Chapter 2

"Evelyn? What's wrong?" Maya noticed her stare and instinctively covered her neckline. Evelyn's fingers suddenly clenched the folds of her skirt, her knuckles turning white and nearly transparent. "Maya,"Her voice was like it was soaked in ice water, each word sharp, "What is that on you? Liam's child... you're the one who gave birth to it, aren't you?" Maya's face instantly drained of color, leaving her as stiff as a puppet whose strings had been cut. She instinctively covered her lower abdomen. The breast milk stain on the third button of her gown gleamed starkly under the crystal chandelier. "You... what nonsense are you talking about!" Maya's voice trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind. "Evelyn, have you lost your mind? This is Liam's child, I'm just helping look after…" "Helping look after?" Evelyn suddenly laughed, but tears rolled down her cheeks, splattering onto the polished marble floor. "Does 'helping look after' require you to breastfeed? Don't tell me you spilled milk on yourself while drinking it?" "Or…" Evelyn pointed towards the baby's neck, "Does 'helping look after' explain why the child has a vermilion birthmark behind its left ear, exactly like yours?" Liam's Adam's apple bobbed violently. He suddenly grabbed Evelyn's wrist and pulled her out of the private room. "Come with me!" His palm was sweaty, dampening her silk sleeve. "This isn't the place to talk!" "Let go!" Evelyn shook him off forcefully, her stud earring leaving a red mark on his palm. "Five years ago, on the streets of Kingswood, you grabbed me like this and dragged me through the red-light district. Back then I thought it was protection. Now I understand it was a kidnapping!" The crowd gasped. Liam pulled Evelyn away. She struggled but couldn't break free, stumbling after him. The late-blooming cherry blossoms at the end of the corridor had now covered the steps like a blanket of pink snow. Evelyn's high heels crushed them, making faint crunching sounds. "The money from the mortgaged apartment, I'll pay you back next month," Liam's voice was suddenly hoarse. His phone buzzed incessantly in his suit pocket, the screen showing "Mom." "And… about the Riverside Art College… I'm sorry." The words hit Evelyn like a sledgehammer. She looked up sharply, shock overflowing from her eyes. "You knew all along?" That stormy night years ago, she had held the forged apology letter from Maya and cried until dawn. The letter said Maya's father had threatened her with a pesticide bottle to enter the competition, and that "Evelyn, you're so talented, you'll shine anywhere." Thinking back now, no matter how well the handwriting was copied, the unique way "shine" was connected was unmistakably Liam's habit. Liam's silence was the answer. He leaned against the carved pillar, the cigarette butt in his fingers burning his skin before he noticed. The ember fell on a cherry blossom petal, instantly burning a black hole. "Why?" Evelyn's voice was as light as a sigh. "Before my mother passed, she held your hand and asked you to take good care of me…" "Because she needed me more!" Liam suddenly roared, cigarette ash scattering onto the expensive carpet. "Maya said she was pregnant with my child! She was only twenty-two then! If the school found out, she would have been expelled!" Evelyn stood frozen. The scent of cherry blossoms mixed with his cedar aftershave assaulted her, making her nauseous. She remembered that Maya had indeed taken a half-year leave of absence, claiming she had depression and went abroad for treatment. Back then, Liam stayed by her side every day, saying, "Maya is so pitiful, we need to be good to her." So, from that moment on, they had already started weaving a tight, impermeable net, waiting for her to walk right into it. A memory from a year ago suddenly became clear. She had seen an ultrasound slip in Maya's diary, dated just three days after she had given her design drafts to Maya. At the time, Maya snatched it away, saying, "It's for my cousin." Now, thinking back, the blurry image of the gestational sac was clearly only about six weeks old. "Enough!" Liam suddenly grabbed her chin, the calluses on his fingers scraping her skin. "Evelyn, won't you be satisfied until you've driven everyone insane? I admit I wronged you, but what's done is done…" Evelyn pushed him away with force and turned towards the elevator. "Liam, you'd better pray your child doesn't live to see eighteen. Otherwise, I'll personally tell him how his parents stole five years of someone else's life."