The air in the house had changed. It wasn't cold — just heavy, like every word unspoken had gathered into something that pressed down on all of them.
Jiang Rui barely looked at Meilin now. He spoke only when necessary, his voice polite but distant. To anyone else, he looked the same — calm, controlled, unbothered. But Meilin could feel it. Every night, she could feel the ache in the silence between their breaths.
At breakfast, Xiaoya babbled happily about school while Meilin poured tea with shaking hands. When she tried to pass Jiang Rui a cup, their fingers brushed — and he pulled back as if burned.
She froze, her chest tightening.
"Rui," she whispered, "please don't shut me out."
He set the cup down carefully. "I'm not shutting you out. I'm just… thinking."
"About him?"
His silence was answer enough.
Meilin's eyes stung. "I told you, he means nothing to me. I've changed."
He met her gaze then — and what she saw there broke her. Not anger, not hate… just disappointment. "You keep saying that, Meilin. But every time the past comes knocking, you still open the door."
Before she could speak, his phone rang. He answered it, his voice low, clipped. Then he grabbed his jacket. "I have a meeting. Don't wait up."
The door closed softly behind him.
Meilin sank into the chair, her hands trembling. She wanted to scream, to cry, to chase after him — but instead she just sat there, staring at the untouched tea cooling between them.
Later that evening, she found herself standing by the garden window again. The same garden where she had promised herself to make things right. But now, the flowers seemed dull, the air thick with regret.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the faint hum of a car outside. When she looked, her heart dropped — Li Wen's car.
He didn't step out this time. He just sat there, watching the house from across the street. Waiting.
Meilin's breath hitched. Was this what he wanted? To destroy her all over again?
She closed the curtains and turned away, her chest pounding.
No. Not again.
This time, she wouldn't let the past win.
She would fight — for her husband, for her child, and for the life she had been given again.
Even if it meant facing the ghosts that refused to die.