My daughter married a Ko:rean man when she was 21. She hasn’t come home in maddon twelve years, but every year she…

Then Kang Jun appeared. I recognized him from the door — the elegant suit, the cold presence. My heart tightened. I looked at Mary Lou. She saw him too. But this time she didn’t tremble. She walked toward him without rushing, without looking down, without putting on any expression that wasn’t her own. “Why are you here?” she asked calmly. He looked around the small restaurant — the tables, the people eating, the warmth in the air. Then he looked at her. “You’re living well,” he said. Not with power or accusation. Just as a human sentence. He told her he hadn’t come to ask her to return. “I only came to ask for forgiveness.” His voice cracked slightly. “I held onto you out of selfishness, out of fear of being alone, believing that money could compensate for everything. But I was wrong.”