The next morning, Daniel Pei landed at nine seventeen.

At ten thirty, he was standing outside the marriage registration office.

No flowers.

No dramatic procession.

Just a dark coat, a folder of documents, and two cups of coffee.

When he saw me, his eyes went immediately to my feet.

“You changed your shoes.”

I looked down.

“They were broken.”

Daniel frowned.

“How long?”

“Two months.”

He didn’t ask why I hadn’t replaced them.

Maybe my expression answered for me.

Instead, he handed me a coffee.

“Claire.”

“Yes?”

“I need to ask you something before we go inside.”

My fingers tightened around the cup.

“If you’re doing this only because you want revenge on Lucas, don’t.”

I looked at him.

Daniel continued calmly:

“I’ve waited years. I can wait longer.”

“Why?”

His eyes softened.

“Because I don’t want you to choose me simply because someone else failed you.”

For seven years, Lucas had always explained why my requests were unreasonable.

Daniel was giving me permission to walk away from him.

Strangely, that made my decision easier.

“I didn’t call you because I wanted to hurt Lucas.”

“Then why?”

“Because when I asked myself who would actually show up if I needed someone…”

I paused.

“Your name was the first one I thought of.”

Daniel stared at me.

Then he smiled.

“That’s enough for today.”

We went inside.

The registration cost less than the lunch Daniel bought afterward.

When the clerk handed us the certificates, I kept staring at mine.

A little red booklet.

The thing Lucas had spent seven years calling unnecessary.

Daniel looked amused.

“Is something wrong?”

“No.”

I ran my thumb across the cover.

“I just spent seven years being told this was too expensive.”

Daniel’s smile disappeared.

He understood immediately.

He reached across the table.

“Claire.”

I looked up.

“Never measure your value by what Lucas was willing to spend on you.”

I smiled faintly.

“This isn’t about money.”

“I know.”

And he did.

That was the difference.

Lucas discovered that evening.

I had returned to the apartment to collect my belongings.

He came home while I was packing.

“What’s this?”

“I’m moving.”

He laughed.

“Because of yesterday?”

“No.”

“Claire, stop.”

He threw his keys onto the table.

“The game with Chloe ends in four days. Why are you behaving like I cheated?”

“You didn’t cheat.”

“Exactly.”

“You just showed me what I was worth to you.”

His expression hardened.

“Here we go again with the ring.”

“No.”

I zipped my suitcase.

“The ring was useful.”

“Useful?”

“It made things very clear.”

Lucas folded his arms.

“Where are you going?”

“To my husband’s house.”

He blinked.

Then laughed.

Actually laughed.

“Your what?”

I placed the marriage certificate on the table.

The laughter stopped.

Lucas stared at it.

Then at me.

Then back at the certificate.

His face slowly drained of color.

“What is this?”

“You can read.”

He snatched it up.

“Daniel Pei?”

“Yes.”

“You married Daniel Pei?”

“This morning.”

He looked at the date three times.

“This is fake.”

“No.”

“You can’t marry someone overnight!”

I almost smiled.

“You can when neither person thinks twenty yuan is too expensive.”

His head snapped up.

“Are you doing this to punish me?”

“No.”

“Seven years, Claire!”

His voice rose.

“You were with me for seven years!”

“I know.”

“And after one argument, you marry another man?”

“It wasn’t one argument.”

I looked around the apartment.

“It was seven years of small things I kept pretending didn’t matter.”

His anger faltered.

“You said we didn’t need a certificate.”

“You said I didn’t need new shoes.”

I continued.

“You said dates were wasteful. Birthdays were commercial. Flowers died too quickly. Jewelry was vanity.”

His face tightened.

“And I believed you because I thought you lived by the same rules.”

I looked directly at him.

“Then Chloe arrived.”

Silence.

“For her, two thousand yuan for a fake certificate was funny.”

I counted quietly.

“Ten thousand for shoes was nothing.”

“Dinner, wine, a diamond…”

“That’s company entertainment.”

“No, Lucas.”

I shook my head.

“It was evidence.”

“Of what?”

“That you weren’t frugal.”

I picked up my suitcase.

“You were only frugal with me.”

He stared at me.

Then his eyes fell on my hand.

The ruby.

