Chapter 2

I left home and went to the small apartment I’d bought before we got married.

Mina was waiting outside.

With her long hair and white dress, she looked radiant in the sunlight, her eyes bright and clear.

Her eyes lit up when she saw me, but quickly dimmed when she noticed my suitcase.

"You really got divorced? If he loves me, doesn’t that mean he loves you too? Doesn’t he love us for who we are?"

One question after another brought tears to Mina’s eyes.

I wiped them away and led her inside.

After setting down my suitcase, I got straight to the point. "Hugh doesn’t see us as the same person."

"Emotional cheating is still cheating. Why would either of us want a man like that?"

Mina’s expression faltered.

She was radiant and proud, with all the brightness of a young woman.

Even though we looked exactly alike, I couldn’t hide the weariness in my face, no matter how well I took care of myself.

Tears slipped down Mina’s cheeks. "He loved me so much back then that he would’ve died for me. How could he have changed?"

My lashes trembled, and my hand curled into a fist.

That was right. He’d hurt me as much as he’d loved me back then.

I met Hugh at Newford University. We belonged to the same student club, but rarely spoke.

He fell in love with me at first sight. When he pursued me, he was careful to keep his distance and treat me with respect.

But I only liked him.

I wanted to study abroad and pursue the career I’d always dreamed of.

Everything changed on the day I was supposed to leave the country.

Hugh and his friends came to see me off at the airport. That was when a knife-wielding attacker went on a rampage.

As the knife came down toward me, Hugh took the blow for me.

He shielded me from every slash, holding on tight no matter how much I screamed.

By the time the police arrived and subdued the attacker, Hugh had collapsed into my arms, barely alive.

"Maya… Thank goodness you’re safe…"

I broke down sobbing.

I’d never imagined someone could value my life more than his own.

After that, I agreed to start dating Hugh, and our feelings grew stronger.

The Mina standing in front of me had traveled through time from that very incident.

Back then, Mina was covered in blood. When she learned Hugh had survived and that we’d gotten married, she hugged me and sobbed.

"Thank goodness, it still gets a happy ending!"

But stories in novels always ended with the male and female leads getting married.

Even the happily-ever-after that followed "The End" couldn’t withstand real life.

I looked at Mina calmly.

"Don’t expect a man’s love to last. It fades quicker than a flower wilts."

Mina looked at me. I took an early-stage breast cancer diagnosis report out of my bag.

Her eyes trembled with disbelief.

I could barely remember when Hugh started treating me with coldness and disgust.

Maybe it was after he landed the company’s first multimillion-dollar project and looked at me with arrogant contempt.

Maybe it was when pregnancy covered my waist with stretch marks and changed my figure.

The first time Hugh touched my belly, he retched and recoiled in horror. "Maya, how did you get so disgusting?!"

Or maybe it was when my mother-in-law kept forcing greasy, heavy food on me throughout my pregnancy, and the whole family later drove me into postpartum depression and a breakdown.

Hugh only looked at me with casual disgust. "Maya, are you ever going to stop?"

One thing after another piled up.

In the sixth year of our marriage, a medical checkup revealed that I had breast cancer.

I’d bottled up my emotions for years, letting the hurt fester.

That day, Hugh’s company went public. He basked in everyone’s praise while I was fired for failing my medical exam.

I sat on a hospital bench, overwhelmed with despair.

When Hugh arrived, he didn’t even give me a comforting hug. He only frowned at me as if I were a stranger.

His words were cold and cutting. "It’s only early-stage cancer. Is it really worth crying over? Maya, do you have any idea how busy I am?"

My tears stopped. My heart slowly went numb.

What finally extinguished my love for Hugh happened at a family dinner.

My in-laws were there. I’d shut myself in the bedroom, listening to their laughter outside.

When I’d calmed down and was about to step out, I heard Hugh say in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I bought you each a house overseas and put them in your names. Don’t mention it to anyone."

A chill spread through me.

While I was sick, Hugh hadn’t been thinking about staying by my side and helping me recover.

He’d been plotting to transfer our marital assets.

The memory ended, and a hot tear fell onto the back of my hand.

Mina was crying.

With trembling hands, she lifted my shirt.

The scar across my lower belly was jagged, and my stretch marks still hadn’t faded. Seeing them made her understand the cost of pregnancy and childbirth.

"What a bastard! I’ll help you get divorced so you won’t have to suffer like this anymore!"

My tears suddenly fell.

In the end, the person who saved me was myself.

She held me warmly. "I won’t let you down."