Chapter 1

I was stunned.

“You actually believed him?”

“He said that you would burn Gianna alive.”

Jesse Pellam looked up at me, but his eyes held nothing except endless despair.

“You’re too unpredictable. I don’t dare take the risk, and I can’t afford to, so this is how things will be for the rest of our lives.”

The last sentence left me standing there like a fool, frozen in place. There was no mention of divorce, but every single word made his hatred clear. The emptiness in his eyes felt like a blade driven straight through my heart.

He was not regretting anything, nor had he finally seen the truth. He was afraid and had simply given in.

I suddenly realized that I did not want to keep living in this self-destructive mess anymore.

…

When Jesse saw me still standing there in a daze, he did not try to reassure me like he used to. He simply put on his jacket, masking the loss of composure he had shown moments earlier.

Then he carefully went over his schedule with me.

“At 2 p.m., I’ll arrive at the office. I have a meeting at 3 p.m., and it’ll last two hours.”

After taking a few steps, he suddenly turned back.

“By the way, I won’t be able to answer calls or video calls during that time. If you don’t believe me, you can wait outside.”

Every word he spoke was careful and distant.

Before I could react, he had already closed the car door.

I watched his car disappear into the distance, as if I were watching the distance between us grow wider with every passing second.

My tears finally fell.

The day I caught Jesse with Gianna Seyfert, I completely lost it.

Every day after that, I scrubbed him down with disinfectant and scanned him from head to toe with a UV light. If I found even a single strand of hair, I would hysterically drag everyone in the company in for DNA testing.

Jesse tried desperately to explain that someone had drugged them and set them up. He even showed me the security footage and the blood test results, but I still could not accept that he had betrayed me.

Then, for the first time, he placed the divorce agreement in front of me.

“Quinn, I’m willing to give you eighty percent of our assets. Let’s get a divorce. I’m exhausted. I can’t keep on living this way.”

That night, I climbed on top of the roof for the first time.

Jesse pulled me back from the edge like a man possessed and broke down, screaming in desperation, “I was wrong! I really was wrong! Take it out on me. Do whatever you want to me. Just don’t hurt yourself! I can’t live without you…”

Why was the man who had once sworn he could not live without me the same man who later begged me, time and time again, to let him be with Gianna?

It started raining again.

Even though I was holding an umbrella, I forgot to open it.

I realized Jesse had spoiled me too much.

For the past ten years, I had grown used to him picking me up and dropping me off wherever I needed to go.

I had grown used to him holding an umbrella over me whenever we went shopping and wiping my mouth whenever we ate.

Even when we went shopping downtown, he somehow always managed to clear a path through the crowd and pull the car right up outside the store I wanted to visit.

Then, suddenly, all of it disappeared.

It felt as if someone had hollowed out my entire heart, leaving nothing but a space for the cold wind to rush through.

I could not even tell whether the wetness on my face came from the rain or my tears.

When I returned home, I came down with a fever.

In my feverish haze, I felt Jesse staying by my side the entire time.

He kept wiping me down with a cool, damp washcloth to help bring down my fever and checking my temperature every fifteen minutes.

His assistant called to urge him to attend his meeting, but he lashed out and told them to leave him alone.

Whenever I fell sick, he was always this anxious.

His hand holding mine was warm, yet the rest of him still trembled uncontrollably.

The phone rang again, but he refused to pick up.

The ringing was so loud that it finally pulled me awake. But when I opened my eyes, I realized there was no one beside me.

It was my own phone ringing.

Jesse had never been there.

I forced down the metallic taste rising in my throat and answered the call.

“Mrs. Pellam, Mr. Pellam didn’t come to the office today.”

I froze.

The private investigator continued his report.

“Mr. Pellam was back at the office only briefly before heading to Evergreen Wellness Residence. He’s been there for more than two hours now, and he still hasn’t come out.”

My stomach churned as waves of nausea rolled through me.

Evergreen Wellness Residence was the private care facility where Gianna had been staying.

Jesse’s parting words still echoed in my ears.

“If you don’t believe me, you can wait outside.”

How had he been so certain that I would not go?

He always said the same thing whenever he checked in with me.

I had doubted him every other time and gone to see for myself.

The one time I believed him, I turned out to be wrong.

I glanced at the time. It was already 6 p.m. He was usually home by 5:30 p.m.

Since he was not coming back, I would go to him.

Every other time I had gone looking for him, he had handed me the divorce agreement.

This time, I had already signed it myself.