The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 351

"I know you've always saved the very best for me and Garrison, just like Rosemary perfecting this broth. But... love isn't soup. It's not a matter of putting in the time, pouring in your heart, and simmering the ingredients until they're perfectly tender to guarantee the other person will like it. Love isn't a transaction where effort equals reward."

He finished chewing the rib, set the bone neatly on a side plate, and took another sip of water. His tone remained gentle, but it carried absolute certainty.

"So, Quinn, you don't need to wait for Garrison anymore. Not waiting doesn't mean you don't love him. It's just that the person he loves... isn't someone you can replace."

Quinn sat frozen, her wine glass suspended mid-air. She lowered it, picked it back up, her fingertips tracing the rim.

She looked at the ten-year-old boy sitting across from her. He wore a navy blue school blazer, his tie perfectly knotted. When he ate ribs, he meticulously cleaned the bone before taking another piece. When he drank soup, his spoon never clinked against the bowl.

She had taught him all of that!

She had been raising him since he was three years old. She dropped him off at school, read him picture books, attended his parent-teacher conferences, and stayed up all night by his bed when he had a fever... She had genuinely cared for him as if he were her own son!

And now... he was sitting here, using a bowl of soup to tell her that "effort doesn't equal reward in love."

His tone was polite, devoid of malice, and his eyes were entirely sincere, even tinged with a bit of heartache for her.

She had to admit, every word he said was true.

But precisely because it was the truth, it felt as though someone had taken a dull blade and was slowly, agonizingly carving her chest open, inch by inch.

The blade wasn't sharp, so the pain wasn't immediate—no, it wasn't that it didn't hurt. The pain was just so deep she couldn't even pinpoint where it was coming from.

"At the time, I thought I hated her because everyone told me she abandoned me, that she didn't care about me. But as I grew older, I realized none of it was her fault. She wanted to be by my side. It was Rosemary and you... who didn't want her to come back. Besides, she was a good person. People say she sacrificed her life for a national expedition."

"In my heart, she's a hero."

He picked up his water glass and took a sip, looking out the window at the minimalist courtyard. His voice was steady and quiet.

"So... Quinn, you will always be family to me. That won't change."

"But I'm sorry, I can't look at you as my mother."