East Wind Came, He Stayed Silent; I Sought Another

The day the Gilbert family opened their family hall for the ancestral rites, I let myself hope Chad Gilbert would take me along.

By the Gilbert rules, an unmarried grandson's bride could attend and stand watching from the outer edge.

The relatives all looked toward me, the meaning plain enough:

Lorraine Pruitt is Chad's fiance. Of course she should be there to watch.

"It would let the ancestors know ahead of time, in a way."

I stood in the crowd, the tips of my ears burning red.

That was when Chad walked in leading his cousin, the one with no blood tie to him at all, and said flatly,

"Lorraine isn't a formal bride of the Gilbert family yet. She can't attend."

"Olivia belongs to a branch of the Gilberts, so it's only right she pays her respects to the ancestors first."

He took my hand. "There's no rush over one occasion. Once you and I are married, there'll be plenty of chances."

The whole hall started murmuring, and I watched Olivia Finch stare at Chad with her eyes full of love.

If he didn't want to claim me, there were others only too eager to take me in.

...

I stood in the corner, and Grandpa Gilbert came over, leaning on his cane.

He gave my shoulder a light pat.

I held back my tears and shook my head at him.

To let him know I was fine.

On the day of the family's ancestral rites, an elder of the Gilberts couldn't lose his temper in front of everyone.

He had to keep up appearances.

So did I.

Not far off, Olivia stood perfectly composed where she was.

She let the searching eyes of the whole roomful of relatives rest on her.

She lifted her teacup and raised it toward the old man.

"I may not be entered in the Gilbert family register, but I'm still a Gilbert branch in name. Isn't that more fitting for the rites than Lorraine?"

As if she were the one who was Chad's fiance.

The whole room filed off in orderly fashion to pay their respects, leaving me standing alone.

I don't know what Olivia said to Chad, but he laughed easily, and all I felt was how bitter it was.

Chad and I, and what our relationship would be from here, was something I needed to think hard about.

When the rites were done, everyone moved to the side hall off the family hall for the banquet.

At Chad's request, the steward seated me among the guests, not with the family's own.

And Olivia sat right beside him, as if the two of them were the couple.

After the meal, a guest came to call on Grandpa Gilbert.

The old man saw me at Grandpa's side and asked, puzzled,

"Errol Gilbert, my friend, how is it I've never seen such a gentle, well-bred young lady at your home before?"

The room went quiet.

Chad opened his mouth to explain, and I cut him off at once.

"I'm the granddaughter of one of Grandpa Gilbert's old comrades."

My answer cleared away any tie between me and Chad in an instant.

Just as he had, all these years, introduced me that way in front of outsiders.

"Lorraine, you and I still haven't made things official. Introducing you as the granddaughter of Grandpa's old comrade saves a lot of trouble."

The old man's face lit up the moment he heard me, and he made to show me a photo of his grandson.

"Forgive me for asking, but are you spoken for? If not, you might consider my grandson."

Olivia was even more delighted than I was. She quickly caught my hand and said,

"Lorraine, take a look. What if this gentleman's grandson turns out to be a fine young man?"

"You can't hang yourself on one tree. Especially not a tree whose heart isn't set on you."

After we saw the guest off, Grandpa asked me to walk with him.

The back garden was lush, and the koi lazed in the sun.

"Old families like ours are particular about a great many things."

The old man rubbed his cane.

"You and Chad already exchanged betrothal vows before the elders as witnesses, and your charts were matched. In the eyes of my family, you are the grandson's bride."

"That's something no one can change."

He drew the betrothal vows from inside his coat and traced the words on them with great care.

"Five years ago, it was in the family hall too."

Grandpa gazed toward the hall, his voice low. "Chad told the ancestors he would marry no one but you. You alone, for the rest of his life."

"The ancestors heard it."

"The elders of both the Gilberts and the Pruitts were witnesses."

Pomegranate blossoms fell silently into the water.

"Lorraine."

He held my eyes. "You've been wronged."

I shook my head and said nothing.

Because I didn't know what to say, and to claim I hadn't been wronged would only be lying to myself.

When the rites ended, the Gilbert relatives left one after another.

