Chapter 3

I shook my head.

“Could you take me home first? I have something important to do.”

He frowned slightly. His expression made it clear he didn’t agree with me.

What could possibly be more important than my own health?

Still, he didn’t argue.

After driving me home, he reminded me again to go to the hospital and have my wounds treated.

I smiled and thanked him.

I had no idea that, in his eyes, my smile probably looked worse than crying.

I watched him walk away.

Thank you, stranger.

His concern had given me the slightest bit of warmth.

When I reached home, Ethan’s assistant was waiting outside with a document envelope.

Were the divorce papers inside?

I stopped walking and didn’t dare go any closer.

For a moment, I even thought about turning around and leaving. Unfortunately, his assistant noticed me.

He called out,

“Miss Avery, these are the documents the CEO asked me to give you. He said you should sign them as soon as possible.”

That familiar pain began tearing through me again. I couldn’t stop the tears from gathering in my eyes.

See?

I wasn’t even worthy of being called Mrs. Hart anymore.

“Mr. Yang, where is Ethan?”

I wasn’t going to sign the divorce papers.

Mr. Yang stammered, looking deeply uncomfortable.

I didn’t want to make things difficult for him.

If he wouldn’t tell me, I would find Ethan myself.

“You can go. Take the papers with you. I’m not signing them.”

He shoved the envelope into my hands and hurried away.

I opened it.

As expected, it contained the divorce papers.

I gave a bitter laugh.

Ethan, was I really so disgusting to you?

I searched for a long time and asked everyone I could find.

Eventually, I located Ethan at a bar.

He and his friends were in a private room, each of them accompanied by a woman.

Earlier that day, when I had asked where Ethan was, every single one of them had claimed they didn’t know.

They must have received Ethan’s orders not to tell me.

My arrival shocked them.

Especially because I was covered in dirt and blood, my face pale and several wounds crusted with dried blood.

I slowly walked toward Ethan.

He sat there drinking. Other than glancing at me when I entered, he never looked at me again.

His friends stared at me like I was some kind of circus animal.

To them, I was nothing but a pathetic joke.

Their voices buzzed around me as they discussed me.

They called me a desperate doormat, a woman who threw herself at a man, someone shameless and worthless.

I ignored every ugly word.

“Ethan, I know I was wrong. Please don’t divorce me. I won’t interfere with you and Tessa. As long as you don’t abandon me, is that enough?”

I looked at him carefully.

I couldn’t live without him.

He had been my salvation during the darkest years of my life.

I depended on him far too much.

Ethan’s hand paused as he swirled his glass. A mocking smile tugged at his lips.

“Avery, are you really that pathetic?”

I had heard those words many times before, but my heart still hurt uncontrollably.

My nose burned. Tears filled my eyes.

I clenched my teeth and whispered,

“Yes. So please don’t abandon me.”

Ethan suddenly laughed.

There was no warmth in his eyes. They were frighteningly cold.

“Fine. Take off your clothes and entertain me.”

He crossed one leg over the other, draped an arm across the back of the sofa, and stared straight at me.

Take off my clothes?

His friends’ expressions shifted. They looked uncomfortable, but they were still watching me like they were waiting for a show.

I bit my lip as humiliation and sorrow swept over me.

“What? You don’t want to?”

I didn’t understand how things had become like this.

We had only been married for a little over two months.

During our honeymoon, he hadn’t been like this.

At first, he had thought he’d been forced into the marriage. But after we spent some time together, his attitude toward me had gradually changed.

He began treating me better and better.

I thought we would stay that way forever.

But one month ago, he changed.

He stopped coming home. The warmth in his eyes turned into disgust.

Then he began staying away altogether, and Tessa appeared by his side.

I didn’t know what I had done to make him so unhappy, or why he had grown to hate me more and more.

Now he even wanted a divorce.

My hands trembled as I slowly pulled down the zipper at the back of my dress under everyone’s watchful eyes.