Funny, how ten years ago it took him leaving to have her realize her wrongs, and now, it took him leaving again for days to have her realize her love.

Was it the wheel of fate? Spinning them in this recurring cycle of severance and union?

The same heartbeats against her own. The same was the scent. Furthermore, it was the same geek holding her so securely in his embrace. The same guy she had known for so long.

But somehow, one emotion now having a name—changed it all.

The change had taken place in its own pace and now had come to its completion by declaring victory. Sofia had been in a way aware of the whole process and at the same time she also hadn't been.

Love is as pure as a dove; love is as sinuous as a serpent.

Sofia smiled watching him sleep with undivided attention. Her fingertips brushed with utmost gentleness on his lashes. They were not curvy, just simple and straight, and nicely resting on the now lessened shadows underneath his eyes. She observed that he looked better than last night—well rested and at peace.

Her fingertips traced down over the contours of his cheek and lips, never touching as they hovered over his skin but somehow feeling the warmth that radiated off.

Propped up on an elbow, lying sideways and slightly distancing herself while still in his now loose embrace, she was careful in her inspections so that he didn't wake up. But at the same time she also wished like hell to shake him out of sleep and tell him all about her self-discovery. She didn't have to though. For he slowly blinked opened his eyes and looked up at her as though she were a dream.

He hummed lazily, looking at her smiling face. Sofia gasped softly and shakily as he then rubbed the side of her waist where his hand had been holding her until now.

"You look so—" He reached out to swiftly cup her cheek with the same hand. "Real!"

Sofia narrowed her eyes while trying to fight off the blush that was quickly covering her cheeks.

She was unable to understand the head or tail of what he had said because her focus was zeroed in on his hand sensually sliding down her jaw and then cupping the side of her neck. Her pulse quickened under his fingers and she saw his eyes popping out of their sockets.

He sprung up, rubbing one eye with the heel of a palm, the other open eye stared at her.

Awkwardly, Sofia sat up as well, a little wary of what she should do. Now that she had realized she loved him, what was she supposed to do with it?

Tell him?

But wouldn't that be absolutely preposterous, confessing one's feelings out of nowhere, just like that!

Besides what about how he felt!

His actions said that he was willing to give this marriage a chance, but then, there was also this stunt of his suddenly running off to London while royally disregarding her, and it made her want to believe the otherwise.

Was she missing out something between the lines?

What was exactly going on inside that head of his?

For Sofia didn't want to get humiliated in front of him by declaring her love, if it was not to be reciprocated at all.

The memory of the party he used for his revenge washed over her mind. She had been fool enough to believe he wanted to restore their friendship through the deceiving attempt he had gone through to bring her where he wanted her to be, the result was similar to a slap across the face. She could still remember very well the way she had come back home that night—humiliated and heartbroken. It was her own Karma, alright, but how was that knowledge going to make her feel any less insecure right now?

"I'm going to have to go to the bathroom...," he trailed off, getting off the bed suddenly.

Sofia snapped out of the vehement tangle of her thoughts, realizing just now that they'd been staring at each other without a word.

"And I should go," Sofia said looking like her typical self, without a single sign of her inner battles showing on face. "Will take a shower and get ready for work."

Max nodded and zoomed into the bathroom.

Sofia sighed. It was either he was running away again or he was just simply in a dire need to go for real.

--

Ready for work, Sofia helped Debbie serve breakfast on the table. Max came downstairs dressed up for office too.

He took his seat beside her.

Absentmindedly, Sofia leaned sideways towards him a bit, as if it was getting her second nature to try and get as close to him as possible.

Despite feeling his eyes on her, she refrained from looking up at him. Recently even whenever he merely looked her way, she blushed like crazy. She didn't want to seem too obvious.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked fiddling with his coffee mug.

Sofia didn't look up. "I guess I should be."

"Are you?"

"Will that make you give me an explanation?"

