The trophy hit the ground and smashed.

Tristan turned around and grabbed a few more things, smashing them without even a look. What was broken were not things but a heart that was mocked and trampled.

After throwing half a dozen objects, he seemed to have used up all his strength and was breathing heavily. He grabbed his tie and pulled it loose. Then he put his hand on his knee, squatting down to see the pieces on the floor.

The broken pieces were crystal clear and sparkled under the sunlight.

She was like them.

Crystal-clear, hard and fragile, easy to break.

***

The clock on the wall was pointing to noon.

Tristan had just finished playing cricket. The two-hour game made him all sweaty and breathless. He almost wanted to lay down on the floor. He threw the bat away and went for a shower. When he changed his clothes, he saw there were several missed calls on his cell phone.

He was staring at the screen when his phone vibrated again suddenly.

He pressed on, and Kate asked with hesitation and exhaustion, "You are not coming back today?"

"No."

"Oh."

"What's up?"

"Nothing. Just asking."

Kate was sitting at the dining table. The food on the table was cold and untouched. She put the phone down on the table and watched it turned dark slowly.

She was going to tell him that the baby kicked her a dozen times, and it seemed to be a very healthy and lively little thing.

Kate also wanted to say that she was wondering what name they should give the baby. She searched online and saw the explanation of the name Tristan…

Now she didn't feel like saying anything.

She sighed and took up her fork. The diamond on her finger was shining with lonely lights. Her hand trembled a little, and the food on the fork fell down to the plate. She took it up again with the fork. It was cold and hard. She had to chew for a long time to swallow down.

Even though it was hard to eat, she had to eat and digest alone.

Tristan had not come back to the villa for three days straight.

Kate spent most of her time with the fat cat. It had its own room and a cozy bed with all kinds of toys. She watched it sleeping soundly and watched it play savagely with the toys until she was afraid the baby in her belly would get bored.

Kate decided to go out. She went to the book store first.

She was wandering among the shelves of law books. She had been very familiar with this place.

Then she went to the mall for shopping. She picked two toys in the baby shop and gave them to Sam to carry. He was silent and walked with a little evilness. His expression attracted the attention of the shop assistants and some of the customers, but Kate just turned a blind eye to him.

The sun was setting, and Kate was walking slowly on the street.

She thought of the last time she was with Tristan's mother. The picture they took was framed and hung on the wall in their bedroom. And she thought of Tristan and wondered what he was doing. He had not called for a few days.

As she was thinking, she caught sight of a person, and she was shocked.

She told Ed that she wanted to have milk tea.

They just walked past a milk tea shop at the corner of the road. She saw a long queue outside the takeout window. The young girls all liked this kind of thing. She said she would wait here, so Ed went back to the milk tea shop.

As his back was turned, she walked across the street immediately.

It was a bar.

It wasn't a busy time, and there were few people inside. The lights were dim, and the music was slow and soothing.

She saw that figure again. She was standing with her back to Kate and talking to the bartender at the bar counter.

She had auburn hair and was now taking off her coat, revealing a turtleneck sweater and a short leather skirt.

The woman said to the bartender at last, "I am going to take a nap. Call me when the guest comes." And then she swayed her h.i.p.s and walked inside.

She was moving slowly, and Kate followed her through the corridor and turned to the stairs. The person in front of her seemed to detect something and paused a little.

"Caroline?"

The back of the person stiffened, but she didn't turn back.

Kate said in a low voice, "I recognized your voice."

A half-minute later, they sat across from each other in a booth.

The door was closed.

The woman took out a cigarette and lit it swiftly.

Kate was excited, "I thought you…"

"I was dead?" The woman took a cloud of smoke and exhaled, and then said with a bitter smile, "I did go to hell and came back."

"What happened? I was waiting for your call then."

Caroline showed some apology now. "At first, I was afraid of dragging you in, so I didn't contact you." She sighed, "But you were dragged in all the same."

Her eyes scanned Kate from head to feet. "You seemed to be doing OK. I almost didn't recognize you in these expensive outfits."

Kate knew she had changed a great deal.

After she got pregnant, she felt a ponytail didn't suit her, and she made a simple bun behind her head, showing more of her forehead. This made her face smarter and more fashionable.

Though she barely wore makeup, her skin was shining with a healthy gloss because of being taken care of properly. Kate was wearing a white cashmere coat with a stylish maternity dress inside, dark gray woolen stockings, and black suede flats.

The air she carried obviously showed that she was living a wealthy life.

