Chapter 2

Anna's expression changed drastically at my apology. Before she could say anything more, Josh's exclusive ringtone sounded from her phone.

As soon as the call connected, Josh's excited voice came through immediately.

"Anna, I got the professor position! Come pick me up from the campus later, and we'll celebrate properly tonight!"

Anna instinctively looked at me.

I smiled and said, "Go ahead. I'll take a taxi home."

With that, I quickly got out of the car. Even though I knew her gaze was fixed on me, I didn't look back even once.

I had just gotten home when I received a message from Anna. She said she would come home early tonight and that I absolutely had to wait for her because she had something to tell me.

However, I waited the entire night, and she never came back.

Actually, before Josh returned to the country, Anna and I did have a sweet past together. Back then, she hadn't yet developed her terrible sense of direction.

Every weekend, she'd take me to various popular tourist spots to take photos. She'd also accompany me to eat all the snacks I craved.

Knowing I loved superheroes, she specially chose the Heroes Campus as our wedding venue.

She confessed to me loudly in front of everyone, "Claude Huffman, no matter how bustling and prosperous the city is, without you, it's just an empty city. A place without you is not a home, so starting today, I have a home."

I was so moved, I spun her around in circles right there on the spot.

She also loudly vowed to me, "I, Anna Fulton, will love only you in this life. I will only ever be good to you alone. I hope you will take care of me for a lifetime."

Back then, how could I have ever imagined that her "lifetime" would last merely a few short years?

Before we got married, I did know she had a childhood sweetheart.

But at that time, she told me Josh had settled abroad and probably would never come back. Besides, she also said she only ever saw him as a neighbor she grew up with.

Who would have guessed that Josh would suddenly return to the country shortly after our wedding, and with Anna's help, even become my colleague? Meanwhile, she herself had started to "forget" the way home.

When I confronted her, she retorted, "Do you think I wanted to suddenly become directionally challenged? It's because you're always making a fuss over nothing, keeping me on edge all day, that I ended up developing this rare condition.

"And of course, I helped Josh when he came back looking for a job. Claude, you're a college lecturer, so can't you keep your thoughts from being so twisted? Since when can't men and women have a purely platonic friendship?

"Just because you don't have a childhood sweetheart doesn't mean I can't have one! If I'd known you were such a jealous man, I never would have married you in the first place."

If I had walked away the moment I heard her say all that, perhaps many things that followed would never have happened. But in this world, there was no such thing as "if".

Still, maybe this was for the best. After experiencing hurt and heartache time and time again, when the moment came to truly let go, it wouldn't be so agonizingly painful.

Right now, I was waiting for the right moment to let go while slowly weaning myself off her. However, I never expected that moment to come so soon.

That day, I was teaching my class as usual when suddenly a crowd of reporters burst into the classroom with cameras, snapping photos of me frantically.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Claude Huffman?"

I nodded with a frown, then asked sternly, "Who are you people? I'm in the middle of a class right now. Please leave."

But instead of leaving, those reporters shoved their microphones right in my face.

"Mr. Huffman, do you have anything to say about the accusations of academic fraud and plagiarizing someone else's thesis?"