Chapter 4

After hanging up the phone, Julian crossed his arms and began to interrogate me.

“Did you hear that? Even a child knows Seraphina treats him better!”

“Confess, what were you doing for the past month? Why did you make Leo feel like you abandoned him?”

I frowned, looking at him. For the first time, the man I’d loved for years felt so utterly unfamiliar!

“Can’t you tell I had surgery?”

I lifted my shirt, allowing Julian to see every scar.

I wasn’t doing this to make him feel guilty, but to make him understand that I wasn’t like him. I wouldn’t abandon Leo just to go have fun.

When I looked up, Julian’s hand was already reaching for my head.

“I… I thought you were faking it.”

“I actually received a message about your surgery from the hospital, but I thought you were just being dramatic to get attention…”

I coldly pushed his hand away.

Faced with my coldness, Julian suddenly changed his tone.

“Does it hurt?”

I nodded, then shook my head.

When the doctor asked me to call family to sign the consent form, I couldn't reach Julian no matter how hard I tried.

Yet, I saw photos of him and Seraphina eating barbecue on her social media.

Barbecue was something Julian always disdained as "dirty." In the past, he'd only given me a disgusted look if I suggested it.

But he could eat and drink heartily with Seraphina.

He was too busy, of course, to sign my papers.

He didn't know that the reason I needed surgery was because an old wound, suffered when I saved Leo from drowning years ago, had flared up again, pressing on a nerve.

“I don’t have any family. Can I sign it myself?”

At that time, my head ached, but my heart ached more.

My signature on the surgery consent form was like an illegible scrawl.

“Audrey, do you want anything to eat?”

“No, I’m not hungry.”

My stomach suddenly rumbled, and Julian chuckled.

I couldn’t bring myself to smile.

Because at that moment, his phone rang.

Julian glanced at it and hung up immediately. That simple action told me exactly who was calling.

The phone kept ringing, relentlessly.

Julian’s face finally changed.

“You should take it.”

He looked at my expressionless face, unable to discern any emotion.

Finally, he hesitated, then nodded and answered the phone.

He sounded a little flustered, but he took the call right in front of me, not giving Seraphina a chance to speak.

“Why do you keep calling? Even if the sky is falling, it can wait until I’m free! I’m with Audrey right now!”

After saying that, Julian hung up before Seraphina could say anything else.

“Audrey, would you like some chicken soup?”

It was the first time in almost a year that he had offered to cook for me.

In the past, I would have happily dragged him into the kitchen to mess around together.

Now, those cherished memories were distant, unreachable.

Seeing that I wasn’t acting as intimately as usual, Julian took my hand, a gesture of great familiarity.

But Seraphina was relentless, her phone still ringing persistently.

His eyes were glued to the vibrating phone.

Even his hand unconsciously started rubbing mine.

He was rubbing the back of my hand, causing me sharp pain, yet he didn’t notice at all.

This was his subconscious habit when he was anxious.

He was worried about Seraphina!

I pulled my reddened hand from his grasp and considerately answered the phone for him.

“Julian, I’m at the hospital, I’m so…”

“Hospital? What happened? I’m coming right now!”

Julian’s concern was written all over his face.

After hanging up, he grabbed his car keys and hesitantly asked me,

“Audrey, why don’t you come with me?”

I vaguely heard “OB/GYN department” from the phone.

Julian was bold enough to want me to personally care for his mistress.

“I won’t go. Just sign the papers before you leave. It’ll only take two seconds.”

I wasn’t so pathetic as to fawn over my rival.

“Audrey, can’t you be more understanding? Technically, Seraphina is your sister-in-law.”

“Are you really that heartless? You’re getting angry at me and threatening divorce over your sister-in-law?”

Sister-in-law?

Was he referring to the “sister-in-law” who shared his bed?

Did he really think I didn’t know that he and Seraphina had been staying in the same suite for the past month?

Under the barrage of Seraphina’s intimate photos, my heart had died.

I clearly realized that Julian and I could never go back.

Julian didn’t look at me again, storming out and slamming the door behind him.