Chapter 2

Eden was overwhelmed by exhaustion and slumped to the ground. Then, she closed her eyes and buried her head between her knees.

She spent the entire night sitting rigidly at the edge of her bed, repeatedly puzzling over where it had all gone wrong.

Cedric was the one who initiated the courting.

He had a crush on Eden and treated her well.

Back in school, he would ask the teacher to assign him a seat next to Eden. He was attached to her like a shadow during lunch and dinner, bringing her food while helping her blend into his group of friends.

At one point, Cedric even ditched his favorite subject so he could be in the same class as her. He took the same courses as Eden’s, so he had more reasons to be with her.

Eden never responded to his advances until their senior year of high school, when there was an earthquake.

During the evacuation, she sprained her ankle and could not run out of the building. Cedric, who had made it to the outdoor playground, noticed she was missing and frantically ran back to the school building despite the teachers’ caution. Then, he rescued her and heroically carried her downstairs.

While he was bringing her down the stairs, an aftershock caused a worn-down mural to collapse. His first thought was to pull Eden into his arms to shield her.

The mural struck him on the head and made him bleed profusely.

At the hospital, he continued to comfort and reassure Eden despite the jaw-clenching pain. That was when he asked Eden to date him if she was moved by his gesture.

Eden said yes.

Cedric seemed completely stunned by the response. When his mind finally registered what she said, he yanked out the IV tube and ignored the shooting pain so he could pull her into his arms. He was both laughing and crying at the same time while promising to treasure her forever.

Later on, they got into the same university. Their love story continued to blossom like a fairy tale, attracting a large following.

Cedric was aware that Eden was insecure about her relatively lowly background as an orphan. During her junior year, he prepared a grand proposal to publicly display his commitment toward her.

They had dated for four years until their graduation when Cedric opposed the objections of his family and pressure from the others to give Eden the wedding of the century.

Just like that, Eden went from a lowly orphan to the esteemed Mrs. Rivers overnight. It was a title that many would kill for.

They were married for seven years and had a seven-year-old boy together. Life was wonderful, like a fairy tale.

Then, something happened six months ago. Cedric’s behavior suddenly changed.

He began to fall into a habit of using work as an excuse to stay out all night. Then, there were the constant business trips coupled with an increasingly perfunctory attitude toward Eden.

Even when Eden tried to initiate intimacy, he would not respond.

Over time, Mateo began to resent his mother and blamed her for Cedric’s absence. He complained that the reason her mother could not keep her father loyal was the reason their happy family had dissolved.

Eden tried to assure herself that it was only a phase, that Cedric was too busy with work, and things would settle down eventually.

Six months later, she received a seventy-minute-long video.

As it turned out, Cedric's infidelity had begun much earlier than she had expected. The video was a montage recorded over three years, containing over seven hundred different scenes, each of them with Cedric and Amelie naked.

Their bodies were intertwined. All of it happened on the countless days and nights she spent in self-doubt.

Then, a sudden knock at the door pulled her out of her spiraling state. She wiped away the tears blurring her vision and swallowed the lump in her throat before numbly dragging herself to the door.

Priscilla greeted her at the door.

Priscilla did not offer any words of comfort, nor did she ask further questions. Instead, she curtly handed over a drafted set of divorce documents.

Eden barely even inspected its contents. All she did was flip through them briefly as a gesture of formality before turning to the signature section to sign her name.

She signed her name swiftly and decisively.