the air remained heavy with the questions Emma had thrown like knives.
Xiamen stood frozen, her fingers cold, her heartbeat echoing in her ears.
Hong Yi stopped Emma, Mr. Lin, but all the servent left he turned around, eyes dark, troubled.
Even though he defended her fiercely…
Even though he stopped Emma…
Xiamen could see it.
The same question was burning in his eyes too.
"Xiamen…" he began, voice low. "I didn't want to ask. I didn't want to pressure you. But—"
She lifted her hand, stopping him.
"I know," she whispered. "You want to ask the same question Emma asked."
Hong Yi stepped closer, guilt in his expression.
"I didn't… I don't have the right to ask."
He swallowed hard.
"But I worry about you. And Haoyu. And what you've been through."
Xiamen looked away.
Her throat ached.
She had spent years building lies like thin pieces of glass — fragile, dangerous, easily shattered.
Cover one lie with another.
Hide one truth under ten excuses.
How long could she keep doing this?
How many lies does a woman need… to protect one truth?
Her hands trembled.
Then—slowly, painfully—she broke the silence.
"My husband…"
The words sat like stones on her tongue.
"He went somewhere. For business."
Hong Yi frowned, sensing the pain behind her calm voice.
"I don't know where he is," she continued, voice sharper now, shaky. "I don't know why he didn't come back. I don't know anything anymore."
Her eyes lifted, meeting Hong Yi's.
"Do you want me to tell everyone my husband left me?"
Her voice cracked.
"Do you want me to stand in front of your family and admit that I'm a woman abandoned twice?"
Hong Yi froze.
Xiamen wiped a tear before it fell.
"Do you realize how hard my life was?" she whispered, breath trembling. "How I earned money alone? How many nights I cried because my son had no father to tuck him into bed?"
Hong Yi's heart clenched.
"You must know," she continued, voice breaking, "how difficult it was for me to raise my son in a city where no one knew us. Where I had no family. No friends. No help."
Her shoulders shook as she inhaled.
"I even left my own family behind," she whispered. "Do you know what that feels like? To start over in a place where the only person you have is a child who depends on you for everything?"
Hong Yi reached out, but she stepped back, tears shaking in her eyes.
"What can I say, Hong Yi?"
Her voice trembled with bitterness and exhaustion.
"My first husband left me once. And then…"
She closed her eyes. And second one
" left me again."
Silence.
Heavy. Crushing. Heart-wrenching.
Hong Yi felt something inside him shatter — anger, sadness, helplessness, all tangled together.
"Xiamen…" He spoke her name softly, painfully. "I didn't know."
She wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
"No one knows," she whispered. "Because I don't want anyone to pity me. Not you. Not Emma. Not Mr. Lin. No one."
Her voice turned cold and tired.
"That's why I hide everything. That's why I lie."
Hong Yi stepped forward slowly, gently, like approaching a wounded animal.
"Xiamen… you don't have to lie to me."
Her eyes lifted, filled with fear and truth.
"But I do," she whispered. "Because some truths… will destroy everything."
And Hong Yi finally understood—
She wasn't protecting herself.
She was protecting someone else.
Someone small.
Someone innocent.
Someone precious.
Haoyu