Chapter 2

So, when Susan told Grandma to her face that she was taking me out to help me clear my head, I got into the car. However, my chest felt so tight I could barely breathe, so I rolled down the window halfway.

“Susan, you are despicable.”

She gently brushed aside the stray hairs blowing across my face.

“Myles, I posted those photos on social media on purpose just so you would see them. I don’t want you to leave me.”

A bout of nausea hit me again, and I turned my face away from her.

"I’ll go to the party. Just have someone take Grandma back home right now.”

Susan agreed without hesitation.

The ballroom was massive, but the first thing I spotted was the baby right in the center. The clothes, the link baby socks, and even the name belonged to the child Susan and I had lost years ago.

I clenched my fists, forcing myself to stay calm as I said, “Susan, you could have easily bought new things.”

However, she just frowned. “Don’t be so petty, Myles. Owen said babies grow fast anyway. The kid will only wear them for two days at most.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Susan, I meticulously picked out every single one of those items for our child. How could you give them away to someone else?”

On the day our baby died, I had intended to cremate those clothes with her. However, Susan had stopped me, saying she couldn’t bear to let them go, and that she wanted to keep them as a memory. Now, she was using those precious memories to humiliate both our dead child and me.

Susan was losing her patience. “Fine. Once the party is over, I’ll have them taken off and given back to you. Happy?”

Apparently done explaining herself to me, she walked away. She took the baby from the nanny’s arms, expertly burping the child and calming her down.

This was a scene I had envisioned a thousand times in my dreams. I remembered that on the day Susan found out she was pregnant, I was so excited that I had rushed to pick her up. Instead, I found her on her knees in the pouring rain, sobbing hysterically and begging for an abortion.

“Myles, our startup lost everything this year, and my mother is critically ill in the hospital. The pressure is suffocating me. We can’t afford a baby right now. We’ll have more children in the future, I promise.”

We really were dirt poor back then, so poor that we could barely scrape together the money for an abortion. Looking at the premature gray hairs on Susan’s head, I bit down and walked with her into a cheap, run-down clinic down the street. Susan’s eyes had been red and swollen for an entire day. She told me then that she didn’t even like children anyway and that a family of just the two of us was more than enough.

My eyes grew watery at the memory. Just as I turned to leave, a hand clamped down on my arm. It was Owen Fisher. He was beaming with a bright smile, holding a beautifully wrapped gift box in his hands.

“Mr. Myles, thank you so much for coming to the celebration for Ms. Susan’s and my baby. Please, accept this small token of appreciation.”

He opened the box, but his eyes took on a defiant look.

“Ms. Susan has been producing way too much breast milk, and our little Juni can’t drink it all. So, I had the extra made into custom breast milk soap. I absolutely love it. I use it every single night when we take our baths together.”

I didn’t reach out to take it.

“The scent is repulsive. I don’t want it.”

Owen shoved the gift box straight into my chest, his tone turning demanding. “Myles Thompson, you have to accept it, no matter how much you look down on it, just like Juni. Even if she makes you sick to your stomach, you have no choice but to accept her.”

“Who said I’ll accept her? As long as I don’t sign those divorce papers, you will always be nothing more than a homewrecker, and your child will always be illegitimate.”

Feeling humiliated, Owen instantly teared up. “Mr. Myles, I can live without a legal title, but you have no right to insult Juni!”

Before I knew it, Susan had walked over. She glared at me and warned me, “Myles, don’t you dare bully him.”

Owen immediately threw his arms around Susan.

“Ms. Susan, Mr. Myles is just in a bad mood because he just had his surgery. As long as it makes him feel better, I’m willing to take the blame. You shouldn’t be angry with him. He just had a vasectomy. He’s no different from an old man now. What a poor thing. Ms. Susan, I’m actually a little scared. I won’t end up like him in the future, will I?”

“You never will,” Susan whispered into his ear. “If you’re scared, we can get you whatever treatments you want. Is a million dollars enough to make it better, hm?”

Enlivened by her coddling, Owen flashed a playful, mischievous smile. “You always know exactly how to spoil me, Ms. Susan. Do you want another baby with me? Oh dear, I forgot Mr. Myles was still standing right here! Mr. Myles, please don’t mind us. My baby will still call you Daddy in the future.”

With that, he forcefully dragged me toward the baby.

“Look, Mr. Myles. Doesn’t Juni look exactly like Ms. Susan?”

The moment the words left his mouth, he gave the baby a vicious pinch. The sleeping baby instantly burst into a frantic, agonizing wail.

“Mr. Myles! You can hate me all you want, but why would you hurt an innocent child? She’s so young…” Owen sobbed hysterically.

Before I could even process what was happening, a violent shove from Susan sent me crashing onto the floor, and an agonizing pain shot through my lower body. With my post-surgery stitches torn open, blood soaked through my trousers.

The commotion drew the attention of everyone in the hall. Guests began pointing and whispering at me.

“What kind of man is that? He can’t even keep his own wife, so he takes his anger out on a helpless baby.”

“If I were Susan, I would have slapped him across the face by now.”

She screamed at me, her face dark with rage. “Myles Thompson, you are a malicious, cruel monster! You don’t deserve to be this child’s father. Get out of here!”

However, the pain was so excruciating that I couldn’t even stand up.

“Susan, please, take me to the hos–”

“What, are you planning to lie there and kick up a fuss now?” Susan’s voice turned dangerously cold.

She then turned to her security detail and ordered them to drag me out of the venue.

I managed to pull out my phone to call 911, but a barrage of automated text alerts popped up first. Susan had frozen every single one of my credit cards. With no money, I couldn’t pay for medical care or get a taxi. Susan was doing this deliberately to punish me, forcing me to walk the three miles back home on foot in this condition.

I clung tightly to the street railing until the agonizing pain slowly turned into a dull numbness. By the time the night wind dried the very last tear on my face, only one thought remained in my mind: leave Susan.

I would take my child’s memorial plaque, and I would leave. Anywhere would be better than here. Life without Susan would be much better.