Chapter 2 A Servant in the House

We were supposed to be husband and wife, not a king and his servant.

But clearly, Jonathan had grown very comfortable with the second arrangement.

I didn't do as he wanted me to. Instead, I was picking up the toys I had used to put my daughter to bed.

"Hey, I'm talking to you! It's been a year since you got pregnant, and you haven't even gotten a job. You don't even make a single cent for the family. You're useless!

"I'm not going to waste my hard-earned money on a lazy bum like you. We'll be splitting bills from tomorrow onward. Spend your own money. No one's getting to leech off anyone."

He made that declaration as if pregnancy and childbirth were as effortless as breathing.

After I got pregnant, the doctor warned me about a threatened miscarriage. My morning sickness was so severe that every episode felt like a disaster crashing through my body.

There was no choice but to stay at home for the time being.

My mother-in-law promised she would take care of me, but all she did was make sure I did not starve to death. My appetite changed so much that most food made me sick, yet she complained that I was deliberately making life hard for her.

When I could not do chores, she said I was spoiled.

Every time Jonathan came home from work, his mother would complain for hours. The incessant grumbling annoyed him eventually, and he started coming home later at night.

Eventually, he did not come back at all.

Now he was demanding that we split the bills.

Back when he first found out I was pregnant, he had cried tears of joy and laughed like a child who had just been told Christmas would come three times that year.

He acted very differently now. Ironic, but that killed whatever hope I was holding out.

This relationship did not matter anymore. I stared into his face with a deadpan expression, and his suggestion did not rile me up.

"If we're splitting the bills, I need to get a job. Our girl needs a nanny. We're splitting her bills too. Formula, diapers, and everything else. I need this to be fair, not an exploitation packaged as equity."

Jonathan did not even take a second to think. Maybe someone else had planted the idea in his head, and he had not had enough time to consider the details before throwing it at me. And so, he nodded.

"Fine. We'll split those expenses too. Fair is fair. I'd rather pay for a nanny than waste my money on a jobless bum."

Our daughter suddenly cried. I rushed over to see what was wrong. Somehow, she had gotten a fever. I quickly stopped Jonathan before he could leave.

"She's running a fever. We need to go to the hospital, now!"

He frowned. "It's fever, not cancer. Just feed her some pills and have her sweat it off. It's been a long day, and I need to sit down. You can go to the hospital yourself."

I stared at him in disbelief. How could a person be this selfish?

This was his daughter. His own daughter. And he brushed it off just because he was tired.

I thought the falling out of this relationship was only going to affect me. My dear daughter getting dragged into this mess was something I had never even considered.

"Fine, but give me five thousand. I'll cover the rest if that's not enough. We are splitting the bills."

The mention of money flipped a switch, and the air around him was buzzing with frustration. "Is money all you care about? I said we will start going Dutch tomorrow. I've given you the money for this month! Handle the rest yourself!"

The bathroom's door slammed shut. I stood frozen in place like a stone statue, while my daughter cried in my arms.

Unbelievable. This was the man I had given up everything to marry. Before marriage, I had been the beloved daughter of a business empire.

I fell in love with Jonathan at first sight. My mother told me he was dating material, but not husband material. Marriage with him was off the table. Meanwhile, my brother told me I was very much out of Jonathan's league.

But I refused to listen. I told them he was a man I could trust, and I brushed off their advice. That disagreement eventually turned into an argument, and the wound had remained between us ever since.