The Unbroken Will

When the phone screen lit up, I was crouched in the flower shop's back alley trimming the withered Chinese roses. It was an outrageously expensive order marked "urgent," to deliver 9,999 red roses to Cloud Manor. The rickety tricycle I rented creaked on the asphalt road, standing out sharply against the neatly lined villas around. The security guard looked at me with disdain, not even touching my ID card when registering. The moment I pushed open the carved iron gate, I ran into the two people I least wanted to see in this life. The woman wore an off-white dress, the pearls on the hem gently swaying with her movements—it was Vivian Lincoln. "Sister? Is it really you?" She hurried over, her tone so warm it was as if we had never been apart. My fingers gripping the handlebar turned white, my throat tightened, and I couldn't say a single word. The man beside her turned around, sharply dressed in a suit, the familiar coldness in his eyes—Ben Jones. "Is Cloud Manor a place anyone can just walk into?" His voice was like ice, piercing my eardrums with pain. Vivian Lincoln feigned tugging at Ben's arm: "Ben, she's just doing her work—don't speak like that." Ben Jones shrugged off her hand, his gaze sweeping over my tricycle, a mocking smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Delivering flowers? How ‘successful’! " I lowered my head to avoid his eyes, but Vivian suddenly reached out to pull off my hat. "Sister, wearing a hat in this heat—doesn't it feel suffocating?" As she tugged, the hat fell to the ground with a soft thud; the black fabric rolled to Ben's feet. My scalp was exposed under the sun; the bald spot left by chemotherapy showed a faint bluish hue. A few suppressed gasps came from nearby; Vivian's smile froze on her face. Ben's expression shifted from surprise to disgust, as if he had seen something dirty. I hurriedly bent down to pick up the hat, but Ben stepped on my fingers. "Wendy," he looked down at me from above, "when you left me back then, did you ever imagine this day would come?" The pain spread from my fingertips to my heart. I bit my lip, fighting back tears. Vivian feigned concern as she pulled Ben aside. "Ben, don't be like this. Maybe she's not feeling well." "Not feeling well?" Ben Jones sneered, "I think she deserves it." I finally picked up my hat and put it back on, covering the barren patch that made me feel so self-conscious. As I pushed the tricycle away, I heard Vivian Lincoln say behind me, "Ben, weren't you a bit too harsh just now?"