Chad stood outside the car window and patiently told the driver,

"She gets carsick. Drive slowly, and remember to keep a window open for air."

Then, still not easy in his mind, he added,

"Send me a message when she's home."

Olivia leaned her head out with a wide smile and nodded hard at Chad.

Behind me, someone was talking in low voices.

"An orphan girl with no blood tie to the family at all, and he even brings her to something as important as the rites."

"Right? If it weren't for the brother-and-sister cover they hide behind, who knows what worse, more shameless things they'd get up to."

They caught sight of me and cut themselves off at once.

I turned a deaf ear and stiffly fiddled with my phone.

On the way back.

Chad kept looking at his phone, as if waiting for a message from someone.

I pretended not to notice and glanced out the window at the buildings rushing past.

Downstairs at the villa, the streetlamp stretched his shadow long.

"Don't take today to heart."

He bent his head to look at me and stroked my hair, indulgent. "After all, you haven't married me yet. It's against the rules for you to honor the Gilbert ancestors."

"Once you and I have the big wedding, once you have standing in the clan and are entered into the Gilbert family, of course you can pay your respects like anyone else."

"Be good."

Good.

For five years, the moment I went the slightest bit against his wishes, he'd tell me to be good.

I had been good enough, and still I'd sunk to having my true heart trampled like this.

At the Gilbert rites, I hadn't even been fit to stand at the outer edge.

I listened to the leaves rustling, and said calmly,

"Chad, I'd like some time to myself."

"You do need some time to cool off."

Something in my nose stung sharp when I heard that.

Everything churned inside me, and I opened my mouth, but I didn't know where to begin.

I went into the bedroom, and Chad followed me in.

"I get it. What happened at the memorial today upset you."

"Don't worry. Once you marry me, you'll get to lead the rites yourself."

He put a teacup in my hand for me to fill, ordering me as if it were only natural.

"I have to fly to L.A. tomorrow for an auction. Remember to book me the earliest flight, and pack my bags."

Then he stretched out on the sofa and flipped through a magazine, at his leisure.

He didn't care whether I agreed or not.

In his eyes, maybe I was more of an assistant than anything.

I pressed his suits one by one, and I tucked his everyday medicines into the case.

"Oh, and one more thing."

His face rose out of the magazine, in a very good mood.

"Pack my dark black overcoat. I hear the weather in L.A. has dropped sharply lately. Olivia never brings anything warm, so I'll bring it for her."

"One time she forgot to pack warm clothes and ran a high fever from the cold."

A smile hung at the corner of his mouth. "That girl. Hopeless."

Watching that smile, memory after memory came flooding back.

Once, to deliver documents for him, I drove through a blizzard, taking risks I shouldn't have.

I got in a car accident on the way.

The whole time I was in the hospital, he never came. Not once.

The blood bank was short, and they didn't recommend transfusions from close relatives.

I remembered Chad had the same blood type as me, and I thought I'd ask him for help.

I called him, and I learned he was with Olivia, who had a fever.

Before I could get a word out, he cut me off.

"Lorraine, I'm very busy right now. You're not a child. Stop always looking for someone to lean on."

Right after that, I hemorrhaged and passed out.

When I woke, I saw my best friend Darlene Fox slumped asleep at the edge of my bed.

My eyes fell on my hand, needle taped in, mottled with bruises, and I reached for my phone through the searing pain.

The pain wrenched a cry out of me and woke Darlene.

She understood what I wanted at once and brought me my phone.

The message screen was empty, and the screen reflected my head still seeping blood through its bandages, and I felt nothing but the sheer irony of it.

Maybe Chad had never had any room for me at all.

His heart had always belonged to another girl. Whoever she was, she wasn't me.

"I don't feel like packing anymore. You"

The moment I spoke, his attention was pulled to his phone.

His thumbs flew over a reply, and he stood and walked out to the balcony.

He slid the balcony door shut behind him.

I didn't have to guess who was on the other end of that phone.

In the dim light, I saw the faint smile that stayed at the corner of his mouth.

I stared blankly at his back, at that smile, and sank into memory.

Five years ago, at Seaside Plaza, he had hundreds of drones flown into formation to confess to me.

Backlit, smiling, he slid the ring onto my finger.

