Chapter 2

Over the next few days, Joyce didn't come home, and Nigel didn't bring it up. He quietly reached out to his friends to get back the wedding invitations he'd sent. Joyce had mentioned she wasn't into all the fuss, so they hadn't planned for a huge wedding—just a small get-together with a few close friends. Their friends were shocked when they suddenly heard the wedding was off and the invitations were being pulled. "Why cancel out of nowhere? Haven't you two always had a stable relationship?" they asked. Nigel couldn't help but feel crushed when he heard their question. A stable relationship? Stable in the sense that he'd always been trying to please Joyce while she stayed as indifferent as ever? He supposed they could call that "stable". The only one who had been stable in their relationship was Nigel—not Joyce. She'd always seemed out of his reach, watching him obsess over her from a distance. But now, he was done with loving her. Nigel decided to be honest in the end. "There's a new bride." But no one was surprised when they heard it. They simply joked around with Nigel and brushed it off. It made sense when Nigel thought about it. He'd always loved Joyce with all his heart and never minded her aloofness. He'd have a hard time believing it too if someone else had been through everything he had and then decided not to get married. But it didn't matter because he was set on showing everyone that he had given up on Joyce for good. … Nigel had barely gotten home with all the invitations when Joyce finally returned. She was a perfectionist and always looked so put together, but he noticed a few wrinkles on her white shirt. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked wiped out. He could tell at once that she wasn't doing too great. The first thing Joyce said when she saw Nigel was exactly what he had just done. "We need to pull back the wedding invitations. With Professor Laswell passing, I feel like I should wait at least six months before marrying, out of respect." Joyce thought Nigel would argue with her, especially since he had been so eager for the wedding. She also knew Mark had been waiting for Nigel to finally settle down. She had even rehearsed what to say, but Nigel's expression remained calm. "Alright. Sorry for your loss," he said. Joyce was startled. She couldn't shake the feeling that ever since that night, Nigel had turned into a different person. Even though his behavior toward her felt a little off, she didn't have the energy to dig into it right now. She rubbed her temples to ease the tension and said, "Professor Laswell's memorial is today. He mentioned you before he passed, so I'm thinking of taking you to see him." Nigel didn't like Jeffrey, but he got along just fine with Ronald's kind wife, Pauline Fennell. Besides, Ronald probably never imagined Jeffrey would go that far to fulfill his last wish—finding someone to have his child. Out of respect for the late professor, Nigel nodded and went along with it. After getting cleaned up and changing, Joyce took Nigel to Ronald's funeral. They had just arrived when a tearful voice called out, "Joy…" Nigel turned toward the sound and saw Jeffrey, in black, collapse to the floor. Tears were pouring down his face. "Jeffrey!" Joyce cried out in surprise as she rushed toward him. She held him tenderly in her arms, not even looking up as she told Nigel, "You go ahead and pay your respects. I'll stay with him." Joyce seemed so gentle and attentive toward Jeffrey. Anyone who didn't know better might have assumed he was her boyfriend. If Nigel had seen them acting so close before, he would've lost it right then and there. But now, he just shot them a glance and walked off to the hall without saying a word.