3

“Let’s get a divorce,” I said.

For a moment, he didn’t react.

Then he chuckled as if I had just told a joke. He wasn't sure I understood myself.

“Because you found out Jewel is back, you want to threaten me with a divorce?” he asked, his tone laced with mockery, his lips curling into that familiar smirk that had once made my heart flutter.

Now it just made something inside me go cold.

I smile at him calmly. He really thinks this lowly of me?

If I had wanted to threaten him from the beginning, he wouldn’t have dared to celebrate his birthday with another woman. He wouldn’t have been bold enough to parade his love for someone else right in front of me, like I was invisible or like I was nothing.

“I have many ways to threaten you,” I said, my voice too controlled for the storm raging inside me. “But actually, I don’t want to be the villain in my own story.”

My fingers curled slightly at my sides, nails pressing into my palm as I held myself together.

“I’m done being in this marriage. I’m done being a housewife. I want a divorce, is that clear enough?”

Before he could respond, before he could twist my words into something they weren’t, I reached for the envelope he hadn’t even noticed sitting on the sofa beside him. Typical. He never noticed the things that mattered.

My hands didn’t tremble as I opened it. They didn’t betray me the way my chest felt tight, like I was breathing through broken glass.

I pull out the papers carefully.

The divorce papers.

And without giving myself even a second to think, to doubt my decision, I flung them at his chest.

They hit him lightly, far too lightly for the weight they carried, before sliding down onto his lap.

Yes, I was hurt.

I swear, I am hurt and angry.

But more than anything, I was tired.

Tired of loving someone who had never loved me back. Tired of giving pieces of myself to someone who didn’t even notice when they were gone. Tired of standing beside him like I mattered when I was nothing more than an obligation, a contract wife to him and his family.

I hate myself for it, for loving him, for staying, for being there for him when he never once chose me.

Is it when I'll be in the hospital, when I was sick, he'd tell me he has work. When I have important things to do together with him, he'd choose something or someone else over me.

I had agreed to this marriage knowing it was a contract. I wasn’t naïve. I didn’t expect love to magically appear overnight.

But basic decency? Kindness? Was that too much to ask? Apparently, it was for him.

Because the truth,the ugly, suffocating truth, is that he didn’t care.

Not even a little.

And right now I was done caring too.

He stared at me, the amusement on his face slowly faded, replaced by something else. Something closer to surprise.

Like it was only just now dawning on him that I wasn’t playing around.

That I wasn’t bluffing.

That this was real, that I was fucking serious.

“You mean it?” he asked, his gaze locked onto mine.

His dark gaze searched my face, like he was trying to find a crack. A hint of hesitation. A sign that this was all just a dramatic outburst that would pass.

But there was nothing to find. I'm done for real.

“Yes,” I said simply. “Sign the divorce papers and send them to my father’s mansion.”

Right on cue, the sound of movement behind me broke the tension.

A maid stepped into the living room, dragging my suitcases behind her.

The faint scraping of wheels against the floor echoed loudly.

Everything about this moment felt louder than it should have. The maid bowed shortly before leaving us.

He glanced at the suitcases.

Then back at me.

And then, he smirked again.

“Betty,” he said, almost lazily, “are you drunk?”

“You’re not blind to see that I’m in my right senses,” I replied, my voice sharper now, edged with something savage I didn’t bother to hide.

This wasn’t even the first time I had thought about leaving.

No, I had thought about it the moment I found out he was having an affair.

The moment I saw the messages.

The moment I realized that everything I had been holding onto, every tiny hope, every excuse I had made for him, had been a lie.

I just wanted to know who she was.

That was all.

Who was the woman that had what I never did?

Who was the one he smiled for the way he never smiled for me?

And then I found out it was Jewel.His one true love.His best friend.

The woman he had always chosen even when he married me.

A bitter laugh echoed in my mind.

Good for him.

He would finally be free from me.

After all, he had made it very clear, my presence was suffocating.

I was the burden.

The inconvenience.

The unwanted part of his life he couldn’t get rid of… until now.

I should feel relieved.

I should feel light. So why did my chest feel like it was collapsing in on itself? Why did it still hurt?

He suddenly moved and before I could react, before I could even process what was happening, his arms wrapped around me.

I froze.

My entire body went rigid as his warmth surrounded me.

My heartbeat spiked instantly, racing wildly, uncontrollably, like it didn’t know what to do with this sudden change.

This has never happened before.

Not once.

Not in all the time we had been married.

He had never hugged me.

Not like this.

Not willingly.

For a second, I thought I was imagining it.

Because this didn’t make sense.

None of this made sense.

Did he just smile at me?

Did he really just pull me into his arms like I was important to him?

I didn’t move.

I couldn’t.

I stood there, stiff and stunned, letting him hold me, letting myself exist in this unfamiliar moment, even if it was only for a few seconds.

Even if it meant nothing.

Even if it was too late.

Because some part of me, the foolish, broken part, still reacted to him. I still remembered what it felt like to want this. To crave this. To wish for something as simple as his arms around me.

Pathetic.

I hate it.

I hate myself for it.

He held me just long enough for it to hurt.

Just long enough for it to mean something.

And then he pulled away.

His hands lingered on my waist.

“Finally, Betty,” he said smilingly.“You are back to your senses.”

I blink, confusion flooded in instantly, drowning out everything else.

Back to my senses?

What…?

“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice laced with something uncertain I couldn’t quite hide.

His expression didn’t change and he looked… relieved.

Genuinely relieved.

“Do you know how badly I’ve been waiting for you to file a divorce?” he said.

The words hit harder than anything else he had said tonight.

Harder than the affair.

Harder than the mockery.

Harder than the indifference.

I stared at him, my mind struggling to catch up.

Waiting…?

He sighed, almost happily, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

“I thought you’d do that the moment I told you how much I love Jewel,” he continued. “But you didn’t.”

Each word felt like a slow, deliberate cut.

“And…” He exhaled, a satisfied smile tugging at his lips. “Finally, you want a divorce.”

"Finally."That word echoed in my head.

Finally, Like I had been the one holding him hostage. Like I had been the obstacle standing between him and his happiness.

So this moment was something he had been longing for.

My fingers curled slightly, my nails digging into my palms again.

So that was it.

All this time while I was trying, I was holding on, I was breaking myself piece by piece just to make this marriage work— He had been waiting for it to end. Waiting for me to be the one to walk away.

So he wouldn’t have to.

So he wouldn’t be the “bad guy.”

A hollow laugh threatened to escape my lips, but I swallowed it down.

Of course.

Of course that’s how it was.

It made perfect sense.

He didn’t love me.

He never did.

And he never would.

And now that I was finally giving him exactly what he wanted.The Freedom he craved for, he's happy.

I straightened slowly, pulling myself together, forcing every ounce of emotion back behind the walls I had built.

If this was what he wanted, then fine.

He would get it, completely, without hesitation.

I met his gaze again.

This time, there was nothing left in mine.

No hope. No softness. No love.

“Then sign it,” I said quietly. “Since this is what you’ve been waiting for.”