Chapter 3

3: 3

Natalie nearly knocked over her coffee.

"Ferdinand cheated on you?"

"Not yet."

I paused.

"But he might, soon."

Natalie looked half amused, half exasperated.

"What, are you a fortune-teller now?"

I told her what had happened the night before.

When I finished, she frowned and stayed quiet for a long time.

"Ferdinand wouldn't do that, would he?"

"Aren't you overthinking this? How much Ferdinand cares about you, we've all seen it."

My eyes flickered. I thought back to that time.

Back when my depression flared up,

he'd come rushing through a downpour to be with me, standing guard outside my door all night, afraid to leave in case I did something to myself.

After we married, he stayed gentle and attentive too.

We'd even been planning to have a baby lately.

To prepare, he quit smoking and drinking, exercised on schedule every day, went to the hospital for checkups on his own, and kept better track of my ovulation than I did.

Natalie took my hand.

"Your birth parents favored their son over you. That left you with too many scars."

"Now your brother has barged back into your life, and maybe he's just stirred that old anxiety back up."

"Get your brother out first, then watch for a while. You might find you were only overthinking it."

I was silent for a moment, then said anyway,

"Draw up two agreements for me first."

"A divorce agreement."

"And a marital property agreement. Whoever cheats forfeits all shared marital assets and walks away with nothing."

Natalie stared at me for a long moment, but in the end she didn't argue.

"All right."

That evening, I came home with the agreements.

I'd barely pushed the door open when I saw my brother had brought another woman back.

She wore next to nothing, her eyes glassy, her arms covered in a dense scatter of needle marks and large ulcers that hadn't healed.

She was drinking from my cup, one foot up on the couch.

My face darkened.

"Take her out of here."

My brother rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"Now what?"

"Someone in her condition is high-risk. She could be carrying an infectious disease!"

"How you want to have your fun is your business, but don't bring her into this house."

My brother shot to his feet and raised his hand to hit me.

"Who the hell are you calling diseased?"

Ferdinand was standing right there, and instead of stopping him, he only frowned, irritated.

"You're a doctor, but you can't treat everyone you meet like they're sick."

"It's her first time here. How can you say something so ugly to her?"

Backed up now, my brother cursed even worse.

"Walking around with that dead face all day. No wonder your husband takes one look at you and loses interest."

"You really think every woman in the world is as boring as you?"

With that, he threw an arm around the woman and slammed the door on his way out.

Only then did Ferdinand come over and hold me.

"There now, don't be angry."

"Who told you to run your mouth and set him off just now?"

I looked at him for a long moment, then set the agreements I'd prepared on the table.

"Sign these."

Ferdinand glanced down, and his face darkened at once.

"What is this supposed to mean?"

"You don't actually think I'm like your brother, do you? Interested in those filthy women?"

"I take care of you in every way, I stand up for your only living relative, and this is how you doubt me?"

I said calmly,

"If you're never going to cheat, then signing or not makes no difference."

"Or is it that you don't dare?"

Ferdinand stared at me for a few seconds, then laughed from sheer fury.

"I looked out for your brother only because I love you, because I wanted to carry out your parents' last wish for you."

"Fine. If you insist on proving it with something like this, then I'll sign."

He picked up the pen and signed his name without hesitation.

"Satisfied?"

I put the agreements away and said nothing.

From that day on, it was as if Ferdinand really did set out to prove himself, and he stopped covering for my brother.

The next time my brother brought a woman back, for the first time Ferdinand's face hardened and he drove them out.

"If you want to fool around, do it somewhere else."

"Dragging all kinds of people into the house. Aren't you afraid of filthing the place up?"

He even went and found a place for my brother himself, pushing him to move out as soon as possible.

"You're not young anymore. You can't keep living at your sister's forever."

"The month is long past. You should've been gone already!"

Watching him take such a firm stance, so rare for him, I finally breathed easier.

Maybe I really had been overthinking it.

Until the day I happened to see the message my brother had sent him.

【Ferdinand, this place you found is great, and it's close to yours too. Easy for you to come over and have some fun later.】

【I'll give you a shout when I've got good stuff.】

My heart went cold, bit by bit.

But Ferdinand hadn't replied.

All I could do was tell myself, over and over.

Maybe it was just my brother rambling, talking to himself.

But over the next few days, Ferdinand kept staring blankly at his phone.

Sometimes his eyes went vacant at the screen, other times he'd take the phone into the bathroom and stay in there for half an hour.

Yet every time I checked, there wasn't a single reply in his chat with my brother.

Until the night of the World Cup final.

We'd agreed long ago to watch it together at home.

The match hadn't even started when Ferdinand's phone, lying on the table, suddenly lit up.

It was a message from my brother.

【This one's really top-shelf.】

【Looks innocent, but she's wild, up for anything. You go first!】

Ferdinand stared at those lines, his eyes fixed.

For the next ten-odd minutes he couldn't sit still, picking up his phone and putting it down again and again.

Finally, he shot up and grabbed his coat.

"A coworker asked me to watch the World Cup final with him. I really couldn't turn him down."

"I'll head over there. Finish the game and get to bed early."