Kiko's eyes widened. She immediately wrote something down on the notepad. 

Superintendent Wu?

Ren nodded. "I only have one brother."

Kiko's lips curled up into a wide smile. Momentarily forgetting about her pain, she squealed with delight, "No way!"

A corner of Ren's lips twitched. "I know my brother's good-looking. After all, we share the same pool of genes," he scoffed. "But really? Are you that happy?"

Kiko ignored Ren's shameless remark and hurriedly took out her phone from her bag to send a message to Violet. But she suddenly recalled Violet's reply to the message she'd sent that morning.

Sleep here tonight? I'll tell you all about it later.

"Oh, crap!" Kiko groaned in annoyance. 

Ren watched her slouch down on the couch, pulling her hair in frustration, growling the word crap repeatedly.

He raised an eyebrow. Just a few seconds ago, this battered woman was finally looking all chipper again. But not even a minute had passed, she already looked like her bottom was grilled on hot coals.

"What's with you?" he asked. "That girl didn't pull out enough of your hair? You plan to reduce more of your hair thickness?"

Kiko glared at Ren. After letting out a sigh of desperation, she focused on the notepad again.

I just remembered I told Violet I'd go to her place tonight. But I can't. Not like this!

Ren glanced at the notepad, then at her. "So? Tell her.."

What do I tell her?

"Obviously, that you're not coming."

Kiko rolled her eyes.

I meant the reason I'm bailing. What should I tell her?

"Hmm, let me think." Ren rubbed his chin. "Oh, I know! How about you tell her... the truth?" Ren deadpanned.

Kiko threw him a conflicted look. She crossed her arms across her chest. No longer bothering with the notepad, she opened her mouth. "But she'll be worried."

"So? Shouldn't you be happy you have a friend that would worry about you?" Ren countered. "Besides, put yourself in her shoes. Would you rather that she kept last weekend's incident from you to prevent you from worrying?"

Kiko frowned. Clearly, the man had a point. Although she didn't want Violet to worry, Kiko didn't want to hide what happened either.

After contemplating for just a few seconds more, Kiko grabbed her phone to send Violet a message. But she immediately realized that a text message wouldn't suffice. Violet would only call her back. So, she decided to call her instead.

As she'd expected, Violet was all ready to step in the car and go to her apartment as soon as she told her about her injury. It took a lot of persuading to reassure her best friend she was okay. Ultimately, Kiko decided not to elaborate on the exact circumstance of the drama at the hospital earlier, lest Violet got even more rattled. But she promised she'd tell her all about it when they met.

Not revealing that she already knew about the mystery guy her best friend was set up with, she bargained, "Then we both would have something to catch up to. You'll tell me all about the dinner, and I'll tell you how I got this injury."

By the time the phone call ended, the food that Ren ordered had arrived.

"Come, let's eat," Ren called out as he arranged the food on her dining table.

Kiko paused at the sight. It was a sight similar to a scene long buried in the back of her head. In that scene, her father was also arranging the food on the table for her sister and her. In that scene, he had also said the same three words in his gentle voice.

Come, let's eat.

It wasn't often that their father would make dinner, but when he did, she and Mayu, her older sister, would stop whatever it was they were doing and flock at the dining table with a wide grin on their face.

Perhaps it was because of the triggered long-forgotten childhood recollection, or maybe because her heart still carried some grievance from the incident earlier. Whichever it was, tears ran down her cheeks without her even realizing it.

Ren looked up and saw the welled-up eyes that were fixated on him. It gave him a fright.

He winced. "What happened? Did you squabble with Violet?"

Kiko shook her head and wiped her tears carefully. The saltiness stung the wounds on her face. "No," she sniffed. "It's you."

Ren widened his eyes. He pointed at himself. "Me?" he asked in disbelief. "What'd I do?"

"I didn't mean it like that, Dr. Wu. You're just... very kind. Thank you so much for today."

Ren furrowed his brows, a bit dumbfounded. He was no stranger to women—he loved women. What was not to love about them? They looked good, and they smelled good. Of course he enjoyed spending time with them—a lot of them. But this was the first time a woman cried in his company—not just once, but a few times, and in just a span of a couple of hours.

As it appeared, this female thug... wasn't such a thug after all.

He sighed. "Alright, alright, don't cry anymore. You need to eat," he said. "Oh, and please call me Ren. We're now indirectly acquainted because my brother and your best friend are... well, being set up by the elders. We'll undoubtedly see each other more often from now on."

***

That night, Kiko couldn't sleep. She lay awake on her bed as Olivia's words kept ringing in her head.

"She's dying! Are you happy now!? Of course, you are! Why wouldn't you be? After she dies, you'll get to be with Dad!"

She didn't blame Olivia for lashing out at her. If she were in Olivia's shoes, she would too.

Nobody knew she'd been seeing a married man for more than a year. They had met sneakily, hiding from everyone's scrutiny. Not even Violet. She'd only found out about it after the affair had passed a one-year mark.

