Love Rotting Away

I sat on the edge of the bed, my clothes hastily thrown on. "Your body and mind can be separate. Why can't mine?"

The room was a wreck, and the charged intimacy of what had just happened still lingered in the air.

Caelum stood in the darkness, blood dripping from his fingers.

Milo Chavez knelt at his feet, trembling.

"Get out," Caelum ordered through gritted teeth.

Milo scrambled away on his hands and knees, leaving us alone.

Caelum's expression went blank. He strode toward me, seized my arm, and dragged me into the bathroom.

"Don't touch me! Mmph!"

He threw me into the bathtub. My clothes were already half undone, and he tore off the rest.

He snatched up the showerhead and blasted me with ice-cold water. He pinned me down despite my struggles.

"Annie. Just this once." His voice was gentle, but his hands were anything but.

His hand trembled as he viciously scrubbed at the kiss marks on my neck.

Humiliation washed over me.

I shoved him with all my strength, grabbed the metal showerhead beside me, and hurled it at him. "Get out!"

Caelum made no attempt to dodge. Blood trickled down his temple as he stared at me, his eyes dark and heavy.

Fear gripped me. I trembled and shrank back, but he seized me by the throat. Then he crushed his lips against mine in a furious kiss.

"I should get out? Then who do you want? That boy toy of yours?" he asked darkly. "Annette Morgan! I swear, I want you dead!"

A sharp pain tore through my lips. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, followed by a sudden wave of stomach pain and nausea.

I gagged and shoved him away. I ignored his bloodshot eyes and doubled over the edge of the tub, retching.

"You find me disgusting?" His voice was hoarse and unsteady, thick with disbelief.

But I had no strength left to answer. It felt as though someone were twisting a knife in my stomach, and the pain sent tremors through my entire body.

"Annette, you've ruined everything! I already cut things off with her! What more do you want?" he roared. "Fine! From now on, we'll go our separate ways. Don't say I didn't warn you!"

The door slammed shut with a deafening crash.

Dead silence settled over the room.

After a long while, I summoned what little strength I had left and climbed out of the bathtub. That was when I noticed a gift box on the sofa.

I opened it and found a watch inside. It was the very one I'd casually circled just two days ago, one of only three in the world.

In a daze, I recalled that Caelum had been carrying this very bag when he arrived earlier.

After we remarried, Caelum seemed to revert to his old self. He turned down every social obligation and devoted all his time to me. He paid attention to even the smallest things I liked. If I so much as glanced at a bag twice, it would arrive at our house that very night.

Time, money, love. He gave me everything.

But I was no longer the same.

Whenever he scrolled through his phone, I suspected he was messaging Nancy Valentin again. Whenever he opened Instagram, I was convinced he was looking at her photos.

Nancy never once appeared before me, yet her presence haunted me constantly.

Between my illness and everything that had happened with the two of them, I was on the verge of losing my mind. I couldn't take it anymore. Hence, I had an affair.

I desperately wanted to know if someone that wonderful truly existed. Someone so irresistible that Caelum would willingly throw away 21 years of our relationship just to be with them.

I picked up the card tucked inside the gift box.

[Annie, happy seventh anniversary.]

The words cut through my chest like a blade, and a bitter wind seemed to howl through the open wound.

Just then, a friend request appeared on my phone. I recognized Nancy's profile picture instantly.

Nancy: [Thank you for sending him back to me.]