"Sof—" he exhaled a long breath, his voice cracking.

Sofia smirked mockingly, sadly. "I understand, that won't."

"Sof—" Max retorted, his voice picking up. "You understand nothing."

Sofia looked up, her brows furrowed in question. "Then make me, Max!" she desperately said. "You cannot suddenly leave without even a word, ignore me for days, not reply to any of my calls—"

"I did send you a text." His chair screeched against the floor as he shifted the whole thing to face her properly.

"You did," Sofia glared at a very uncomfortable looking Max. "But is that supposed to make me feel any better. You were still very much giving me the cold shoulder. I thought we are back to being friends, Max, then why did you just—"

Suddenly Max's expression changed, his face hardened. Pushing back the chair he roughly got up to his feet.

"Yeah, right, how could I forget we are back to being friends!" he scoffed snatching up his laptop bag and files.

Sofia's heart thudded.

Was he mad at her again? What had she done this time? Why did she have to be in love with this impossible brute?

She was on her feet too in a second, and before he could storm away she grabbed his elbow roughly. "Don't you dare run away from me again, you bipolar buffoon. I've had enough of your mood swings that would have even pregnant women drop dead in shame if news got out. You don't want to provide me any explanation, alright, but do not behave like you're having seizures from time to time recalling that I'm the reason of lice existing in your hair."

She was breathing heavily as her speech of rage ended.

Max stood in shocked silence before his mouth slid down to a lazy smile, amusement sparkling in his eyes. "No one had ever called me a buffoon before."

That had Sofia fuming more.

Was that all he got out of her speech?

She had hoped it would be enough to rile him up enough to give her the answers. Turned out she was wrong.

"But I'm sure you've been called a bipolar before," she said through gritted teeth and letting go of his elbow turned around to snatch her bag from the table.

It was useless arguing with him.

By the way, why had she fallen in love with this man again?

She was about to storm out the house leaving Max with all his stupid dramas, but this time it was him who grabbed her wrist.

"Max," she warned with a hiss. "I've just had enough of your drama, so you better let me go."

"What is this?" Max asked, instead of doing what he was told to do. She did not like it one bit.

Heaving out a breath of impatience, she whirled around. It was her phone in his hand which she was totally forgetting back, all thanks to her insane husband. She jerked her wrist out of his hold and plucked her phone from his hand. "It is called a phone, you blind man."

Max scrunched his brows, giving the phone in her hand an incredulous look. "Correction— it's a broken phone. I wonder how that cracked touch-screen even works. The bloody thing has cello tapes pasted across it! What are you planning to paste on it next—a freaking band aid? Who uses a phone like that?!"

"I do," Shoving the phone inside her bag Sofia retorted. "And I will paste on it whatever I wish to—a cello tape or even a band aid if I see fit, it's my phone after all."

And not giving Max the chance to retaliate, Sofia stomped out of the house in the speed of light.

Max-the-wilderness might do mad by giving horrid cold shoulders, Sof-the-helldog here did mad by spitting fireballs. He should have watched out for she had been hanging by a thread till now.

--

What better way Sofia had to relieve stress and anger but by cooking. And she did it with a sort of furious gusto today, cooking many dishes in the kind of speed which was almost similar to an electricity charged tornado. She was livid.

Here she had discovered she was in love but that buffoon of a husband of hers just had to have his new, weird, out of the blue seizures. His these sudden withdrawals just fed to her already giant sized insecurity. Insecurity over her actual place in his life.

"A little slower, Sofia," Simmy hissed from the side. "The pan will break at this rate."

Sofia lifted the spatula before Simmy's face, wagging it she snapped, "Go back to your work instead of blabbering endlessly next to my ear."

Simmy made a face. "Being the boss doesn't mean you should act so brutal all the time, a little mercy every now and then would be nice. By the way, has that tall husband of yours forgotten to kiss you good-morning today?"

