Chapter 3

“You have the baby first, then figure it out! All a kid needs is food. You’ve been keeping her from getting pregnant over that?”

Ethan snapped at her. “Raising a child isn’t that simple anymore! If you don’t understand anything, can you just shut up?”

So he could stand up to his mother.

He’d simply never wanted to do it for me.

“Would you let me check your transfer history?”

I turned my attention back to the real culprit.

“Where did this month’s paycheck go?”

Ethan hesitated. “Lily had a family emergency, so I…”

I nodded in understanding. Apparently, we were supposed to live on air again.

Afraid I wouldn’t let it go, he tried his usual trick: claiming he had to work overtime so he could stay at Lily’s.

“Our expenses have been high lately. I need to work some extra hours. In the future, we’ll…”

“There is no future,” I said flatly. “Let’s get divorced.”

Ethan jerked his head toward me.

He hadn’t expected me to say it so easily.

He sounded angry. “Just don’t regret it.”

Regret it?

My only regret was not doing it sooner.

He was the first person I’d ever loved, and I’d loved him with everything I had.

I hadn’t understood games or manipulation. All I’d known was how to trust him and give him my whole heart.

I’d spent seven years pouring my youth and effort into him, and this was what I got in return.

He still chose to leave for “overtime.”

But this time, he didn’t stay out all night. It was the early hours of the morning when I saw him again.

I hadn’t been sleeping.

I’d been calculating the little money I had left and making arrangements for my death.

Then someone lay down beside me.

“Still sulking?”

His hand wandered over my body. I rolled away, leaving it grasping at nothing.

He paused, then patiently tried to coax me.

“I know you didn’t mean what you said today. You love me so much. How could you bear to leave me?”

“We’ll have children eventually. Isn’t our life good now? Why do we have to have one right this minute?”

The room was too dark for me to see his expression.

So I got up and turned on the light.

I looked at the lipstick mark on the back of his collar and gave a mocking smile.

“Let’s get divorced.”

My determination finally made him realize I meant it.

He got up impatiently, pulling his clothes straight. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Is your life too peaceful? You need to stir up trouble?”

“I’m exhausted from working every day. I don’t want to deal with your little tantrums.”

“Besides, at your age, with a marriage behind you, who else would want you?”