His expression changed completely.

“Did Pei give you that?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how much it’s worth?”

“I do.”

Lucas laughed bitterly.

“So that’s it.”

“What?”

“You found someone richer.”

I looked at him for several seconds.

Then I removed the ruby.

I placed it carefully back in its box.

“Would you like to know the first thing Daniel gave me today?”

Lucas said nothing.

“Coffee.”

I closed the box.

“And before we registered, he told me I could leave if I wasn’t sure.”

Lucas’s face stiffened.

“He was willing to lose me rather than take advantage of me.”

I lifted my suitcase.

“You were willing to keep me only because you thought I couldn’t leave.”

I walked past him.

He grabbed my wrist.

“Claire.”

I looked down at his hand.

He released me.

For the first time, Lucas seemed afraid.

“You’ll regret this.”

“Maybe.”

I opened the door.

“But if I do, it’ll be my mistake.”

Then I left.

For the first week, Lucas didn’t contact me.

On the eighth day, he sent:

“Your things are still here.”

I replied:

“Donate them.”

On the tenth:

“Chloe’s game ended.”

I didn’t answer.

On the twelfth:

“I returned the ring.”

Still nothing.

Then:

“Can we talk?”

I blocked him.

Three months later, I saw him again.

Daniel’s company was hosting an investment reception.

I attended as his wife.

Not as decoration.

Not as proof of status.

Daniel had helped me reconnect with my family and restart the career I’d abandoned years earlier.

I was consulting again.

Designing again.

Earning my own money again.

Halfway through the reception, I heard someone behind me.

“Claire.”

Lucas.

He looked different.

Not physically.

The confidence was gone.

His eyes dropped to my wedding ring.

Not the ruby.

A simple band.

Daniel and I had chosen it together.

Lucas stared at it.

“He bought you something that cheap?”

I almost laughed.

Even now, he still didn’t understand.

“I chose it.”

He went quiet.

Then:

“Are you happy?”

“Yes.”

“After three months?”

“Lucas, I was unhappy with you for years.”

That hurt him.

“I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t want to know.”

His jaw tightened.

“I thought you understood me.”

“I did.”

“That was the problem.”

He looked away.

“I went to register last week.”

I frowned.

“For what?”

“To see.”

His voice became strange.

“I wanted to know how complicated it actually was.”

I already knew what came next.

“It took twenty minutes.”

I said nothing.

“And twenty yuan.”

He laughed once, painfully.

“Twenty yuan.”

His eyes reddened.

“I could’ve done it any day.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t.”

“I do.”

He looked at me.

“Because you didn’t think you’d lose me.”

Silence.

That was it.

Not poverty.

Not principle.

Not bureaucracy.

Certainty.

Lucas had been certain that the woman who left her career, drifted away from her family and spent seven years building her life around him would never find the courage to leave.

So he had never needed to choose me properly.

Daniel appeared beside me.

He didn’t put his arm around my waist possessively.

He simply asked:

“Ready to go?”

“Yes.”

Lucas looked at him.

Then at me.

“Pei.”

Daniel nodded politely.

“Mr. Lu.”

Lucas’s mouth tightened.

“Take care of her.”

Daniel’s expression changed slightly.

Then he said:

“She takes care of herself.”

My throat tightened.

Daniel continued:

“I just make sure she never has to do everything alone.”

We left.

A year later, I opened my own design studio.

My parents attended the opening.

So did Daniel.

Above my desk was the first twenty-yuan receipt from our marriage registration.

I’d framed it.

Daniel thought it was hilarious.

I didn’t.

To me, it represented the cheapest and most expensive lesson of my life.

Lucas had believed refusing to spend twenty yuan proved he was sensible.

But the twenty yuan was never the issue.

I hadn’t needed a diamond.

I hadn’t needed designer shoes.

I hadn’t even needed a grand wedding.

I needed the man beside me to be willing to say:

Yes.

Publicly.

Legally.

Without making me feel greedy for asking.

Lucas spent thousands pretending Chloe was his wife because pretending cost him nothing emotionally.

But spending twenty yuan to make me his real wife required commitment.

And that was the one price he had never been willing to pay.

By the time he finally understood how little it would have cost him—

I belonged to no one.

But I had already chosen someone else.