Chapter 1

After ten years of marriage, Muriel cheated on me ninety-nine times.

I never divorced her because before our wedding, she bought 100 urns.

"You've always loved rituals. If I'm unfaithful to you after marriage, you can put the evidence in an urn."

"When all 100 boxes are used up, our marriage will be truly dead, and I'll leave with nothing."

Later, she seemed to have forgotten about it.

When she toured Provence with a popular male streamer to see the lavender fields, I put the photos taken by a private investigator into an urn.

When she accompanied a rising painter on his global exhibition tour, I placed ticket stubs marked with lipstick into another box.

Until our tenth wedding anniversary, she never showed up for the scheduled prenatal checkup.

She went to celebrate her sponsored male student Robinson's birthday instead.

"Leonardo, I couldn't bear to let Robinson spend his birthday alone. You've always been generous, so you should understand."

"After I finish celebrating with him, I'll go to the prenatal checkup myself."

I gripped my phone, my fingertips white with pressure. "There's only one urn left."

"How unlucky," she said, her tone displeased. "Today is Robinson's birthday—why are you randomly bringing up urns?"

I didn't argue further and hung up.

Since she didn't want the chance I gave her, I had no choice but to make her leave with nothing.