Chapter 4

I remembered the day I resigned; I was filled with anxiety.

With no income and little savings, I felt incredibly insecure.

Seth noticed my unease and gently wrapped his arms around me, softly stroking my hair.

He said, "If your job makes you unhappy, just leave it. There's no need to stay in a place that brings you down. I'm your husband—what's mine is yours. I'll work hard to support our family, and I'll always be your strongest support."

Back then, I trusted him completely.

I set my worries aside and focused on caring for him, making him a different breakfast every day.

But now, my unemployment had become the very weapon he used against me.

From the other end came his irritated voice. "Then let's get a divorce."

My heart sank.

The phone slipped from my hand and hit the floor with a dull thud.

I had never, not once, considered divorcing Seth...

Since that bitter argument, Seth and I hadn't spoken.

He unlinked my name from our joint bank accounts.

My health continued to deteriorate; my hair fell out in clumps, and though I was always exhausted, I couldn’t sleep at all. I felt like I was getting sick and thought it was just a cold.

I went to the hospital and had some scans done, but the doctor told me I needed a brain CT. I felt a wave of panic, my mind adrift, grasping at nothing solid.

The results came out half an hour later. I collected the scans from the self-service machine, but as I was heading upstairs to find the doctor, I unexpectedly ran into Lisa.

She was wearing loose clothing, her hand resting on her belly, coming out of the gynecologist's office.

Behind her was Seth.

I saw her gently caressing her stomach, and Seth was watching her intently, as if afraid she might stumble—just like a doting husband and wife.

I gripped the scans tightly, trying to turn around and head back downstairs.

But Lisa spotted me and called out, "Melody!"

I stiffly turned to face her as she cheerfully asked, "What brings you to the hospital? Are you feeling unwell?"

As she spoke, her arm was still linked with Seth's.

I didn’t want to engage, so I tried to sidestep them and head upstairs, but I tripped over something.

I fell hard, angrily kicking at whatever had tripped me. My hands hit the floor, scraping against it and drawing blood, and the scans went flying out of my grasp.

Lisa crouched down, clutching her foot in pain.

"Ouch, Melody, why aren’t you watching where you're going? Seth, it really hurts."

Seth immediately knelt down to check her foot and, only after confirming she was okay, stood up.

He looked at me with disdain. "Melody, can't you stop being so reckless all the time?"

Without even considering what had just happened, he scolded me, completely ignoring the fact that I had also fallen.

I shot back, "Can't you see why I fell in the first place?"

It was only then that Seth seemed to notice my hand, scraped and bleeding on the floor.

His eyes shifted with a hint of guilt.

I pushed myself up to sit and pulled a tissue from my pocket, wiping the blood from the floor.

Slowly, I got to my feet, glancing around until I spotted my scans.

I walked over to pick them up, but Lisa glanced down and deliberately stepped on them.

I squatted, trying to pull the scans out from under her foot, but they wouldn’t budge. I tugged harder, but still, they didn’t move an inch.

Anger and frustration surged through me.

Who did she think she was, this mistress brazenly challenging me, the woman he married, right to my face?

So, I raised my hand and slapped her hard across the face.