Chapter 1

Chief Heath's office door was right in front of me, and through it came Harvey's deliberately lowered laughter.

"Could Winnifred's temper be due to postpartum depression? Harvey, you'll have to be more understanding." As the police chief, Patrick Heath, spoke, his voice carried a tone of perfunctory sympathy.

"Depression? She's just spoiled! I was just joking in the group chat, and she has to make a federal case out of it." Harvey's tone was dripping with disdain, as if the woman he'd publicly humiliated was merely an embarrassment to him.

I looked down. My baby, Munchkin, was sleeping fitfully in my arms with her small brow furrowed.

A searing pain shot up from my pubic symphysis with every step, each one an agony. But instead of retreating, I pushed open the ajar door.

The conversation inside ceased instantly.

The room was hazy with smoke.

Harvey was lounging on the couch, his legs crossed. Across from him, the female officer, Leigh Nicholson—the one who had posted the sweating emoji in the group chat—was peeling an orange.

Seeing me, Leigh paused mid-motion. She didn't get up, but instead leaned a little closer to Harvey.

Harvey's smile vanished. "What are you doing here? This is my workplace. Are you trying to make me a laughingstock by showing up here dressed like that? You think I'm not embarrassed enough?"

I was wearing a loose nursing top. My hair was carelessly pinned up, and there were still mud stains on my cotton slippers. In contrast, Leigh was impeccably made up, her police uniform crisp and neat.

"Honey, I came to bring you something."

Suppressing the tremor in my body, I slapped the printed sheets onto the desk. It was a divorce agreement, along with screenshots of the group chat and voice recordings of him impatiently talking to me from the past ten days.

Chief Heath glanced at them, his expression unchanging as he continued to blow out smoke.

"Winnifred, you're being unreasonable. Harvey is up for a performance review soon. Aren't you just holding him back by stirring up trouble over domestic matters?"

"Domestic matters?" I pointed at the vile captions on the screenshot. "A public official openly disseminating obscene material and verbally abusing a woman in a 300-person work group. Chief Heath, you call this a domestic matter?"

Chief Heath's expression darkened as he stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray.

"Winnifred, don't you go making a mountain out of a molehill!"

Harvey shot up from the couch, grabbing the papers from the desk. Then, he tore them to shreds and flung the pieces over me.

"It was just a photo! You're my wife—what's wrong with me looking at my own wife? We were all just lightening the mood, but you have to be so twisted about it!"

The scraps of paper fluttered down around my feet.

Leigh chuckled and said in a syrupy voice, "Yeah, Winnifred. Harvey just thinks you look radiant with maternal glow when you're breastfeeding. Sure, your stomach hasn't snapped back into shape yet, but everyone understands. So, there's no need to be so sensitive."

Looking at Leigh, I asked calmly, "Maternal glow? Officer Nicholson, since you're such a connoisseur, why don't you take a similar photo and post it in the group so everyone can admire your glow?"

"You're impossible!" Harvey stormed over, jabbing his finger in my face. "Take the baby and get lost! If you dare run your mouth out there and ruin my performance review, I'll make sure you regret it."

"And if I don't leave?" I looked up, meeting his gaze.

"Don't leave?" Harvey snorted, then turned to Chief Heath. "Chief Heath, Winnifred is mentally unstable and making a scene at my workplace. I think we should have security escort her out."

Leaning back in his chair, Chief Heath picked up his coffee mug and blew on it.

"Then we'll handle it according to precinct policy. Also, Winnifred, considering your emotional state, I suggest you see a psychiatrist. Don't let this escalate to a point where it can't be resolved."

Two security guards walked in and roughly reached out to grab me.

I took a step back, avoiding their hands.

Then, I took one last look at the three people who made my skin crawl.

"Fine."

Holding Munchkin tighter, I turned and dragged my aching body out of that smoke-filled room.