Chapter 3

I couldn't make it to the divorce court on Friday as planned.

After the departure program initiated.

My body quickly started showing signs of decay, my immunity critically low.

I had a fever.

My lips were so chapped they felt like sandpaper.

I subconsciously called out, "Darling, water."

Before, whenever he was home, I always had water at just the right temperature.

I loved, and had grown accustomed to, his pampering me in small ways.

But opening my eyes, I remembered he'd moved out long ago.

The day he agreed to marry Scarlett Reid.

"She's my mentor's daughter. Out of respect for my mentor, I have to take care of her."

"She's dying. It's just a wedding ceremony. Be a little more understanding."

I stared at him blankly that day.

"If it's just a ceremony, why bother getting a divorce?"

He lowered his gaze, his fair, refined face tinged with coldness.

"I can't let her be his mistress, can I?"

Right, if we weren't legally divorced, she'd be the other woman.

So he was really committing to the act.

I looked at him indifferently.

"Julian Hayes, if we divorce, there's no way I'll ever remarry you."

He froze for a second, then dropped his suitcase.

He grabbed my arm tightly.

"What did you say?"

"If not with me, then who would you be with?"

"You told me you're an orphan in this world, with no family except me."

Maybe he was gripping me too hard.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

I clenched my fists and hit him, "Let go, you jerk! You're the one who gave up on me first!"

But he pulled me into a tight embrace.

My tears stained the collar of his white shirt.

"Don't cry, Audrey. Your tears hurt me."

"How could I ever give up on you?"

He awkwardly wiped my tears away.

Kissing me all the way from my forehead to my lips.

He said he was an orphan, and his mentor's wife had looked after him since he was young.

He said Scarlett was just like a sister.

I believed him. After all, she had a rare, terminal illness and was dying, wasn't she?

The System said if we restored our marital relationship within three months, the mission wouldn't be a failure.

A week later, I went to the hospital to bring him some nourishing soup.

Passing by the outdoor parking lot.

Scarlett Reid sat in the driver's seat, all windows down.

He stood outside the car, hands in his white lab coat pockets, his figure tall and imposing.

The next moment, he bent down and kissed the "sister" he had spoken of.

It felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head.

I numbly watched him extend a pale, slender finger and dotingly ruffle her hair.

"Be a good girl, go home and rest."

She seemed to playfully say something, then put on her sunglasses and drove off.

It was all so familiar.

He used to do all that for me.

The thought of him wanting to fulfill her wedding wish suddenly filled me with dread.

Was it merely sympathy and responsibility?

Or had his heart already strayed?

Strayed to another girl, but in a way that didn't technically violate our vows.

No wonder he was so eager to divorce me and marry her.

That day, I tossed the nourishing soup into the trash.

And with it, the heart that had once loved him so completely.