Chapter 2

I looked at him without a flicker of surprise.

Everard stared at me, thrown off. "Sis, you... you're not shocked?"

In my last life I had been shocked.

Mia had always acted like she adored him.

I never expected her to cheat.

And I never imagined her heart could be that black.

"Tell me everything," I said.

He gave a small "mm."

Then he laid it out for me, piece by piece.

Two months ago, on a night of pouring rain.

Mia was working late, and the office had sprung a leak.

So she called Everard to come pick her up after work.

But when he got there.

Mia wasn't in the office.

Instead, a different female employee, her clothes soaked through, was in the middle of taking off her bra when he happened to walk in.

The woman started acting like she'd lost her mind.

First she asked him to help her get her top down.

Then, out of nowhere, she ripped her own bra apart.

And clawed a few scratches into her own skin.

Then she started screaming that she was being assaulted, screaming for help.

And right at that moment.

Mia appeared. She "happened" to catch the whole scene.

And she swore up and down that Everard had betrayed her.

There was a man standing beside her.

That man laid out two conditions for him.

First, pay the female employee a million in compensation.

Second, agree to a divorce and walk away from the marriage with nothing.

If he refused, they'd call the police.

Everard tried desperately to explain, but Mia wouldn't listen.

She claimed she already had evidence on video.

Everard was afraid of going to prison.

So he took money from our parents behind their backs to pay it off.

He thought he could settle the whole thing quietly.

But Mia and her lover wouldn't let up.

They pushed him to take out a huge online loan.

And then they demanded he mortgage the house.

"Sis, I could accept all of it," he said.

"But Mia wants me to mortgage the house."

"That, I can't accept, no matter what."

"If the house is gone."

"Then wouldn't Mom and Dad end up sleeping on the street in their old age?"

"So I'd rather die!"

When he finished.

I smiled.

"At least you've still got some conscience."

"Sis, what good does conscience do me?"

"They've backed me into a corner. I can't breathe."

"I haven't slept in days."

"The second I close my eyes, I feel Mia right in my ear, pushing me to mortgage the house."

"Hmph. She cheated during the marriage, set you up on purpose," I said.

"She's the one in the wrong. What are you so afraid of?"

Everard opened his mouth to say something.

I got there first. "How long has she been gone?"

"Days now."

"Call her. Tell her to come home."

"I... I won't. The moment she's home she starts hounding me, I..."

He trailed off.

Little by little, he settled down.

Then he asked me, testing the waters, "Sis, maybe... maybe I should just divorce her and be done with it."

"Divorce?"

"Why would you divorce her?"

"After everything she's done to you, wouldn't a divorce be exactly what she wants?"

"My advice is, don't divorce her!"