I dare not gamble on the reaction she might have, dare not gamble on whether she would leave him because of it.
Fear... he finally understood what fear was, the feeling of being afraid because of a life that depends on someone else, his father had it once, and now, he had it too.
"Kyle, what’s wrong?" Mabel Quinn saw Kyle Kinston’s prolonged silence, and couldn’t help but speak up.
"Nothing, just do as you said." Kyle Kinston gave a faint smile, lowered his head, and kissed the bruise on her wrist.
Mabel Quinn only felt warmth on her wrist, soft and gentle, the sensation of his lips, the slight pain she felt seemed to gradually disappear under his kiss.
After having dinner with Kyle Kinston, Mabel Quinn said, "Oh, by the way, when I went to the cake shop today, I ran into Francine Howards."
Kyle Kinston raised his eyes, "Did she give you a hard time?"
"No." Mabel Quinn shook her head, "I went to the cake shop to order a birthday cake for you, Miss Howards saw it and told me you’ve never celebrated your birthday."
Kyle Kinston’s body suddenly stiffened, his thin lips pressed tightly together.
"Kyle, you... have really never celebrated a birthday?" Mabel Quinn asked.
His phoenix eyes fixed on her, after a long while, he said, "Yes, I’ve never celebrated a birthday." Before he was nine, no one ever celebrated his birthday, and after the age of nine, he didn’t want to celebrate it.
"Because that day has never had anything worth remembering for me." he said, holding her hand, leading her toward the stairs.
Step by step, he walked, and said, "Mabel, I don’t need to celebrate my birthday, so you don’t need to prepare anything for me. On that day, let’s spend it just like any ordinary day, alright?"
Mabel Quinn bit her lip, a birthday is a day worth commemorating for everyone. When her father was alive, every year on her birthday, he would celebrate it for her. After her father passed away, no one at home cared about her birthday, but at least, she would buy herself a small cake and celebrate it herself on her birthday.
When he said this, a sour feeling welled up in her heart, while his unpleasant memories, what exactly were they?
When they reached the second floor, Mabel Quinn stopped and said to Kyle Kinston, "Alright, if you don’t want to celebrate your birthday that day, we won’t. But I hope, from now on, your memories on that day won’t be unpleasant ones anymore, but more and more good memories instead."
She said, "Starting this year, let’s create memories, shall we? Create many beautiful memories, so in the future, on this day, it won’t be just unpleasant memories anymore."
He gazed at her in a daze, as if something invisible was pressing heavily on his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.
This woman, his lifeline, said she wanted to create many memories with him.
She said she wanted his thoughts of that day to no longer be filled with just unpleasant memories.
"Do you really think my unpleasant memories can be replaced by other memories?" he murmured, his voice tinged with a deep hoarseness.
She bit her lip, "I don’t know what your unpleasant memories are, but I think..."