Chapter 2

At that moment, the bus pulled up beside me.

Under Adrian’s watchful gaze, I didn’t want to argue. I boarded the bus calmly.

They were driving a supercar and reached the destination quickly.

In contrast, the bus I was on was old and sluggish, swaying along the road. It would take at least four hours to get there.

My phone vibrated.

I saw Adrian and Bella Reed interacting intimately in the outing group chat.

Adrian sent an animated boy blowing a flying kiss. Bella immediately replied with a blushing, shy rabbit. He sent a heart-stealing thief. She answered with a little figure holding hands, captioned "locked by you".

Every frame was bubbling with sickly sweetness, an unspoken intimacy.

My eyes skimmed past their earlier conversation about a newly opened bar, Harborline Lounge. It was the secret spot they had gone to together last night.

I tried to catch the tail end of the conversation. "Is that the one where you can see the whole river view? It’s really popular, right?"

My message hung there, alone and unanswered.

Adrian’s next sticker popped up almost immediately. It was a little dog circling around a kitten, captioned "spinning around you".

Bella replied with a hand-over-mouth laughing emoji.

They started talking again about the cocktail Bella had mixed yesterday, about how Adrian had almost knocked it over in embarrassment.

They even shared inside jokes.

I loosened my grip on the phone, which had grown hot in my hand. My eagerness to fit in cooled completely.

As his wife, I was like a drop of oil in water. No matter how hard I tried, I could never blend into Adrian’s life.

I looked out the window. Tears slid down, soaking the corners of my eyes.

After I got off the bus, Adrian called me. He told me to stay at the bus stop and not wander around. He said he would come pick me up soon.

The scorching sun overhead made it hard to keep my eyes open. I could only tell him to hurry. Otherwise, I might get heatstroke.

I was gambling.

Gambling on whether he would put Bella aside and come for me.

This was the last effort I was making for my marriage.

Adrian agreed readily and hung up.

I stood under a tree, yet the sunlight still pierced through the gaps like poisoned needles, stabbing into my skin.

The second hand on my watch went around again and again.

Adrian never appeared.

My skin burned with pain. My throat was so dry it felt torn open. All the food was in Adrian’s car. I didn’t even have a bottle of water with me.

Dizziness washed over me. I reached for my phone to urge him again.

Instead, his friend, Evan Brooks, sent a flood of photos into the group chat. They were all pictures of Adrian and Bella being physically close.

My fingers trembled uncontrollably as I tapped open the video.

Laughter filled the screen. The table was left with nothing but scraps and leftovers.

The birthday cake I had queued for a full month to reserve was being handed out as dessert to Bella and her daughter.

Suddenly, Ryan Mitchell asked, "Adrian, Julia has been waiting for you at the station for hours. Are you really not going to pick her up? If she comes and sees that we’ve devoured everything, she’ll probably get angry."

Adrian froze. His hand that was feeding Tia cake stopped midair. Tension flickered clearly across his face.

Unable to get more cake, the little girl pouted and started crying loudly. No matter how Bella coaxed her, it didn’t work.

Adrian immediately took Tia into his arms, his expression returning to normal. "It’s normal for a kid to eat something first when she’s hungry. I’ll go pick her up after I calm Tia down. Julia is always understanding. She won’t be mad."

Watching Adrian skillfully wipe Tia’s hands and mouth, I let out a self-mocking smile and exited the video.

Behind his limitless indulgence toward Tia was Bella’s firmly rooted place in his heart.

There was no need to think further. He wasn’t coming to pick me up.

I blinked my aching eyes and slowly stood up. My vision suddenly went black, and I collapsed.

When I woke up again, I was lying on a hospital bed. I took out my phone. In the hours I had been out of contact, there wasn’t a single message from Adrian.

I lowered my head and forced the bitterness down.

At that moment, I accepted reality. Adrian no longer loved me. The promises made at our wedding seven years ago shattered into bubbles in the blink of an eye.

I cried hard and freely, treating it as a final farewell to my love.

I silently removed the wedding ring from my finger. The diamond had long since lost its original brilliance, looking dull and lifeless under the dim light.

I took a deep breath and hurled it out the window.

Then I called the hotel manager and told him to cancel the birthday dinner that night and the reserved room. Since Adrian wanted to give Bella and her daughter a happy trip, they shouldn’t enjoy the romance I had painstakingly prepared.

After doing all of that, I pulled open the hospital room curtains. The ache and reluctance in my heart eased somewhat beneath the wide, open view.

I told myself that a relationship that had gone bad was nothing but trash and should be thrown away in time.

Time would heal all my wounds.

Just then, my screen lit up with incoming calls. Adrian’s messages flooded in one after another.

"Julia, pick up the phone!"

I smiled faintly and tapped decline.