Chapter 22. Difficult Coexistence

Liam

 The morning after my father's disastrous birthday stretched lazily after a sleepless night, where memories of his birthday pounded in my mind long before I could finally fall asleep. I tossed and turned in bed for hours, trying to push away thoughts that stubbornly lingered.

 I slept later than usual, a luxury granted by a poorly slept night. For a moment, I lay still, pondering what to do next. The idea of avoiding Cecilia again crept into my thoughts, but the realization that I couldn't sustain this charade throughout the year of our marriage began to weigh on my conscience. Twelve months of forced cohabitation was an invasion of my privacy.

 The irony doesn't escape me. The marriage to Cecilia, which was my idea, a way to secure the presidency of Laser Inc. and defy my father, had become a prison imposed by my own choice.

 As I stared at the ceiling, I felt a mixture of self-recrimination and resignation. I felt trapped by the cir