Throughout their years-long friendship, that was the first and only time they'd had a serious fight.

"You're only doing this to spite your father!" Violet confronted her after she caught them making out in Kiko's apartment.

Kiko and her lover had been careless that evening. That was the first time they'd ever set up a meeting at Kiko's place. Coincidentally, that was also the time Violet had decided to drop by without notice. Being best friends for more than a decade, Violet had access to Kiko's apartment.

"No! We love each other! You don't understand, V! You've never been in love!"

"Love? Does love justify anything? Even destroying families?" Violet shot back. Her forehead puckered, her nose wrinkled. "Because if that's how love works, I'd rather not understand it!"

"They're estranged! His wife and him! They don't even share the same bed anymore!"

Violet looked at her in bewilderment.

"Don't look at me like that. I told you, you wouldn't understand!" Kiko said, avoiding Violet's gaze.

Silence engulfed them for a moment.

When Violet spoke again, her lips trembled as though she was fighting back tears. "You're right. It is really difficult for me right now to fathom why my perfect and beautiful best friend would covet a man old enough to be her father with a wedding ring on his finger!" Her voice shook. "It's like I don't know you anymore, Kii. You know what? I'm glad Mayu isn't here to see you like this because—"

"Don't you dare bring her into this!" Kiko hissed. At the mention of her late sister, her eyes had also started to glisten.

"Oh, I will! I will bring her into this because if she were here, she'd be very disappointed to see her beloved sister turn into a complete idiot!" Violet shouted. This time, she couldn't stop the tears from running down her cheeks like a raging waterfall.

Seeing her best friend cry, Kiko began to dissolve in tears too.

"I love you, Kii... You know how much I love you. You're my best friend. You're my person," Violet said between short shallow breaths as she tried to control her sobbing. "But I can't support this. This is just wrong. As much as I love you—or perhaps it was exactly because I love you—I just can't see my best friend be the dirty secret of some unfaithful man. No, I can't watch you destroy a marriage in the name of love and be okay with it."

She added in a pained voice, "So, until you end whatever this is, Kii, I refuse to be around you. Call me when you've finally come to your senses."

And with that ultimatum, she wiped her tears with the back of her hand and walked away. 

They both crumbled inside that day, but Violet kept to her words.

For as long as they'd been friends, not a single day had gone by without them talking to each other. Be it through face-to-face meetings, phone calls, or text messages, they would always communicate, but after that fight, Violet didn't get in touch with Kiko at all. Neither did she pick up Kiko's calls, nor did she reply to Kiko's messages. Her silent treatment had gone on for about a month—until Kiko had finally ended the affair.

It had taken Kiko that altercation with Violet and a month of reflection before she'd eventually seen the brutal truth of how deluded her heart had been. It was filled with false hopes and broken promises.

But as unsparing and ugly as it was, it was still her truth to accept.

Kiko snorted as she went down that memory lane—at the fool she'd been for having brazenly dreamed that Glenn Lau would do the decent thing by her. That he would leave his estranged wife to be with her.

Because that was what he'd told her, and that was what she'd chosen to believe.

Then came excuse after excuse.

"I have a new movie project coming. Let's wait until the shooting and promotion period is over. If I leave her before that, it will negatively impact the movie. It wouldn't be fair for others who are involved in the project."

She'd agreed and waited.

Then the family dog was dying. "My daughter is heartbroken now. It would only add to her distress if I were to leave her mother now."

But every time she'd read and watched interviews or news articles about him, they'd always painted him as a loving husband and a wonderful family man. There had never been any signals of any breach or disaffection between him and his wife. 

And yet, she'd always tried to justify his lies.

Oh, how stupid she'd been. She could see now how he'd only wanted to string her along in this hopeless fantasy for as long as possible. 

Unfortunately, her decision to end it wasn't the same as him agreeing to it. It turned out, her Don Juan was a selfish, manipulative man whose primary consideration was himself and him alone.

After she'd called it quits, Glenn would continuously try to contact and pursue her. His stalkerish behavior had only ended after his wife and daughter found out about his infidelity. Kiko had never meant for them to know, but they had anyway. Naturally, she'd become the object of their hatred. But she understood their resentment, and mostly, she was just relieved that it was finally over.

As she lay on her bed now, thinking about Olivia's words, guilt flooded over her again. Vivian was dying, and her affair with Glenn had driven a wedge between Olivia and him. Of all people, she should have known what a discord with one's own father could do to a child, and yet, she'd been a voluntary and active participant in damaging another daughter's relationship with their father.

As she tossed and turned on her bed, her phone vibrated. She checked the number. It was a number long deleted from her directory, but it was also a number she was still very much familiar with...

She ignored it.

Then a few minutes later, a message came in.

I heard about what happened earlier from Olivia. Let's talk...

♡──── ❝ Author's Note ❞ ────♡

It would mean a lot to me if you could share your thoughts about this chapter in the comment section. And please consider voting if you liked it.

Thank you so much for reading!

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