Chapter 1

The air turned deathly silent.

The sound of a ringing phone cut through the air. I couldn't help but feel as if I was being mocked when I saw my husband's mistress Layla McKinley's name flashing on the screen.

My best friend Diana Nicholson's expression turned soft when she answered the call, saying, "Okay. I'll be there as soon as possible."

Her tender expression morphed into a calm one again after she hung up.

"I know that you don't actually want to get a divorce," she said. "You wouldn't have let me convince you to change your mind time and time again if you were being serious. Go home. Apologize to Jason properly and swear that you won't harass Layla again. We can sweep everything under the rug if you do."

She snatched up her keys after she was done speaking and hurried out of the courthouse.

Howling winds blew past the window. It began storming heavily a few seconds later.

I clutched the divorce agreement, thinking about how it had also been a rainy day when I caught my husband, Jason Simmons, cheating on me for the first time.

Back then, Jason and Layla were lying on the bed together. The room was an utter mess.

In the face of my hysteria, Jason said nonchalantly, "I just wanted to experience something new. Why are you crying? The position of 'Mrs. Simmons' will only belong to you."

That day, I rushed into the rain as if I had lost my mind before throwing myself into the river to drown myself.

Diana was the one who risked her own life to save me. She cried and made a vow to me, saying, "Jason's just fooling around. Don't worry. I'll definitely help you think of a way to get him to stop."

From then on, every time I caught Jason being unfaithful, I would try to take my own life. I tried slitting my own wrists and jumping off a building. I also tried to end both our lives at the same time.

Every time, Diana was the one who threw all caution to the wind to stop me, telling me time and time again that Jason would change.

However, Jason never changed from start to finish. Not even once.

Jason was my love, while Diana was my best friend. I remembered how they got into a fierce argument over whether I disliked onions or cilantro. I remembered how one of them would stick up for me while the other would chase the bullies away when I was being harassed.

Now, they didn't hesitate for even a second to hurt me for the sake of another woman.

It turned out that there was nothing in life that I could rely on forever.

I tried my best to stop my hands from shaking as I walked out of the courthouse.

I could only rely on myself from then on.

…

When I returned home, I saw countless jewelry boxes taking up the entire surface of the dining table.

Jason always used the same method to appease me whenever I asked for a divorce. Instead of comforting me or explaining himself to me, he would just order his men to deliver the latest jewelry on the market to the house.

My eyes stung the moment I approached the dining table and caught a glimpse of the blood-red jewels. A few seconds later, I threw up on the spot.

Many years ago, Mom was accused of being someone's mistress. To prove her innocence, she jumped off a building right in front of me.

Blood pooled endlessly around her broken body. From that moment on, the color red became my nightmare.

My hands trembled as I closed the jewelry boxes. I then dialed Jason's number, but he didn't pick up within ten seconds like he usually would.

A minute passed. Then 30 minutes, and then an hour. My call history was filled with unanswered calls to Jason.

I couldn't just sit there anymore, so I rose to my feet. With practiced fingers, I opened the location app that was also installed on Jason's phone. I then grabbed the divorce agreement and car keys from the table and left the house.

Following the coordinates of Jason's phone, I found myself standing before the estate that Jason had bought for Layla in the suburbs.

I had just walked up to the door when the security guards blocked my path, saying, "Unauthorized people are forbidden from entering the premises."