"Lorraine, I won't make you wait long."

"Once I've finished what the family has charged me with, we'll have a grand wedding. I want to tell the whole world that Lorraine Pruitt has married Chad Gilbert."

"You'll enter the Gilbert family register, and bow before all my Gilbert ancestors."

For that vow, I had grown tired of waiting.

I didn't want to wait anymore. Everything before was like a reflection in water, gone with the passing of time.

I turned and went into the bedroom.

The first thing I saw was our photo together, and now it only stung my eyes.

I gathered up my own things, quick and clean.

So it turned out packing could be this fast.

Before, I was always afraid I'd leave something out for Chad, so I packed with such care.

The balcony door slid open.

Chad couldn't find any flight booked in his name, and he came at me with a frown.

"Why haven't you bought the ticket yet?"

His eyes swept to the case at my side, and his voice went cold and hard.

"Lorraine, what kind of tantrum are you throwing now?"

"You've had a face on all day, like everyone owes you something. Olivia's still walking on eggshells around your moods, afraid she's the one who's upset you."

"She just messaged me," he explained to me patiently, "said that when you and I have our wedding, she wants to be a bridesmaid, that she'll bless us from the heart."

I fixed my eyes on him, my voice giving away nothing.

"And when exactly will that be?"

He froze where he stood.

"Five years ago you promised me. You said once you'd finished what the family charged you with, you and I would marry."

"Under your leadership, Gilbert Group blew past its KPIs long ago."

"You're just stalling, again and again. You don't want to marry me. That's all."

His eyes darted away.

"I've never forgotten my promise to you. But there's a transatlantic project at the company right now, and it can't do without me."

I cut him off.

"Then I won't keep you from running the show."

"Chad, I don't think we're right for each other."

Then I shoved the digital invitation right in front of him.

"One week from now."

"It's my engagement party."

Chad barely glanced at the electronic invitation before turning his head away.

I watched his reaction.

And I knew right then that he hadn't even noticed the groom's name on it had changed.

He sat there for a moment, then gave me a lazy smile.

"So you went and had invitations printed."

"Lorraine, are you really that desperate to marry me?"

He propped his feet up on the desk, swinging them idly, looking down at me.

"First you talk the Gilbert relatives into speaking up for you so you can stand in on the memorial rites, and the very next thing I know you've got invitations ready to go."

"You and Grandpa cooked this up together, didn't you."

"I told you I'd marry you. Just not now."

"Was it really necessary to team up with Grandpa and force my hand behind my back?"

Question after question, and something in my throat closed up tight.

That he could think that of me and Grandpa.

Fine. If he wouldn't believe I'd gotten engaged to someone else, then let him see it with his own eyes.

I said it plainly.

"August sixteenth. It's an auspicious day. I had a master pick it."

"The invitations have already gone out. The toast gown is chosen too."

"A master picked the date."

The corner of his mouth curled, and he let out a scoff.

"See? I was right."

"You even had a master pick the date. You've been planning this for ages."

Then his face turned serious, his voice hardening.

"When did you send them out?"

"How many invitations have gone out already?"

He fought down the darkness in his eyes and clamped a hand around my wrist.

"Lorraine, I told you I'd marry you. Why would you use such a cheap trick to back me into a corner?"

"You stop sending those invitations right now. Find some excuse and put out word that the engagement party is off."

His words came fast and earnest.

Just like the sincerity in his voice two years ago, when he skydived with me and promised he'd marry me soon.

That day we put our lives in each other's hands, the wind roaring past us, no one in our eyes but each other.

"Lorraine, my heart for you will never waver."

"I'll do more than the family ever asked of me. I'll make the whole world know you're Chad Gilbert's wife."

"I'll make sure you never regret marrying me."

"Have you lost your mind?" His shout dragged me back out of the memory. "How many invitations have you sent?"

"Lorraine, you really are a disappointment to me."

"Chad."

The light went out of my eyes the moment I looked at him, and my voice rose.

My nose stung.

"You're the one who promised you'd marry me!"

"All I've done is put it on the calendar. Was there any need to come at me like this?"

"When you say you want to marry me, you're just lying to yourself, aren't you?"