The husband word just got Sofia even more irritated. She positioned the spatula threateningly pointing Simmy's eye. "I'll dig your eyes out, Simmy. Can't you see I'm not in the mood to digest your nonsense right now?"

Simmy shrugged nonchalantly, clearly unfazed by Sofia's threat, she stalked over to the oven saying under her breath, "Definitely there was not a kiss."

By noon, when people were pouring in for lunch in the diner, Sofia had her temper back in control through endless cooking. It did only good because all the customers were getting their meals served in record time. Mary's Diner and catering was on a roll. And that gave Sofia the dose of satisfaction she needed at the moment to pretend that she had no stress, no problem, no unknown future and a buffoon back at home. It was just she and her work at that moment, and everything else existed in just her imagination.

"Sofia."

She was surprised seeing Robert Wilder striding in.

Over the years she had been used to him coming to her diner on Wednesday mornings only, for breakfast. Robert Wilder was a man who was fond of discipline, he was not the one to be found breaking his set rules no matter how trivial they were. So her surprise was rational.

Yet there is a rule set by nature too. That is—people will, sooner or later, break free from the regulations they've created for themselves.

Maybe even Robert Wilder, too, had got into the shackle of change.

"You're here, today? At this time? Is everything alright?" She rushed towards Robert swiping the flour from her forehead and neck with a hand towel.

Robert smiled easily. "Why? Can't I come to your diner for lunch, or just to see how my daughter in-law's faring?"

Sofia smiled. "Of course you can, anytime you want. It was just—you were supposed to be in the office at this time?"

She talked while ushering Robert to the outdoor, towards an empty table. All the tables were taken inside. "I hope you won't feel uncomfortable out here without an AC. It's jammed packed in there," she said thrusting back a thump at the direction of the small building that housed her diner.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Robert said taking a seat, the umbrella above the table hiding his face from the afternoon autumn sun. World climate was promptly changing and was being quite odd. This week while the nights were exceptionally freezing, the days were dramatically hot. "I'm sure I'll enjoy the fresh air and the natural setting."

A long set of compliments followed after that, she was sure he was being generous with them, yet he seemed happy and that was all that mattered.

Sofia made some rice, sea food salad and her special dish—smashed, spicy potato mixed with vegetables in Shrilankan style. She sat satisfied across the table as her father in-law ate savoring each bite and, totally and visibly enjoying eating outdoor, it was so obvious on his face.

"You've improved the business well. It's just like how he had been bragging about for so long," Robert said sipping some sparkling water.

Now who was this he?

Sofia frowned in question so Robert elaborated, "Your husband, of course."

He bragged about her diner!

That seriously got that tall monster some brownie points.

Sofia felt the beginning of redness erupting down her neck, and it was not the heat from the sun. She nervously wiped her neck and jaw with the tea towel in her hand.

"Is he too busy in the office?" she asked, giving Robert another serving of rice and the smashed potato which he seemed to have liked a lot.

"Yes. And since he's managing the firm quite impressively now on his own with Neil by his side, I'm slowly untangling myself from it all. I think it's time to retire."

"Isn't it too soon?" Sofia asked, knowing that even if it was too soon for Robert to free himself from the firm, it was after all totally his decision to take and everyone should be okay with that fact alone.

"I've been planning it since a long time, Sofia. Besides, I trust Max to handle the firm even better than I can. He's already proving me right. However, one thing is still confusing me though." Robert said frowning a little.

"What?"

"Neil," he sighed. "I don't understand why he's endlessly stalling moving over to London. It was fixed before Max and your marriage that he is to direct our head quarter over there, even his mother, Katherine, seemed thrilled with the idea. I wonder what's going on!"

Sofia hid a smile.

For a while she had believed it was his homesickness but recently she knew better. Skyler—that was most probably going on. But it was Neil's story to tell.

