected a crowd today. The place was so jam-packed that they had to step down from the bike and finish the rest of the journey on foot. Hoyt could not stop repeating every once in a while, “Please follow me, Miss McKinnon. Don’t get lost in the crowd!”He kept reminding her enough that Deirdre could not stop teasing him. “Heehee. I’m an adult, you know. Not a kid?”Hoyt turned and caught her gentle smile, and his cheeks burned… again. “I… I didn’t mean— I meant, you’re not familiar with this place, and your eyes aren’t very good, so if you get lost, you won’t know where to find me!”“It’s going to be fine. If I get lost, I’ll just stand where I am. I know you’ll locate me again until you find me.”“T-True.” God, Hoyt felt like he was walking on air. He sped up his pace a little and led Deirdre to a shop. Parking his bike in its front, he said, “Here you go. Check around and see if there’s anything you like. Just pi

The woman was doing a crappy job of hiding her lack of confidence. “We’re not, like, speaking anymore!”“But you didn’t say the two of you are divorced, did you? Why wouldn’t you answer the question?”The woman’s indignance turned into rage. “Who the f*ck are you? Why are you getting in between our business?”“No, Miss McKinnon’s completely right.” Hoyt suddenly spoke up. Frigidness had shadowed his face. “Selma, are you and Mr. Sach split?”Selma could not answer him. As her silence grew, Hoyt’s cold suspicion turned into a scowl undergirded by quiet disappointment. “Now, what? You just want to have it both ways, don’t you? Make me your side-chick, or whatever the h*ll you call it?”“I’m not trying to make you a side-anything!”“Then explain why you’re asking us to start over when you’re not completely split from Mr. Sach!”“I just want to be with you, okay?” Selma cried in frustration. Her eyes were red. “Yes, we aren’t divorced, so what? We were supposed to be together! The t

Hoyt’s face was still tense by the time he walked out of the shop. Concerned, Deirdre asked, “You alright?”He wiped some light sweat off his face and said bashfully, “I’m so sorry, Miss McKinnon. The point was to buy you some clothes, but I ended up dragging you into our drama and made you watch all that… embarrassing stinker.”“Nonsense,” Deirdre replied reassuringly and gave him a small smile. “There was nothing embarrassing about it. It’s what relationships are like, dramatic and complicated.”Just like her own. No one would have known the lengths she had gone through for a man—to be willingly used as an impostor for two years, be incarcerated, disfigured, blinded, and lose the child she so wanted to bring to the world.Her relationship story was the biggest stinker of them all.“A word of advice, Mr. Leigh,” she said. “Sometimes, blaming yourself for everything that has happened only prevents you from moving on when you should.”Hoyt blushed and nodded. “R-Right. You’re righ

“Deirdre.”Hoyt mustered his courage and interjected, “Didn’t you hear what the lady said? She wants you gone, mister!”A patina of steel seemed to form in Kyran’s eyes. He typed, “This is between Deirdre and me. Please don’t meddle in our affairs.”He managed to put up the exterior of courtesy, but the glare he wore betrayed an unyielding, domineering aura hellbent on making sure nobody could look him in the eyes.It was a lot for Hoyt—a country bumpkin with zero brush with the rich and powerful—to take. Any little confidence he had was imploding fast, yet he was stubbornly nailed to the floor between Deirdre and Kyran.“A-A-All I know is that M-Miss McKinnon d-d-doesn’t want to t-talk to you.”“Ten minutes is all I need, so please step aside,” typed Kyran. He was furious. “Move or be moved.”Deirdre acutely sensed escalation and finally spoke up. “What do you want, Kyran?”“First, he should step out.”Deirdre was familiar with the depth of his brutality and knew better than

Declan chuckled self-deprecatingly. “It was more than just ‘not talking.’ We give each other stink eyes when we see each other, too. So, why would I care about someone who hates my guts? Why would I eagerly visit him? Why would I even tell you we knew each other as if it was something I should be proud of?”Deirdre shook her head. She was not going to let herself be duped anymore.Kyran extended his hand toward her, and she slapped it away. “How about the fact that there isn’t a guy called Kyran Reed in Room 1106? What about that?”Kyran stared at the hand she rejected, his expression darkening. He typed on his phone, and the mechanical voice said, “Because I’m trying to keep a low profile.”“What?” She was perplexed.Declan gave a mirthless laugh. “It’s because of me. My brother’s an irritatingly exacting man. He makes sure I can never, ever surpass him in anything, so any cooperation or work I have with Kyran is done in secret.“My brother doesn’t even know Kyran has returned f