Chapter 4

After getting that answer, I laughed.

Marissa, was it fun to lie to me and play me again and again?

The nurse sent me back to the ward and told me not to let my emotions get too intense.

I picked up my phone and saw that Marissa had made a post.

She said everything had been staged by me for publicity. She said I had paid someone to pretend to call into the show, and that she did not know the male student from the program at all.

[Mr. Adrian Miles and I have long had marital issues and are currently going through divorce proceedings. His actions have seriously damaged my reputation. I reserve the right to pursue legal action.]

Public opinion shifted immediately. The comments were full of people calling me desperate for attention and fame.

Someone edited my photo and wrote three huge words across my face: male slut.

Marissa sent me an audio recording through text.

With trembling hands, I opened it. Inside was my mother's voice.

She testified that I had always been indecent, that I had lived with rich women instead of coming home since my teens, and that more than once I had gotten them pregnant and caused miscarriages.

[We were married once. I do not want to see you truly ruined. Contact me when you are ready to divorce.]

Marissa had once helped me settle all of this.

Now, for another man, she was using it to threaten me.

Bitterness rose in my chest. I put down the phone and lay there, so hopeless I could not speak.

I did not know how long I had been lying there when the door opened.

It was Caleb, holding a food container.

"Mr. Miles, Professor Cole said you liked pumpkin porridge, so I made some. I also brought pickles my mother sent me."

He lowered his head, about to apologize to me again, his eyes red.

"Mr. Miles, I am really sorry. I did not expect things to become like this..."

His affected voice disgusted me so much that my body shuddered.

My stomach lurched, and I wanted to throw up.

In the panic, I accidentally knocked over the bowl of pumpkin porridge. Caleb suddenly rushed over, dropped to the bedside, and reached out to catch it.

At that moment, Marissa rushed in, her face full of shock and pain.

"Caleb..."

She immediately took off her own scarf to wipe him clean.

On her neck were several fading kiss marks.

She did not care about anything else. She took Caleb to the bathroom and shot me a disgusted glance.

Ten minutes later, they returned. She picked up her coat and put it on.

"Caleb is obsessive about cleanliness. He washed his hands with sanitizer until they turned pale. He has shown you enough respect. If you have resentment, take it out on me."

I gave a mocking laugh.

"Then you two are very well matched."

Marissa was also obsessive about cleanliness. If she had even the slightest skin contact with someone else, she had to wipe herself down immediately with disinfecting wipes.

But she had once pushed through that obsession to cook for me, and when my hand was injured, she had washed my socks for me.

"You are not other people. My cleanliness system only opens access for you."

I bit my lip until it bled. Just then, the ward door was slammed open.

A man came in. "Are you Adrian Miles?"

Before I could answer, he strode over and slapped me across the face.

He held up a photo. The woman on the screen was the one my father had once tried to sell me to.

"This is what you get for seducing another man's wife. I will beat you to death, you pretty-boy homewrecker!"

I looked to Marissa for help, but she did not see me at all.

She grabbed Caleb's bag and rushed out of the room.

Of course. Maybe she was the one who had called him here.

The man's grip was strong. He yanked me by the hair and slammed me into the wall.

The pain blurred my consciousness. Only after blood had covered my entire face did he stop and swagger away.

A crowd had gathered outside the ward. When they heard I was a kept man, no one helped.

I slowly collapsed into the bloodstains.

Then several people holding phones and cameras, claiming to be entertainment reporters, surged in.

"Mr. Miles, did your wife really cheat with her own student? Are the online allegations against you true? Did you really sleep around?"

"We contacted your classmate. He said you were dating and living with older women from outside school since middle school. Is that true?"

"Do you have anything to say about your wife's response? Please respond!"

"What is going on with this man saying you seduced his wife? Is Attorney Cole divorcing you because you cheated during the marriage?"

The camera lenses pushed into my face. My ears rang, and my head felt like it was about to burst.

"Get out!"

A woman rushed in, travel-worn and fierce. She pushed them aside and helped me up.