When she mentioned Dn, she was even more indignant. "Hasn''t Dn given you any exnation?"
Noreen smiled faintly. "An exnation for what? For adults, some
misunderstandings are best left unresolved. If you miss out on something, it just wasn''t meant to be."
ire found that very reasonable. "Missing out is a blessing! In any case, you''re not the one who should have regrets."
"Dn, don''t you have any regrets?"
When Jude learned that Dn was about to marry Crystal, he couldn''t help but ask.
Dn''s eyes were dark and deep. After a long moment, he replied, "Every choicees with regrets."
If he had chosen love, the Wilder family would have been lost.
If he had chosen the Wilder family, love would have been lost.
Besides, what right did he have to ask Noreen to choose him, a man burdened with enormous debt?
Life was full of regrets.
He wasn''t the only one in the world who loved someone he couldn''t be with.
"But it was eight years," Jude murmured.
Letting go of eight years of affection must be incredibly painful.
At this, Jude suddenly paused.
He thought of the seven years Noreen had spent by Seth''s side.
Compared to Dn''s eight years of long-distance affection, Noreen''s seven years of wholehearted devotion were even more heartbreaking.
And during those seven years, he had treated Noreen with nothing but scorn.
Wasn''t everyone''s love just as real?
Jude suddenly pped himself across the face.
It was a loud p.
Dn looked at him quizzically.
He could only rub his face andugh awkwardly.
...
For the New Year, Noreen granted Rosalind''s wish and they celebrated at the old apartment.
Rosalind had lived there for twenty years and had a good rtionship with her neighbors. She wanted to visit them and exchange New Year''s greetings.
So, after their New Year''s Eve dinner, Rosalind went out to visit the neighbors.
Noreen dealt with some documents, revised her thesis, and sent it to Halley''s email.
She checked the time. It was only nine in the evening.
Noreen took a cup of hot milk and went out to the balcony for a while.
After the recent cold spell, the weather had warmed up a bit in thest couple of days, so it wasn''t too cold.
Across the river, fireworks were sporadically lighting up the sky.
In the courtyard, children were ying withnterns.
It was quite lively.
But Noreen''s attention was on the height of the building.
The twelfth floor was really high.
ording to Mrs. Laurent, when her kitchen started smoking, Seth had knocked on her door, but there was no answer.
He was worried that Rosalind was napping and didn''t know about the fire, so he had frantically found Mrs. Laurent and climbed from her balcony to the twelfth floor to put out the fire.
At that time, she and Seth had already broken up.
And Seth was supposedly in the thick of his rtionship with Bianca.
There was no need, no reason, for him to do something like that.
So Noreen couldn''t understand it.
Rosalind returned from her visits, bringing back a lot of food for Noreen.
She pulled herself out of her thoughts and went back inside.
Just as she sat down, there was a knock on the door.
Rosalind thought it was a neighbor dropping by and went to open the door with a smile.
But standing outside was Mina Holt.
Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she had just been crying.
"Oh my, Mina, what''s wrong?"
Rosaled Mina inside, asking
with
"Why are your hands
so cold? And you''re
you''re barely wearing
anything. You''ll catch a cold!"
Mina''s lip trembled. She looked at Rosalind, then at Noreen.
The tears she had been holding back finally broke through, and she started sobbing loudly.
Rosalind quicklyforted her,
while Noreen went to get her some
hot water and took off her own
to wrap around her for
Mina held the warm cup, and though she calmed down a little, the tears kept falling.
Rosalind was worried sick. "Mina, what on earth is the matter?"