Chapter 3

Exhausted, I returned to the small storage room and saw the photo I’d worked so hard to get. My eyes blurred.

In the picture, I smiled brightly. Caleb, though expressionless, still went through all the motions with me.

It was one of the rare times he’d shown me a shred of patience.

It was then I remembered the text message I’d seen on his phone that day: “I had the most amazing takeout today! Come home quickly, let’s try it together!”

A simple takeout meal had brightened his mood. Yet, the meals I painstakingly cooked, even burning my fingers for, were met with his sneers.

A thousand tiny ants seemed to gnaw at my chest, a searing, throbbing pain ripped through me.

No matter how much effort I put in, I could never truly enter Caleb’s heart.

I wearily looked around, realizing how few things I had that were truly mine.

Everything in the villa had been arranged according to Caleb’s preferences. Now, it felt utterly ironic.

My phone chimed. A text from Jax: “Don’t make me fly back and find you.”

Just a few simple words, but they filled me with an inexplicable sense of security.

I wiped away my tears, gathered my things, and left.

Now, to leave, the only thing I needed was a visa to Country A.

After my interview, I only had to wait five more days before I could leave this place.

I could leave Caleb forever.

On the way back, I saw a jewelry store and decided to pawn all the gold jewelry Caleb had given me.

Each piece was laid out on the counter. I remembered the exact moment Caleb had given me every single one.

Every piece, I had treasured like precious gems.

I carefully ran my fingers over each engraving, my eyes welling up. Under the staff’s urging, I reluctantly let go.

But the next moment, the staff member frowned, and his words plunged me into an abyss.

“These are all fake. Only this necklace can be bought back.”

How was that possible?

I picked up the jewelry, disbelief written all over my face, inspecting them repeatedly. Still not convinced, I handed him the ring on my finger. “What about this one?”

He took it, burned it with a flame, and after a moment, glanced at me sideways, sighing and shaking his head.

The staff next to him looked surprised. Seeing my distraught expression, he tried to comfort me. “Perhaps your husband accidentally bought fakes. It’s common these days for people to be scammed into buying fake gold. It’s understandable.”

“Please don’t overthink it…”

By the end, he seemed to lose conviction in his own words, his voice trailing off.

But even the ring we used for our wedding was fake. What, then, could possibly be real?

Four years of genuine devotion, and I had been completely oblivious.

I took the only genuine gold necklace, a bitter ache in my heart.

I never would have thought that the only real gold among them was something I had practically begged Caleb for!

“I’ll sell this one.”

“You can dispose of the rest for me.”

After the payment went through, I left the jewelry store, my expression numb.

I looked up and saw Caleb and Seraphina walking into another jewelry store together.

They were holding hands, smiling, looking so intimate, as if *they* were the real couple.

I lowered my eyes and quickly walked away, my heart sinking as if a stone had been tied to it.