Chapter 2

Adam's POV

The second the doctor drove the needle into me, I saw the pity in her eyes.

After the injection, I gradually lost all feeling in my body and eventually passed out. As my consciousness slipped away, I vaguely heard Diana sigh.

"I'm sorry for doing this, Adam. I swear I'll make it up to you someday."

When I opened my eyes again, she was already asleep beside my bed.

Just then, I got a call from my team leader, Julian Mercier.

"Flynn submitted the exploration data yesterday. Looks like the assignment to Nambara will fall on you… You can serve as the team's chief coordinator over there, but with your arm…"

My grip tightened around the phone as I wiped away my tears. "I'm willing to take up the assignment. I just need your help to erase my identity from the records."

Julian was stunned and asked me why. After all, as far as he knew, Diana had spent six years doting on me as my devoted wife. There was no way I would willingly leave her.

Funnily enough, we had both been fooled.

I forced a smile. "I can make a difference in geology wherever I go. I just want to devote myself to the profession."

Julian was relieved to hear that and immediately agreed to help me revoke my legal identity.

I looked at Diana, sleeping peacefully beside me, and remembered her promise to make it up to me. Unfortunately, I no longer wanted that so-called compensation.

My phone chimed again. This time, Flynn sent me a series of chat screenshots.

"These data were found on Adam's computer. Now that he's disabled, you can use them to finish the project," Diana wrote.

No wonder Flynn had managed to produce the exploration data so efficiently. Diana had handed him everything I had worked on and let him take the credit.

"I absolutely won't let you suffer in Nambara. You can't even wear your nice suits over there. I know how much you care about your appearance," she wrote in another message.

Then Diana sent him photos of several custom-made suits. She had designed every one to match his tastes. Even the cufflinks were embossed with his distinctive silhouette.

I remembered what she had once told me. "If you want new clothes, go shopping with your rich friends. I don't know much about men's fashion."

I had been so deeply in love with her that I never noticed the difference in how she treated us.

Now, I realized that she was willing to do anything—crippling me, destroying my future—just so he could keep wearing his suits.

I dug my nails into my useless arm until tears of bitterness filled my eyes. I cared about my appearance, too.

Then, out of nowhere, Flynn made his social media posts visible to me. They were filled with intimate photos of him and Diana, taken throughout the six years of our marriage.

Every time she told me she had something to take care of at work, she had actually been going to see him. She had even canceled multimillion-dollar deals just to go to concerts with him, where they passionately kissed on the big screen.

Yet when I had happily bought tickets for us, she barely cared to look up. "Concerts are loud and crowded. You should just go by yourself."

It all made sense now. It wasn't that she didn't like going. She just didn't want to go with me. Her feelings were crystal clear. There was no point in forcing a love that didn't exist anymore.

I swallowed my emotions and booked a flight to Nambara.

The following morning, Diana helped me wash up. When she reached my limp right arm, her eyes flickered ever so slightly.

After helping me get dressed, she called several highly trained rehabilitation specialists and spent an entire hour carefully going through every detail to choose the right one.

At that moment, Julian sent me the details of the exploration assignment in Nambara. Diana leaned over and asked, "Nambara? Who's going to Nambara?"

I calmly turned off my phone and smiled. "Julian and I are both relieved that Flynn doesn't have to go to Nambara anymore."

She visibly relaxed, then shrugged, pretending not to care.