So Sofia yanked in a topic about her future business plans, about how she planned to rent the ground floor of the tiny building behind Mary's Diner to make a separate kitchen, pantry and office for her catering business, and that diverted Robert's attention from the dubious case of his nephew.

She made a mental note to corner Skyler soon. If anything was weaving between the two, then Sofia just needed to make sure that they were both safe and solid enough about it, for Katherine would surely have a strong say about this issue if news reached her sharp ears.

To see her cousin and her friend ending up hurt was the last thing she would ever want.

It was probably a divine coincidence that Sofia got a call from Lolo, Katherine's favorite daughter in-law. Her phone rang right after Robert left with a full stomach and the satisfied smile of a well-fed man.

Apparently Sofia was invited to Katherine and Lolo's Halloween tea party tomorrow, and Lolo refused to hear a no.

Who throws a tea party on Halloween?!

When Sofia still hesitated to give consent to go to this party regarding the fact that Katherine wasn't exactly a fan of her, Lolo made matters even worse and handed the phone over to Katherine herself.

"Sofia, honey! This is the apt chance to try and remove that little bit of sourness between us from the past. We're family now. I'm very positive, darling, that this party will just be that first step in bringing us closer as a family. Besides, you'll also get to know about the women in our circle while they in turn also get to know you. Lolo here's so excited to introduce you to her friends. So, what do you say? Yes?"

Now, how could she say no.

"Alright, Katherine," Sofia sighed. "I'll be there."

"Excellent!"

It only made sense that she tried and made peace with Max's aunt, especially when the woman had taken the initiation this time. Furthermore, if Sofia wished to make things easier for Skyler, if that dratted sister of her was truly romancing that Neil then mending things with Katherine was a must.

It was high time Sofia faced the ghosts and ghouls and the wicked witches of her in-laws' social circle.

--

"You cook all day anyways, ma'am," Putting all the spaghetti in the pan, Debbie had denied Sofia when she offered to make dinner that evening.

"Would you ever stop calling me ma'am?" Sofia playfully smiled at Debbie. "By the way, because I run a restaurant business doesn't mean I cook all day, I've got chefs for that, although I do help sometimes and also give them directions. Now give me that bowl, I'll at least chop those carrots."

"But ma'am, I'm the one supposed to be cooking and cleaning!" Debbie objected as Sofia got into work.

"You were also supposed to call me by my name and get some time to study too instead of working like a robot all day," Sofia said, briefly looking up from the chopping board. "I heard from Bean that you've enrolled yourself in an online degree course."

"I have," Debbie admitted. With some hesitancy she added, "But I don't know if I'll be able to pay for the course anymore. The maid agency I work in has been troubling me with my work hours and paychecks, my old employer apparently has filled the agency people's ears with some colorful words about me—which are all lies, of course, if you please believe me."

Debbie continued warily, "Also... my elder brother is in jail for being a bloody fool and joining the local hijacker's group for quick money. This is proving to be a severe information that can cost my job any day."

Sofia frowned. "Your old employer complained about that bit too to the agency?"

Debbie nodded. "Adding two lines of his own to make me look like a criminal bitch."

"Why's he hounding after you like this?" Sofia asked putting the knife down. Placing her palms on the kitchen counter she moved to face Debbie properly who was looking extremely troubled at her question.

"He—" Debbie sighed. "He offered that we sleep together."

"He did what?!" Sofia's mouth fell open, horrified. "What happened after that? You quit, right?"

"I did, yes, immediately after." Debbie sighed and turned off the stove, she wiped her hands in a kitchen towel.

"The bastard should rot in hell," Sofia scoffed. "Why didn't you tell it to the agency? Come clear to them."

"I did that too," Debbie replied, looking sad. "But the old peeve's a bloody billionaire, his one word and one of the boss persons I told it about proved to be a deaf to the poor, I was threatened to never mention it again if I wanted to work in the future—anywhere."

Sofia's face scrunched into a sneer. "Does Max know about this?"