Chapter 2

But my sincere devotion and dedication over the past five years had been nothing but a joke to Leonard.

Tanya took off her clothes and lay on the massage table.

Her fair, tender skin was covered in hickeys of varying intensity.

The marks trailed downward, and I couldn't bring myself to look further.

I stiffly took the massage oil and poured some on her back.

As soon as my fingertips pressed onto her skin, Tanya let out a tiny moan.

I immediately froze.

Tanya smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm just too sensitive. To be honest, I wasn't like this at all. My husband insisted that wives should be pampered instead of being forced to toil with their husbands. After so many years of being spoiled by him, I've become quite sheltered. Aside from him, I can't stand anyone else touching me."

My lips curved into a self-deprecating smile.

Leonard had once said the very same words to me before.

When we first eloped, he had indeed doted on me. He accommodated my every whim and showered me with attentive care, and his words were smoother than anyone else's.

But the lovey-dovey days didn't even last six months. The gentleness in his eyes gradually faded and gave way to nothing but annoyance.

The meals we had in our rented place became simpler by the day. They were often just ingredients thrown together to fill our stomachs.

It was only then that I realized that love could never survive on romance and sweet nothings alone.

The trivial matters of survival and the stress of daily life were more than enough to crush a couple who eloped and had nothing to their name.

To maintain our relationship and ensure we could survive, I forced myself to put up with hardships. I learned to throw away my pride and work hard to make a living.

I didn't even manage to complete my studies in college, so there weren't many real career paths for me.

On top of that, my father, Marcus Anderson, secretly made sure I was blacklisted, so not a single legitimate company in the city dared to hire me.

I worked as a janitor and also a street vendor.

After an entire five years of running around, I had ended up in a place like this, where I made a living through private massages.

Tanya sounded a little troubled as she continued, "Actually, I've wondered sometimes if I've become too complacent. I'm no different from a parasite if I'm fully dependent on a man. But my husband always says that it's a man's job to make a living, so I'd be hurting his pride if I started working.

"Well, what else can I do? I can only go shopping and eat out every day and occasionally pick up my kid from school."

I was caught off guard. The bottle of essential oil slipped from my hands and crashed onto the floor.

I hastily bent over to pick it up.

Five years ago, I ignored my family's protests and burned every bridge behind me as I eloped with Leonard without any regrets.

But as it turned out, he already had a family of his own, and he even had a child.

Suppressing the dull ache in my chest, I asked in a hoarse voice, "You already have a child with him?"

She shook her head lightly. "No, my son is from my previous marriage. Back then, my ex and I got into a huge argument and completely fell out with each other.

"My current husband was the one who stood up for me and helped me resolve all the issues. On the very afternoon the divorce papers were finalized, he hurriedly registered our marriage."

She spoke in such a youthful tone that nothing about her betrayed the fact that she was a mother.

"He has been spoiling me like a princess, and he also treats my son as his own. My husband never mistreated him. Actually, I've always felt bad for my husband. I was already married once, and I even have a child with me. I'm also older than him, so no matter how you look at it, he got the short end of the stick.

"But he always tells me that I was officially married on both occasions, so I'm nothing like the shameless women who get involved in affairs. He says he's lucky to have married me."