TRUE REASONS.

Night had completely fallen; there was silence in the house. Hayami was lying in her room. After sighing, she got up, thinking she had given her sister enough time to calm down and explain what had happened, since she didn't understand anything. She left her room and went to Isabel's. She didn't knock, just opened the door, looking at Isabel sitting at her vanity, combing the hair she inherited from her father.

"What happened? I don't understand."

Isabel exhaled, put the brush on the vanity, and looked at Hayami with her black eyes, puffy from crying so much. Hayami noticed that detail.

"Are you in love?"

She blurted out the first question that had come to mind.

She smiled.

"Yes, very much in love."

"It's... with... Noah?"

She asked, hesitant. She had thought it wasn't like that, but seeing her sister's swollen eyes made her doubt it.

"No. It's the father of this baby."

"That's what I don't understand, explain it to me."

She sat down on the bed.

"I'm in love with another man named Hugo, but I couldn't marry him. Dad doesn't like him."

"Oh, I mean, he doesn't have any money."

"Hayami," she said, snorting.

"That's right, how could I explain it to you, hmm..."

"So easy, from the start."

Hayami smiled, giving Isabel's troubled heart a little peace of mind.

"Three years ago, I met him with Noah; they're friends. We met at a party, the three of us started dating, and I fell madly in love with him. A year ago, he came to my house to ask me to marry him, but Dad threw him out worse than garbage." After that, he tried to find a way for me to agree to marry someone of our standing, threatening to banish me from the family. I have nothing, Hayami, what could I do?

Isabel started crying again.

"Where does Noah come into this story? Don't tell me he's just jumping at the chance... That... Idi..."

"No, no, it's not like that. I told you he's a good guy. He offered to give us a sizable sum to run away and be together, but we didn't accept it. He had personal reasons for getting married, so the three of us came up with it. Well, it was really an idea that came up, and I stuck with it. If I had to get married anyway, it might as well be with my best friend just for a while."

Hayami snorted, shaking her head.

"Why make life complicated? I could have given you anything you wanted."

"It was my idea. Hugo even asked me to leave like this, but I couldn't. Maybe I was too selfish and too cowardly."

"Don't say that. It's normal, sister. Don't worry. I'll support you in every way possible. Now rest, since tomorrow will be a difficult day with our parents, who I imagine haven't come to talk to you."

"I know. They haven't come because they're planning how to banish me."

She smiled sadly.

"You wouldn't miss out on anything in this family, but don't worry, it won't happen."

Hayami got out of bed, approached Isabel, and shook her hair, making it tangled, ruining the time she had spent combing it. She walked toward the door, but before she left, she looked back at her.

"I just hope it's not like that idiot Ivan, sister; I hope you chose well and not like your stupid older sister."

__ You still love him, don't you?

"I don't love anyone. My heart died a long time ago. It may sound ridiculous, even stupid, but it is. He destroyed it... Well, come to think of it, yes, I do love someone... I love myself... Now rest."

Leaving the room, she went down to the kitchen where she poured herself some milk, sat at the island in the middle of that elegant kitchen, rested her head in her hand, and remembered that time after her future husband's wedding, crying in front of him, begging him to stay with her.

Hayami thought she had acted like a fool and a fool, that he had humiliated her in front of everyone, that he had killed her heart when he threw it away. She drank her glass of milk, wishing it was stronger, and went back to her room to sleep.

The next morning, Hayami woke up wrapped in sheets. The morning was very cold, despite having lived in Canada for several years. She hated the cold, checked her phone, and got up to take a shower. When she finished, she stepped out shivering. That morning, she dressed in white jeans and a long-sleeved, high-necked blouse. She tied her hair in a ponytail. Before leaving her room, she looked for her checkbook, where she wrote a large amount. When she finished, she left the room. Hayami came downstairs and smiled when she saw her parents, who were her first meeting. She approached them as they were drinking coffee.

__What are you planning to do with Isabel?

He addressed his father seriously, who hadn't had a good relationship with him since they'd become the laughingstock of society because of that man's cowardice and her darkened love.

"I don't know yet."

The man replied with a serious expression, then drank the coffee that was served in front of him. Hayami's mother said nothing; she simply remained silent. Hayami offered the check to her father, who only looked at it in astonishment upon reading the amount written on it.

"You'll leave Isabel alone; she'll do what she wants."

"Daughter, this is a lot of money! We don't need it," Jasmine blurted out, surprised to see the amount as well.

"Don't worry, Mom, I'd give anything for my sister, even that amount."

Hayami walked toward the exit of the house, and before she could leave, her mother caught up with her.

"Daughter, we don't need that money. I'll try to conve..."

"Mom, you know what my father is like. You know him. Don't worry about that money. I'll get it back in four months, no problem. Just please leave my sister alone; she's pregnant now, the last thing she needs is worry."

She leaned close to her mother's cheek and gave her a very tender kiss. She loved her mother and knew it wasn't her fault that she was subjected to that man because she, too, had been for a long time. She finally left the house and got into her car to go to the office. The weather was very cold.

"I hate the cold."

She said to herself as she drove to the company.