บททั้งหมดของ I Watched Our Marriage Expire: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 8

Only then did Ethan notice me standing in the doorway. He came over quickly and took the lunch box from my hands."You came all the way here with lunch and didn't even tell me first?"I kept staring at the trash can and kept my voice low. "So you just dump it?""Duck soup smells awful once it's cold." He said it flatly, as if what he'd thrown away was nothing more than a glass of tap water."I get up at five every morning to make that soup, and you turn around and give all of it to her. Whatever she doesn't finish, you throw out. You could have just told me you didn't want it. Is that so hard?"Ethan frowned and cut me off. "Piper gets to the lab at nine every day, and the workload is brutal. Of course I look out for her a little more."Mara, don't be so petty. There are students everywhere." His eyes swept the room.What he cared about had never been whether I was hurt. Only how things looked in front of other people.Piper walked over with the empty container and a sweet, inn

Ethan didn't come home that night. He only sent a text saying Mom had asked him to stay over.I glanced at it, deleted it, and packed my bags that same night.If he wanted to say the apartment was his, then I wouldn't take a thing. I'd leave clean.The next morning, in the middle of teaching, the constant anxiety and the dizziness from my overloaded sense of smell finally knocked me down.I collapsed at the front of the lecture hall.When I came to, my best friend, Nina Grant, was sitting by my hospital bed peeling an apple.The moment she saw my eyes open, she couldn't hold back her anger. "I called Ethan half an hour after they brought you in. He sounded all worried, but that was two hours ago, and there's still no sign of him."I leaned back against the bed. My tongue was numb. Even when she held the apple to my lips, I couldn't taste it."He and I are about to split up."Nina was stunned. "Why?"As my best friend, she'd seen our entire love story from start to finish."D

My first few days in Ashford were the most relaxed I'd felt in ages.New messages kept pouring into my phone.I ignored all of them except Nina's.On the phone, Nina told me Ethan had come looking for her.The project team's roster had been posted publicly before we left. I never expected Ethan to have no idea where I'd gone.Clearly, all his attention lately had been on Piper."I told him to hurry up and sign the divorce papers, and he tore them up right in front of me."I frowned as I listened. This was going to be a real headache.Sure enough, a few days later, Ethan showed up in Ashford.The dark circles under his eyes were heavy, but he hadn't forgotten to shave.On instinct, I looked above his head. Only ten percent was left.I didn't say anything. I just led him into a cafe on the street.Ethan sat across from me. "Ever since you left, I've been trying to figure out what could make you leave without a word and walk out on me with divorce papers, but I can't."Is it

A few days later, he asked me to meet him at a restaurant just off campus.Because of a last-minute change to my class schedule, I showed up almost two hours late.By the time I got there, the restaurant was nearly empty.After I sat down, I kept apologizing and explaining what had happened.Ethan stayed as gentle as always. He smiled and said, "It's fine."The way he looked, it was as if nothing had ever come between us.If not for the number above his head.The food had already been served, and it looked stone cold.Ethan wanted to ask the waiter to take it back and warm it up.I said no."Let's just get to the point."After everything these past days, I was exhausted."I signed the divorce agreement." Ethan slid the papers beside him across the table.So I wouldn't have to go through the long court process after all.I let out a breath of relief and put the agreement in my bag.The next second, the number above his head hit zero and vanished, as if it had never been t