Ten Years Too Late

The nurse looked at me with pity as I stumbled out of the hospital, trembling all over and clutching a fake marriage certificate.

It was all fake.

The breakup four years ago was fake. The five-year marriage was fake, too.

In their twisted love story, I was the lawful wife, yet somehow, I was the one treated like the mistress.

At the exact moment I was about to break down, Steven Palmer video-called me to tell me where he was.

He said lovingly, "Honey, I'm going to the airport today to pick up a very difficult client. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. I really wish I could go home and hold you."

As he spoke, he quickly turned the camera around the car. "There isn't another woman with me. I'll come home after I pick up the client and spend the rest of the day with you."

He moved the camera quickly, but I still saw what was on the passenger seat.

It was the pink diamond necklace I'd been watching for months after seeing it in an auction preview, only for some mysterious billionaire to buy it.

Next to it was a box of the finest prenatal care products money could buy, which I'd had shipped from overseas.

Natalie Smith and I both loved those two things.

Steven knew that.

But when he noticed where I was looking, he slightly turned his body to block my view.

Then he calmly picked up a cheap bracelet and a box of cherries. "Honey, I brought you some gifts. I made this bracelet myself, and I picked these cherries myself at the orchard..."

Long after the call ended, even the ten-years-later me couldn't help but sneer. "The client he's picking up is Natalie. She just came back from giving birth overseas. The bracelet was a free gift he got when he bought the necklace. And those cherries? He bought them from a roadside stand for a few dollars. Melody, you really meant nothing to him."

I had no way to argue with that. I only felt sick.

It was pouring outside, but I walked home slowly through the rain.

The shopping district named after me was the wedding gift he had given me.

He had recreated every important place from our memories along this street.

The hospital behind me was a reminder of how we met.

When he was 12, he stabbed the orphanage director who tried to assault me.

When Steven was beaten almost to death, I carried him on my back to the hospital and begged the doctors to save him.

The mall on my left was a reminder of how we fell in love.

When he was 18, he worked three jobs a day so I could stay in school. His shoes were worn through, but he refused to buy new ones.

I secretly worked as a tutor for six months and used the money to buy him his first pair of leather shoes. Then I shyly confessed my feelings.

He looked so excited that day, but he pushed me out the door without hesitation. "You idiot. I supported you because I wanted you to become successful someday. A poor man like me could never give you happiness."

But when I cried and told him I wanted a family, he immediately opened the door and pulled me into his arms. "If you want to be with me, then let's be together. At least I'll never let you suffer."

The man who once swore he would never let me suffer cheated on me with my best friend of ten years during our first year of marriage.

And just when I was almost ready to forgive him, he turned me from his wife into the homewrecker everyone hated.

The second time Steven video-called me, he pointed the camera at himself.

He sighed helplessly and said in an affectionate voice, "Honey, I'll be home late tonight. I'm just arranging a place for the client to stay. There absolutely won't be another woman there."

But when I saw their hands secretly intertwined in the corner of the screen, I didn't want to ask anymore.

I simply nodded calmly. "It's okay. I believe you. You don't have to explain these things to me anymore."

Steven froze. But I hung up without another word.

Then I told the driver waiting for me, "I'm not going home. Take me to Springwood Manor."

That was the home we had designed together before our wedding. It was also the place that became my personal hell after I miscarried and fell into depression when I found out Steven had cheated on me.

My first child's ashes were there.

His father didn't love him. So I was going to take him with me when I left.

The ten-years-later version of me let out a cold laugh when she heard that. "You really should go there. Otherwise, how will you ever finally give up on him?"