Chapter 1

My wife's classmate came to visit us, and that night he drank quite a bit.

Regina said he'd had too much to drink and had no one to look after him at a hotel, so she set him up in the guest room.

He threw up, and she patted his back and cleaned up the mess.

Then she made a point of going downstairs to the pharmacy to buy glucose for him to drink, and thoughtfully set a glass of warm water on the nightstand.

This was treatment I'd never once gotten after being drunk.

Watching all of this made my stomach churn, not just from the alcohol, but from real, physical nausea.

I rushed toward the bathroom, but behind me came Regina's cold voice.

"When you're done throwing up, clean up after yourself. Don't gross me out."

Thinking of how she'd looked after her classmate earlier only made me more nauseous.

When I came out of the bathroom, she'd taken my pillow and blanket and tossed them on the sofa.

"You sleep in the living room."

"I can't stand the smell of alcohol on you."

Can't stand it? Then don't.

…………

I was about to say something when my stomach seized up in a sharp spasm.

I crouched down, clutching my stomach.

She just glanced at me once and went back into the bedroom.

I don't like drinking, but work functions make it unavoidable.

In the past, when I drank too much, I was either locked outside or left to throw up and clean up after myself.

And that guest room where her classmate stayed used to be where I slept after drinking.

But... there was never any warm water on that nightstand.

Because I always had to drink for work, I'd talked with my wife a long time ago about quitting my job and starting some small business of my own.

She was against it.

I didn't want to drink today either. My stomach had been bothering me for the past couple of days, and I was still on medication.

She knew that, but she said her classmate was visiting, and if I didn't drink with them, it would be an insult.

My stomach hurt more and more, so I called out to her.

"All you do is drink, day after day. Might as well drink yourself to death." The voice from the bedroom was colder still.

I don't know how long the pain lasted, or when I finally fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, it was already nine o'clock. I was lying on the floor, and no one else was home.

It wasn't the first time my stomach trouble had flared up, and it wasn't the first time I'd slept on the floor.

But because we had a child, and there was no real dealbreaker, I'd kept enduring it, thinking I'd give my child a whole family.

Yet after watching her take care of her classmate the day before, I didn't want to endure it anymore.

I was just about to reach out to her to bring up the divorce when I opened my phone and saw a few red dots.

They were pictures and texts her classmate Silas Perry had sent in the early hours of the morning.

Regina told me you like watching the sunrise. I really envy that you get to enjoy such a beautiful sunrise together with her.

I wanted to call you to come watch it too, but you were sleeping so soundly I didn't want to disturb you.

This is today's sunrise. Regina and I watched it for you.

I really do like watching the sunrise. I love the romance of it, and I've always wanted to watch a sunrise with the person I love.

We'd been married all these years, and she'd never watched one with me.

In the photos Silas Perry sent, she was smiling brightly on the beach, striking all kinds of poses against the sunrise.

I casually opened her classmate's social media feed, where there were already photos and captions posted.

They say only couples who've watched a sunrise together are truly complete.

Thank you for giving me this romance.

The picture was the backs of two people sitting on the sand watching the sunrise, leaning in close.

Romantic?

I stared at the photo and decided to make this a little more romantic.