His fist clenched until the knuckles cracked, but he couldn't get out a single word.

He snatched the phone from my hand and slammed it to the floor, like he needed something to break.

"I'm flying to Los Angeles for the auction in the morning." His voice was cold. "Before I get back, hurry up and find a reason to cancel the engagement party."

"Otherwise there'll be no groom at your engagement party, and you'll be the one making a fool of yourself."

Then he rammed his shoulder hard into mine as he passed me by.

I crouched down and picked up the phone, hollow inside.

The screen was shattered beyond saving.

I looked at the blurry photo of the two of us on it, and thought, so much for that red marriage certificate. It was never going to be ours.

The next morning he woke and didn't see me in the house. He packed his bags with a stony face.

Then he headed for the airport, weighed down by his thoughts.

It was the first time in five years he hadn't found me busy in the kitchen.

All those years of never complaining, of shouldering everything, and to him it had only ever been my due.

I slept until I woke on my own, in the apartment I'd bought with my own money, and my mood was very good.

I made myself a cup of coffee and sipped it slowly to the last drop.

Then I opened my phone and started deleting photos, one by one.

The photo of us leaning against each other, watching the sunset. Deleted.

The one of us making DIY rings together. Deleted.

The one of us feeding each other ice cream. Deleted.

Looking back now, maybe we'd never really been right for each other from the start.

A sound from my phone pulled my attention back.

It was a message from my fianc.

He'd sent a photo of an evening gown, blurry and hastily taken, with a voice note attached.

"Lorraine, do you like this dress?" His voice was gentle. "Last time, I saw you standing at the window looking at it for a long while, so I took it upon myself to buy it for you."

The gown was the short style I loved.

And the color was purple, the one I liked best of all.

A moment later he sent another photo.

In it, he was holding a bunch of purple baby's breath and smiling at the camera.

There was a line written across the flowers.

"Lorraine, thank you for agreeing to marry me."

Two short photos.

I played his voice note over and over, and didn't reply.

My eyes went hot and red.

I hadn't expected him to notice even something this small.

Chad had never been this attentive.

I was just about to reply when a message popped up.

It was a video from Chad.

In it, a pair of pink diamond earrings, and I could hear the auctioneer's voice calling out bids.

"Winston pink diamond earrings, opening price: one hundred million."

"These are the only earrings in the entire auction. I'm buying them back for you, to make up for it."

A moment later he sent another message.

"Olivia liked them, but I couldn't bear to give them to her. I'm still on your side, after all."

Reading that, I couldn't help a bitter little laugh.

Did he really not know that pink was the color I hated most?

The person he most wanted to buy that necklace for was Olivia Finch. Pink was her favorite color.

I deleted his messages.

The next second, one of Olivia Finch's new posts popped up.

The video showed her at the auction, her arm linked through some man's.

No need to guess who the man was. It was Chad.

Her caption read: "Diamond necklace from the person who cares about me. I'm so happy!"

I recognized at a glance that the necklace was from the same set as the earrings Chad wanted to give me.

So it turned out that what he gave me was only an afterthought too.

Then I turned off my phone.

As the sun was setting, I got a call from Grandpa Gilbert.

The old man's tired voice came through the receiver.

"Lorraine, Chad just called to confront me."

"He's convinced this marriage was something I schemed behind his back."

I looked at the sunset and said nothing.

"I let him believe it."

Grandpa spoke to me earnestly. "Lorraine, you're a good child. You shouldn't be trapped on Chad."

"You don't have to hold back. You deserve a better choice."

"I know Gordon Gilbert has always carried you in his heart. You kept refusing him, out of loyalty to what you had with Chad."

"I watched Gordon grow up. He's a man who takes responsibility."

"I'm very glad you can accept him."

"No matter who you choose, you're still the granddaughter-in-law of my Gilbert family."

Grandpa was truly happy for me. "He's a better match for you."

"Your engagement banquet with Gordon, I'll hold it grandly."

"In my heart, you're already my granddaughter."

My granddaughter.

My throat closed up all at once.

Grandpa's steady breathing came through the receiver.

He paused a while, then said softly:

"Lorraine."

"Chad won't own you."

"There will always be someone who takes you in."