Chapter 3

I stopped in my tracks. I noticed that he had not come out. I had no choice but to walk into the consultation room.

Inside the consultation room, Alma was sitting at her desk. Tobias was leaning over to look at a medical record with her.

His face and upper body were almost pressed against hers. When he saw me come in, he did not move away. Instead, he looked up at me with a smug glare.

Alma did not seem to care that I could see how close they were. Instead, she spoke to me sarcastically.

“Clyde, are you quitting or not? Take all the junk you left with me. Don’t you think even for a moment that just because you resigned, you can get off the hook without publicly apologizing to Tobias!”

‘Publicly apologize?’ I thought.

She was really letting her imagination run wild.

I had already resigned. I was going to divorce Alma. Naturally, I would no longer indulge her bad temper.

I put on a mocking smile, then asked in a cold voice, “Shouldn’t Mr. Zidel be the one to explain first why he is so close to my wife while we’re still married?”

“Couldn’t you wait even a day? You had to latch onto her right away, huh?”

After that, I resolutely turned to leave. Alma chased after me and threw something at my back.

“Clyde, you have a vulgar mind! That’s why you see vulgarity everywhere! Tobias and I were just reviewing a patient’s chart.

“Take your trash, and get out! Stop giving Tobias such a hard time.”

I looked at the fragments at my feet. I recognized them as a pair of ceramic figurines we had made together during our honeymoon trip.

She had said at the time that she did not like them. Yet, she had kept them on her desk and never removed them.

It was not until Tobias arrived that the ceramic figurines were carelessly tossed aside. She had smashed them with her own hands.

Tobias hurried after her. He anxiously grabbed my arm and pretended to defuse the situation.

He suddenly turned extremely pale. Then, he jumped back three steps from Alma.

“Mr. Northman, don’t get the wrong idea. I was just going over the patient’s case with Ms. Ashford.

“I was just too focused and worried about the patient that I didn’t realize how close I was standing to Ms. Ashford.”

Before I could even react, I saw Tobias flash a sinister smile. Then, he lunged at me, and we tumbled to the floor.

He rolled so that he ended up under me. Then, he started wailing in pain.

Before I could shake him off, he pulled me close and whispered smugly into my ear, “To Alma, you mean less to her than I do.”

Then, with a fake motion as if I had pushed him, he fell near the shattered ceramic pieces.

“Ow, that hurts! Dr. Northman, are you happy now?”

Watching Tobias’ cliched and clumsy attempt to frame me, I almost laughed at how pathetic he was.

Yet Alma fell for his act without question. She rushed over and slapped me.

Then, she cradled Tobias’ scraped little finger, examining it from every angle.

“Clyde, you are pure evil! How dare you hurt Tobias?”

Her slap knocked my head to the side. I struck the wall with my freshly bandaged wound. Blood began to seep through.

The pain from the reopened wound did not hurt as much as the ache in my heart.

“If I wanted to get back at Tobias, why’d I do it like this? Alma, we’ve been married for years! Don’t you know what kind of person I am by now?”

I kept my voice steady, hoping Alma would take a moment to consider the situation.

Alma calmed down slightly. She turned to look at Tobias with a hint of doubt in her eyes. He immediately began to act up.

“Dr. Ashford, even if it’s my fault, don’t be angry at Mr. Northman.

“You two have such a strong bond as husband and wife. He knows better than anyone what to say to keep you from getting upset…”

He implied that I had deliberately spoken in such a way to manipulate Alma’s emotions.

Sure enough, Alma believed him.

She rushed over in a fit of rage. She grabbed my left arm and yanked it hard. It was dislocated.

“Clyde, if you want to leave, then leave! Stop lingering here and finding new ways to mistreat Tobias!

“That arm is the price you pay for hurting his hand!”

She was an orthopedic surgeon. She knew exactly how to cause pain without causing lasting damage.

I had not expected she would actually injure the hand of her own husband, who was also a doctor and valued his hands the most. It was all for Tobias’ sake!

I gritted my teeth to avoid crying out in pain. I braced myself and popped my dislocated arm back into place. Cold sweat beaded my forehead.

Alma was entirely focused on bandaging Tobias’ small scratch. She did not spare me a single glance. She watched the whole time without any intention of checking on me.

The doctors and nurses in the department also crowded around Tobias in worry. No one came to check on my freshly dislocated arm.

I no longer felt anything. I turned and left.

“I emailed you the divorce agreement. Sign them as soon as possible.”

Tobias thought this was not enough. He tried to stop me and reached for my left arm, which I had just reset. “Dr. Northman, wait! Don’t take any confidential materials from the department!”

I ruthlessly grabbed his hand, which he pretended was injured, and twisted it back with force. His bones made a crisp, cracking sound.

“Don’t you forget that this is how I make a trash like you suffer.”

Behind me, Alma let out an undignified scream. Her voice nearly echoed through the entire hospital building.

“Fine! Clyde, you want a divorce? I’ll give it to you! Just don’t regret it later!”

She quickly printed out the divorce agreement and signed it. Then, she threw it at me.

I took the divorce agreement and walked away from all the misery Alma had put me through. I felt free.

Just as I reached the ground floor, Tobias sent me pictures and videos.

They were all intimate images of Alma and him. There were even inappropriate bedroom photos with a hotel in the background. There were also recordings of her working on the assembly line at his family’s factory and toiling in the fields.

[Alma says what I give her is something you could never give her. Looks like you’re getting old, Clyde. Your bedroom skills must be failing, too. When she’s out living life with me, that’s when she’s the most comfortable and relaxed she’s ever been.

[She said if she’d met me sooner, you would’ve never even been in the picture. So why don’t you take the hint and get lost?]

I replied viciously, [If you love digging through the trash that much, you can have her.]

I blocked his contact number. I notified the lawyer to proceed with the divorce.

My father, who was still recovering in the ward, called me.

“Clyde, your in-laws said they’re coming tonight with Alma to visit me. They said they want to introduce me to a young relative of theirs.

“Make sure you get here early and please behave.”

I gripped my phone tightly. Alma wanted to introduce Tobias to my father!

Since she wanted to be shameless, I would give her what she wanted.