Chapter 3

I lay there, numbly enduring the kicks and curses from strangers.

None of them knew.

I was Vivian's lawful husband.

And the baby in her womb was the bastard of a home-wrecking assistant.

Dragging my battered, broken body along the wall, every shred of hope inside me withered to ash.

Gathering my last bit of strength, I hobbled back toward my room, only to see Vivian delicately peeling a pear for Scott.

The dying sunset streamed through the window, outlining their intimate silhouettes.

The sight burned my eyes.

"Vivian, don't cut the pear in half," Scott whined playfully. "I want us to share everything whole."

Vivian laughed softly, setting down the paring knife with utter devotion.

"Alright, alright, no splitting pears. We're never separating."

She cooed over him like a doting mother.

Yet years ago, Vivian had said something entirely different to me.

"Julian, a pear is just fruit. Where do you get all these ridiculous superstitions? We are never splitting up, see?"

Back then, she had popped a slice into my mouth with a mischievous grin.

"If that old myth were true, wouldn't we be doomed?"

As it turned out, her words had become a curse.

I pulled my gaze away and looked at her with flat, empty eyes.

"Vivian, let's get a divorce."

Her hand froze as she wiped the fruit juice away.

Avoiding my eyes, she spoke with her usual cold condescension:

"Are you sick in the head?!"

"I never married you! What divorce?"

She wrinkled her nose in disgust, treating me like filth on the sidewalk.

Scott jumped in right on cue:

"Exactly! Look at yourself. Why would Vivian ever look twice at a loser like you? You must be delusional!"

He turned to Vivian, adopting a worried, persuasive tone:

"Vivian, ignore him. Creeps like him are just rotten to the core."

Hearing his words, the panic in Vivian's eyes seemed to settle strangely.

"Enough!" She glared at me sharply. "Why are you still standing there? Get lost! You're filthy!"

She was completely certain that I loved her too much to ever leave.

To her, my mention of divorce was just an empty threat born of petty jealousy.

But my heart was already dead.

Early the next morning, Vivian entered my hospital room.

She dropped to her knees beside my bed, her trembling hands cautiously touching the bruises and cuts across my chest.

"Julian, I'm so sorry... My mind slipped again yesterday..."

"I contacted the best cardiothoracic surgical team in the world. They reviewed your charts, and they said they can do a heart transplant for you..."

Her fingertips trembled slightly, as if fighting back overwhelming emotion.

"Don't be scared. Once you get a healthy heart, everything will be okay."

"I know my condition made you suffer so much... I'll order someone to beat Scott up right now to make it up to you, okay? Please don't leave me..."

Her tears fell onto the back of my hand, cold and hollow.

"Without you, I'd die..."

The morning light illuminated her red-rimmed eyes and devoted gaze.

I slowly lifted a hand to touch her cheek.

"Really?" My voice was raspy and parched.

Vivian's eyes flared with hope, and she spoke eagerly:

"Really! Julian, trust me! I'm scheduling the surgery for today!"

I didn't dare believe her.

This heart, struggling for every beat, had already been sliced to ribbons by her lies and betrayal.

None of it mattered anymore anyway. I would be gone soon.

Clinging to a faint wisp of numb detachment, I fell unconscious.

When I opened my eyes again, harsh surgical lights blinded me.

Outside the glass partition of the operating room, Scott had his arms wrapped around Vivian, his face painted with smug malice.

"Vivian, I told you he wouldn't give up. He actually dared to steal my spot for the heart transplant."

He pulled her closer by the waist.

Vivian tilted her head and affectionately kissed the corner of his mouth. When she turned back toward me, her eyes were frozen with venomous spite:

"Since you're so ungrateful, you need to pay the price..."

"Prep him. Replace his heart with an artificial one. That rotten heart of his is nothing but trouble anyway."

My mind went completely blank.

She was never trying to save me. She was stripping away my last remaining shred of life.

When I woke up two days later, an alien pulse beat inside my chest.

It wasn't the warm, rhythmic thumping of flesh and blood. It was a cold, mechanical hum.

A constant reminder that my heart had been carved out, replaced by a piece of freezing metal.

That evening, Scott strutted into my room, his face dripping with cruel triumph.

"Well, well. Look who's awake."

"Look at you, pathetic wretch, breathing through a hunk of scrap metal."

"Oh, by the way, did you know? Vivian took that ruined heart of yours and fed it to the dogs."

He leaned down, his breath warm against my ear:

"She said the stray dogs tore into it like rotten meat... Julian, don't you get it? Vivian only loves me!"

"If you have any dignity left, get the hell out. I'm taking your place completely. I'll be the only man in her life."

Looking at his arrogant, sneering face, a wave of dark absurdity washed over me.

It turned out he didn't know either. He had no idea Vivian had been faking her amnesia all along.

It didn't matter. Everything was finally coming to an end.

The next morning, I boarded an international flight bound for Europe.

At that very moment, in a luxury penthouse downtown, Vivian received a call from her best friend.

"Vivian! Julian knows your amnesia was an act!"