The plastic handles of the grocery bag bit into Grace Wu's palm, the slight sting grounding her as she walked along the dimly lit streets of Macau. The city stretched around her, aglow with the distant shimmer of neon lights and the faint echo of laughter drifting from restaurants lining the next block.
Macau never truly slept, but at this hour, the streets beneath the apartment complexes seemed softer—quieter. The absence of traffic allowed her thoughts to roam freely, weaving through the day's events, though she wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse.
She adjusted the weight of the bag in her hand, feeling the smooth edges of vegetable cartons and packets of rice shift inside. It was strange, holding something so mundane. Grocery shopping hadn't been part of her routine before.
In the last timeline, she wouldn't have had the time—or the need.
Grace's evenings used to blur together in a haze of late-night calls from Rocky Chan, crisis management meetings, and scrambling to fix whatever mess Anna Feng had quietly stirred behind the scenes.
She exhaled slowly.
Tonight had unfolded differently. There had been no damage control, no frantic text from Rocky demanding she stay behind at the office. Instead, she'd walked out of Li Holdings earlier than expected, unburdened by the sinking feeling that usually followed her like a shadow.
But that didn't mean the weight had disappeared. It had simply shifted.
Victor Zhou.
His name echoed through her mind as she crossed an intersection, her footsteps light against the pavement. It was strange how vivid the memory of his presence had felt—like a crack in glass she hadn't noticed until the shards were already falling.
Grace had known him only in passing during the last timeline, just another ambitious rival of Rocky's. Someone she assumed was opportunistic but otherwise harmless. Until he wasn't.
In the end, Victor had been the one to orchestrate Rocky's downfall, and by extension, hers.
She remembered it clearly—Victor's signature on the documents that forced Rocky's hand, the quiet negotiations that had slipped by unnoticed. It wasn't loud or obvious. It had been careful. Calculated.
But tonight had presented a shift. One small thing she hadn't seen before.
The pink roses.
Grace's grip on the grocery bag tightened as she recalled the soft petals wrapped in pristine paper, delivered to Lilly's office by an unsuspecting courier.
Victor had sent them.
That didn't happen last time.
Her pace slowed as she passed by a small tea shop, the warm glow from inside spilling onto the street. A young couple sat by the window, their quiet conversation accompanied by gentle laughter. Grace lingered for a moment, watching them through the glass.
It felt like a distant memory—watching life pass by while she ran after someone else's.
Victor's sudden interest in Lilly was new. In the old timeline, Grace had never noticed his involvement until after Rocky's affair with Anna had unraveled publicly. By then, it had been too late.
Now, Victor was already circling closer to Lilly.
He was moving faster.
Emily's words still played in Grace's mind.
"Victor bought Lilly a drink the night Rocky was caught with Anna. The servers were gossiping about it afterward."
Grace had frozen when she heard it. Victor wasn't just there by chance—he had orchestrated the entire thing. The hotel, the timing, even the choice of location had been deliberate.
Golden Arrow Hotel. Right on Lilly's turf.
He wanted her to see it.
Grace adjusted the bag in her hand, her steps resuming as she neared her building. The realization sat heavy on her chest, winding tighter the more she thought about it.
Victor didn't just aim for business dominance. He aimed for personal territory, and he rarely missed.
As she approached the entrance to her apartment complex, the faint vibration of her phone echoed in the quiet street.
Grace glanced down.
Rocky.
His name blinked on the screen, accompanied by the soft hum of the call waiting for her to answer.
For a moment, Grace hesitated, thumb hovering over the screen.
The old Grace would have answered immediately, her voice carefully measured to soothe whatever irritation he carried. She would have stayed on the line for hours if necessary, fixing problems that weren't hers to begin with.
Not tonight.
The call faded to silence, and Grace slipped the phone back into her coat pocket without a second glance.
By the time she reached her floor, the halls were empty, save for the faint buzz of an overhead light flickering near the stairwell.
Her apartment door clicked shut softly behind her, the quiet pressing in like a familiar companion. She set the groceries on the counter, taking a long moment to simply stand there, staring at the reflection of her own faint silhouette in the window.
This didn't happen before.
She'd never had time for small things like groceries, nor evenings that didn't spiral into exhaustion.
Grace leaned against the counter, fingers brushing the smooth edge of the bag.
It was such a small detail—almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
But that was how everything started.
A shift.
A ripple.
And the next thing she knew, the entire trajectory of her life had been rewritten.
She wasn't sure where this path would lead—whether stepping away from Rocky and moving closer to Lilly's world would unravel better or worse results.
But as Grace stood there, feeling the ordinary weight of groceries at her fingertips, she realized something.
For once, she wasn't chasing after the inevitable.
Tonight, she had chosen.
And that was enough.