Chapter 2

Just before dawn, Julian came back.

Not alone.

Iris was draped in his suit jacket, her right hand cradled in his palm, the corners of her eyes red.

I stood beside the dining table, slipping the documents I’d already signed into a manila envelope.

When Julian saw me, his brow creased first. “You didn’t sleep at all?”

She shrank back behind Julian, her voice trembling so lightly. “Nora, I’m so sorry—I didn’t know you were here…”

On the ring finger of her left hand, she wore my wedding ring.

That ring—Julian had saved up for it eight years ago, piece by piece, earning two hundred dollars a day as an extra on set. Inside the band, crookedly engraved, were the words: Only N.

Back then, he’d said, once he had money, he’d definitely get me a better one.

Later, he really did have money. But he forgot.

I looked at that ring and said nothing.

Julian followed my gaze, as if he’d only just remembered this matter. He explained it lightly. “The ring is stuck too deep. The doctor says it can’t be cut off for now. She’ll just wear it a couple of days.”

I nodded. “It fits her quite well.”

Iris’s tears spilled instantly. “Nora, please don’t misunderstand. Julian and I aren’t the way you think—he just feels he owes me, wants to make it up to me.”

After she finished, as if startled, she gave a soft tug at Julian’s sleeve. “Julian, maybe I should just go. I don’t want to make Nora upset.”

Julian’s face hardened slightly. “Your hand is still swollen—where could you go?”

With that, he looked at me. “Nora, clean out the guest room. She’ll stay a couple of days.”

My fingers paused. “The guest room is piled with my things.”

“Then move them to the study for now.”

He said it so easily—like all those countless times before, when he’d asked me to give up my rest, give up my screen credit, give up the right to be introduced.

I suddenly let out a small laugh. “Julian, do you even know what’s in that study?”

He froze.

I answered for him. “Your very first audition tape. The three hundred and sixtyseven defense emails I wrote for you. The contract copies I begged for the year you were blacklisted.”

Iris bit her lip and said, barely audible, “Nora, don’t say it like that—as if everything Julian has today came from you alone.”

I finally turned toward her. “Did it come from you?”

The living room fell dead silent in an instant.

Julian’s eyes finally turned cold. “Enough.”

He pulled Iris behind him. The gesture was gentle—but it stung worse than a slap.

“Nora, her health is fragile. She can’t handle you talking to her like that.”

I lowered my head and kept sealing the envelope. “What, the Best Actor’s house doesn’t allow people to speak the truth?”

Julian reined in his temper. “Iris’s health is poor. Don’t provoke her.”

“Her health is poor—so that means she gets to wear my ring, sleep in my guest room, steal my husband?”

My voice wasn’t loud, but it made a flash of something flustered and ugly flicker through Julian’s eyes.

Iris suddenly clutched her chest, her breath coming fast and shallow. “Julian—I can’t breathe…”

Julian’s face changed instantly. He swept her into his arms.

Passing by me, he stopped for a second. His voice was so cold it held no warmth at all. “Nora—if anything happens to her, I will never forgive you.”

The door slammed shut with brutal force.

I stood where I was for a long, long time. Then I bent down and picked up the medical slip Iris had dropped on the floor.

The diagnosis line read: Mild anxiety reaction.

The next second, the door opened again. Julian had come back.

I thought he’d seen that slip of paper.

But he only strode straight into the study and carried out an old wooden chest.

My face finally changed.