Chapter 3

What a sick joke.

My beloved husband vowed to have me jailed.

I swallowed the shooting pain and watched as he returned to his office to speak to his colleagues.

"Where is that woman? I need to settle the score with her."

It seemed like it finally occurred to him to look for me, but that was only because he wanted to avenge Reya.

His colleague seemed taken aback by this and darted shifting glances at the computer.

There was a video playing on the screen. It was footage of my corpse being removed from the scene.

The firefighters present at the scene were doubled over and retching while trying to secure whatever belongings I had that could be recovered.

Although everything else had been burned to ashes, the skeleton of my diamond wedding ring was still clung to my charred fingerbone. Luther was the one who had put it on my finger.

My heart throbbed with pain while I leaned into his ear to remind him, "Look. Look at me. That’s the wedding ring you gave me. Since the moment you put it on, I have never taken it off. I wore it faithfully for five years…"

If I could, I would scoop the ashes in the footage and tell him it contained the only ultrasound picture of his child.

Unfortunately, all he did was swipe a disinterested glance at the screen before asking which hospital I had been admitted to. It seemed to me like I meant nothing to this man whom I had loved for the last decade.

Nothing could describe the immeasurable sadness I felt.

His colleague answered nervously, "Haven’t you heard? We couldn’t save her from that fire. She died on the scene…"

Luther exploded with rage upon hearing this, "She took you out for lunch a few times, didn’t she? How dare you cover for her with these lies? It doesn’t get any more immature than this!"

He became very upset and began to insult me.

"How do you expect me to believe that all the firefighters who showed up couldn’t rescue just one person? I can’t believe she would get my colleagues to make up this pathetic lie to fake her death, it’s disgusting!"

As much as it hurt me, I was not surprised by his reaction. I understood the nature of his work and never requested to take time out of his hectic schedule.

Once, I got into a serious car accident and lost a lot of blood. My father was frantic and told Luther he had to take a day off to visit me at the hospital.

After I was attended to in the hospital, I forced myself to get up despite my weakened state so that I could call Luther.

Since I did not want to get in the way of his work, I made something up. "Sorry, I missed you and was worried you would be seeing someone else behind my back. That’s why I had my dad test you."

Luther was very upset by this and held the incident over my head for a long time after that.

His colleagues were frightened by his sharp reaction and decided to keep their mouths shut.

When he returned to Reya's ward, he angrily relayed the situation to her.

Reya held his hand tenderly and told him what he wanted to hear, "You’re right. There’s no way all those firefighters couldn’t manage to save Amaranth."

Luther was glad to hear this and doubled down. "Amaranth crossed the line this time. I’m going to make sure she pays for this!"

Reya took Luther's arm and advised him, "Maybe she’s just upset because you rescued me first. I think you should talk to her. She only spilled gasoline on the couch to scare me. I’m sure she didn’t set it on fire intentionally, and she didn’t mean to hurt me."

It was a lie. She was the one who injured herself to frame me. She was the one who committed arson.

And yet, there was nothing I could do to prove her wrong.

Luther became distressed and embraced her tightly. "The only reason she can walk all over you is because you are too gentle for the world."

He glowered upon mentioning me. "I know what she’s like. She’s a very jealous person, always suspicious of me and sensitive. I’m sure she has it in her head that you have been trying to seduce me. That’s why she takes it out on you. Just thinking about it makes me angry."

Reya made a show of being benevolent. "I have never blamed her for any of that. I just hope she’s fine."

Luther sneered, "Oh, I’m sure she’s fine. This is only part of her usual antics. One time, she got her dad to lie to me and tell me she suffered from severe blood loss after a car accident. Thankfully, I found out it was nothing but a lie. I almost missed an important drill because of her!"

The sharp spite in his voice made me shiver.

If only he had extended a hand toward me that day, that beam would not have collapsed on me, and my child would not have burned to death with me.