Chapter 2

I couldn’t feel the pain in my shattered toes anymore, and I struggled to my feet.

"Ryan?"

"Didn’t you say your manager was bullying you and sent you away on a month-long business trip?"

A week ago, when he left the house, he was wearing a faded suit and driving a used car that had been flooded.

Now, he was wearing an expensive custom-tailored suit.

A black business Mercedes was parked in front of the driving school.

The girl’s mother pouted and clung to his arm. "Ryan, who is this woman? Do you know her?"

"She tried to extort money from Mia. I gave her ten grand, and she took it."

"I was just waiting for her to apologize to Mia."

Ryan avoided my gaze and turned to the woman beside him, handing over a beautifully wrapped gift in his hand. "I’m pretty familiar with her."

"Summer, take our daughter to the car first. I’ll handle this."

"Be good and don’t make a scene."

"I promise, once our daughter gets her license, I’ll take you both to Hawaii, okay?"

He coaxed her and kissed her again, and only then did the woman take the girl and leave.

I stared at them in a daze, my teeth clenched, my whole body cold to the bone.

How could I still not understand?

My husband of twenty years had had a child with another woman!

I felt sorry for him working so hard that I couldn’t even bear to take painkillers, yet he gave another woman a million dollars a month as spending money!

I trembled and tried to say something, but my throat felt like it had been tightly gripped, and not a single sound came out.

"Fine."

"Since this has already happened, I admit I did something that wronged you."

Ryan had already calmed down, and his face carried a trace of relief and release. "But your company really did go bankrupt before. In these past few years, I built everything back up on my own, and the assets are under my parents’ names, so it has nothing to do with you."

"If you want a divorce, you won’t get a single cent."

"If you don’t want to divorce and keep living with me, I can make sure you and our daughter have a comfortable life."

At the end, he took my hand and let out a soft sigh.

"Grace, at our age, there are a lot of things we really don’t need to overthink."

I looked at the husband in front of me in disbelief.

I couldn’t believe that the man who had insisted on wiping me down, washing my feet, and taking care of me when I was injured, making me think he was the one who loved me most in the world,

could actually face me so calmly and so coldly after I found out he was cheating on me.

I wiped away the tears that had somehow spilled onto my face and suddenly laughed.

"Ryan, you can’t even be bothered to lie to me a little, can you?"