Chapter 4

I went back to our new home to pack my things.

Zane returned soon after, and this time, he was furious. "Sarah, what the hell are you doing? I already told you that you don't understand anything about hiking, so what gives you the right to judge?

"Samantha is such a sweet-tempered girl, and you actually made her cry! Are you happy now?"

I set down the clothes I'd just folded and stood to face him. "If you think she's so sweet and you like her that much, then we can get divorced. She can have you."

Zane's anger caught in his throat.

The veins in his forehead throbbed before he spun around and kicked the suitcase. "Why have you become so unreasonable?

"You know damn well that hiking is my only hobby. My job puts me under so much pressure, and hiking is how I cope with it. Are you seriously going to take even that away from me?"

I stared at the suitcase he'd knocked over. The wedding dress and reception dress I'd carefully packed spilled across the floor again.

There had been so much to take care of for the wedding. He was always busy with work, so I'd had to handle everything myself.

Suddenly, exhaustion washed over me.

I sank to the floor beside the suitcase and said weakly, "Whatever. You sleep in a tent with another woman and hold her naked in your arms, yet I'm not even allowed to ask questions.

"Now you're planning to spend our honeymoon with her too, sleeping in the same tent and looking at the mountains together. What else am I supposed to say?

"Zane, I think we should just call it quits. This marriage isn't worth it anymore."

The moment Zane heard that, his anger flared even hotter.

He kicked the suitcase again, and in his agitation, his dress shoe came down squarely on the white wedding gown that had spilled onto the floor.

Yet he kept shouting at me, "Why are you making such a mess of things right after we got married?

"Your legs aren't strong enough to go hiking with me. What, am I supposed to stay home and suffocate with you?"

I looked at the black mark his shoe had left on my wedding dress. Then I smiled. "Zane, do you really have the nerve to say that?"

His pupils trembled. He knew he'd said the wrong thing.

I hadn't always been like this. Years ago, there had been an accident at his family's factory. One of the sheds collapsed after an explosion, and no one was willing to risk another collapse to rescue him.

I carried his unconscious body out with my bare hands.

He survived, but a piece of falling rebar pierced my lower leg. From then on, I could never do strenuous exercise again. Whenever the weather turned cold or rainy, my leg would ache.

At that, all the anger drained from Zane. He sank down beside me, his voice softening. "I'm sorry, babe. I was angry, and I didn't think before I spoke.

"But can't you try to be more understanding? If I didn't have hiking, I don't know how else I'd relieve all this pressure from work.

"You know how much I make now. I earn over 1,000,000 dollars a year, and the pressure is so much greater than it used to be. I do all of this for our life together..."

As he spoke, he pulled me back into his arms.

My heart softened for a moment, and the tears I'd held back for so long threatened to spill.

I clutched the fabric over his chest and swallowed the ache in my throat. "Then let's both compromise.

"I won't hold the past against you. Buy the tickets to Caldera Bay right now. No hiking with them on our honeymoon. Okay?"