Chapter 2

After my shower, Ethan placed a bowl of soup on the table.

"You're back so late today. Busy?"

He was still playing the role of devoted husband, as if he wasn't the one who'd been cheating for six years.

Ethan rarely had time to cook. Usually I rushed home to make him dinner.

The old me would have been so touched by this bowl of soup.

But I didn't touch it. I just sat down and looked at him quietly.

He sensed something was off but still asked patiently.

"What's wrong? Bad day? Didn't get many rides?"

"Don't put so much pressure on yourself. About having kids, there's no rush."

I laughed bitterly inside.

Right, your kid is already that big. What's the rush?

Throughout our marriage, Ethan had always used his rising career as an excuse to refuse having children.

I thought he felt our life wasn't stable enough, and I felt bad that his professor job was so demanding.

So I worked myself to the bone taking rides, from 4 AM until midnight.

Now it's clear—he just didn't want to have children with me.

Thinking of our seven years together, I still held onto one last sliver of hope.

"Ethan, is there something you're hiding from me?"

"If you tell me now, I can pretend nothing happened."

Ethan's body stiffened. Clearly I'd hit a nerve.

"What do you mean?"

I was too tired to explain further.

"I mean, who's the person you're cheating with?"

Ethan's expression changed. He set down his spoon and looked at me coldly.

"Anna, you have nothing to do all day but sit here with these paranoid thoughts?"

"Imagining your husband cheating with someone else—don't you disgust yourself?"

I clenched my fists. The last trace of affection vanished completely.

"I disgust myself?"

"When you had your dad plot to hurt your own wife, why didn't you find yourself disgusting?"

Ethan froze for a moment, then frowned in disgust.

"You were eavesdropping on my phone call?"

After a few seconds, he regained his composure and looked at me coldly.

"Since you heard, I'll be straight with you. Nina and I have been together for years. If she hadn't gone abroad that year, and if you hadn't saved me, why would I marry someone useless like you?"

Just then, his phone screen lit up.

Ethan saw something that made him smile broadly.

I sneered inwardly. So that woman was also his first love, his white moonlight.

My chest began to ache belatedly, and a dull pain spread from my ribs.

That was the aftereffect from saving him back then.

My breathing quickened.

"Ethan, get my medicine... my rib injury is flaring up..."

But Ethan didn't even glance at me. He grabbed his coat and walked out the door.

"Anna, playing the victim card works once, but not twice."

"You owe Nina so much. Apologize to her properly, and we can go back to how things were."

"I'm going to celebrate our anniversary with Nina. Think it over and come find me."

My heart went completely numb.

In his eyes, everything I'd sacrificed for him was just playing the victim.

The pain intensified. I struggled to move and find my medicine.

Just after taking it, the housekeeper Lily called me.

"Miss, the arranged marriage with the Lancaster family is set for three days from now. Please be ready."