Plus, there was a ring on her hand. Now she realized that she was holding her hands together and subconsciously or consciously hiding the ring on her finger.

Caroline's sharp eyes rested on her belly, and she asked, "How many months is it?"

Kate didn't answer.

Caroline seemed to understand, and she extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray. "Getting back to me again."

"After we parted, I had a boyfriend. I quit my job and worked as a shopping assistant in the mall. Later I got pregnant, and I wanted to have the baby, but he didn't have a steady job. So money was quite a problem for us. He said he copied some files when he repaired the computer for the vice president of the company he worked for. They seemed quite valuable. So on impulse, we copied a disc and proceeded with blackmail."

"That night, he stayed at home alone waiting for them to exchange the files with money. I was wandering outside and had not received his phone call for a long time. I became worried, and I went back. I found the curtain was half closed when I got there. I peered through the seam of the curtain…"

Caroline closed her eyes, "The floor was covered with blood, and I came to understand what 'blowing brains out' meant. And then I saw two faces. I turned back and ran. They heard me, and one of them came out to chase me; the other one still stayed in there to clean the mess. I ran to a construction site. I saw a pond about two meters deep, and I jumped down… The man watched there for about two hours without seeing me, and he finally left."

"I had a narrow escape and didn't dare to go back home. I went to a friend and borrowed some money from her and took the train and fled to another city that night. I lost my baby on the way…"

"I went all the way to Miami and found a place to stay. The landlord introduced me to work in a factory owned by his relative."

Caroline was calm as if she was telling a story she read in some magazine. Kate was shocked, and when she heard that she had lost her baby, her heart shrank.

"Anyway, we deserved it. We made the bed, so we had to lie in it. It is a shame I dragged you into this. Henry, that asshole must have sold you out. He died himself, and he still made you a victim too."

Now her voice showed some indignation.

"I didn't mail the letter," Kate said honestly.

"Forget it. They are too powerful and deep-rooted. It might be useless to mail that letter or even get one more person killed."

"So what brings you back here?"

Caroline pushed a strand of hair back to her ear and showed some sorrow. "That asshole was stupid and messy, but he really loved me. I heard that his body had been found. I wanted to go to see his grave."

A phone rang, and they were both shocked. Caroline gave a glance at her cell phone and said, "I have to go to work. I sell wine for my friend here."

She stood up and pulled her short skirt straight. Before she opened the door of the booth, she turned back and said, "You won't tell them I am here, will you?"

"Of course not." Kate said and added after a thought, "But you'd better leave here as soon as possible."

Caroline nodded, "I will go in two days."

Kate went out of the bar, and the sky was much darker. Some of the neon shop plates were already on. She felt like she just had a long, weird dream.

She paused for a second and then crossed the road hastily and got back to where she parted with Ed.

She saw Ed running from a distance with a sack holding the milk teacups.

Kate explained, "I was so bored waiting here. I looked around in the shops here."

Sam didn't mind and just said, "The milk tea will be cold soon."

"It is OK."

She took it from him and said, "Let's get back. It is late now."

In the middle of the night, Kate felt cold in her sleep.

She pulled the blanket higher, but the coldness didn't reduce. She woke up with a shiver and saw a shadow bending down over on her.

She was just about to cry out when she recognized the outline of the face and took a sigh of relief.

But soon, she felt her throat clamped.

A pair of big hands were surrounding her neck and was tightening up.

She was scared and just managed to utter the word "Tristan…" when the hands-on her throat tightened, and she could only make some breathless sound.

Tristan was expressionless and asked gravely, "Why did you betray me?"

"Why did you did that to me?"

His hands were freezing cold, and the pressure on her neck didn't reduce. She had difficulty in breathing and reached her hands to try to break his grip, but his fingers were like iron and didn't move at all.

"Why?" He asked. His voice had some pain in it, and his calm face seemed like it was going to fall apart. He tightened his hands again.

Her tears came out. She was nearly suffocated, but her heart calmed down instead. She reached her hand to his face as if to touch and to heal the wounds.

In the dark, there was a little sparkling light. It was so tiny but it reflected in the man's eyes.

The hands-on her neck suddenly released. Kate had almost lost her consciousness. It took her a long time to resume her natural breathing. And she saw her hand that was held in that man's hand. A tiny star was sparkling on her finger.

He took her hand to his mouth when there were footsteps behind him.

And the black barrel of a gun was pointed against his left temple.

Kate gave out a muffled cry.