Chapter 3

Thud. Clyde dropped to his knees in front of me, the baby still in his arms, trying to win me back. "Willow, all I asked was for you to help nurse Wade's kid. It's not some unforgivable crime. I'll change, I swear. Just forgive me this once, all right?"

"No."

He was crying so hard he could barely get the words out. "Willow, you don't like it and I've already said I'll stop. Just forgive me this one time!"

"Clyde, a woman that petty only knows how to make a scene. Don't waste yourself on her!" The people crowded around us saw I wouldn't budge, and every one of them shook with anger.

That was when my father pushed through the crowd and came up to look at me. "Willow, Clyde has done so much for this family. When your company was about to go under, when your mother's heart gave out and she was in the hospital, Clyde was the one who paid the medical bills. Your brother's job at the city government office, he pulled the strings to get him in."

"After everything he's done for us, if you dare go through with this divorce, I'll disown you as my daughter."

"Dad, stay out of this." I gave him a small smile, then turned back to Clyde. "I'll give you a chance. Tell me why you wanted me to nurse Wade Summers's baby."

Something panicked flickered through Clyde's eyes, then was gone just as fast.

"Didn't I already explain? You have more than enough milk. There's plenty left over after feeding our daughter, so I asked you to feed his son."

"If you don't like it, then don't nurse him anymore."

My father stared at me. "See? Clyde saw you didn't want to, and he said stop. He's putting your feelings first completely. Where are you going to find a husband this good?"

I shook my head. "Dad, I'm getting divorced either way."

"You little tramp!" My father's hand cracked across my face.

Half my face throbbed, swelling and going red.

"Beat him to death!"

"A tramp like that deserves to be beaten to death!"

The crowd clapped and cheered.

"Willow, are you okay?"

Clyde came over, all tenderness, with a bottle of ointment to dab on the cut on my face.

"A husband this good, and she doesn't know how to hold on to him." Someone let out a sigh.

I shoved him away. "Save the crocodile tears."

Clyde looked utterly wronged. "Willow, please, I really don't want a divorce. Our daughter can't grow up without a mother."

"Begging me won't work." I started walking out.

"You really mean to go through with it? Then I have no daughter."

My father's voice dropped hard as he called after me.

Something in me hurt.

Grown as I was, I was still making him worry.

But this was my marriage. I would handle it myself.

"Clyde, I'll have someone deliver the divorce papers to you."

I didn't slow down, walking out fast.

Behind me came Clyde's sobbing, ragged and gut-wrenching, the kind of crying that broke your heart to hear.

Back at the company, I sorted through some documents, then called a lawyer friend to handle my divorce.

"Willow, what did I do wrong that you have to divorce me? Has the anger passed yet?"

"Our daughter and I both need you. We're at home, waiting for you to come back."

Before long I had left the office and checked into a hotel, and Clyde's messages came in.

I kept sneering as I read them, then blocked every way he had to reach me.

The next day, Clyde received the divorce papers I'd mailed.

But he tore them up.

In a fit of rage, Wade Summers posted the whole story online.

The internet was furious, and I was dragged onto the trending topics.

"Damn it, Mr. Rowe paid a huge bride price for her, put up the money to start her business, covered her mother's surgery, and got her brother a good job. He did so much for her whole family. A husband that good, and she doesn't appreciate him?"

"She has more than enough milk, always throwing the extra away, and her husband just asked her to help feed his buddy's kid, and she wants a divorce over that?"