Chapter 2

When Claire and I got married, we never had a real wedding.

We only invited a handful of close friends and quietly signed the papers at City Hall.

Back then, I genuinely believed she just preferred keeping things low-key.

But looking at that stranger's profile picture, everything suddenly made sense.

It wasn't that she didn't want romance or grand gestures.

She just never wanted them with me.

Because deep down, her heart had always belonged to someone else.

I don't even remember how I made it out the front door.

All I remember was grabbing my jacket, heading downstairs, and hailing a cab.

Once inside, I texted one of Claire's coworkers under the guise of an emergency, asking for the team-building venue.

He sent the address right away.

I texted back a quick thank-you and pocketed my phone.

The cab sped through the night, city lights melting against the glass like spilled paint.

I leaned back against the seat. My mind felt completely hollow, yet violently crowded all at once.

Hollow because I didn't know what to think.

Crowded because all I could see was that watch, that strange man, and her eerily calm voice on the phone.

Far too calm.

Calm like someone who had mastered the art of lying.

We arrived at an upscale private lounge downtown.

I took the stairs slowly, unsure of what I was even trying to accomplish.

Kick down the door?

Confront her face-to-face?

Or did I just want to see with my own eyes who the man standing beside her really was?

I stopped outside the VIP lounge door.

It wasn't fully shut, leaving a narrow crack.

Voices spilled out into the hallway.

It was her voice.

"...You have no idea how exhausted I've been all these years."

I froze right outside the door, my feet glued to the floor.

"If I hadn't hit rock bottom back then, I never would've married him."

Claire's voice was clearly slurred with alcohol, but every word she uttered was razor-sharp.

"Sure, he helped me out. But so what?"

"He used his savings to pay off my family's debts, and I repaid him with years of my youth. Whatever I owed him, I settled it a long time ago."

"Now, all I ever do is walk on eggshells around him..."

"Is this really how the rest of my life is supposed to look? I don't love him..."

Claire poured her heart out in broken sentences, dripping with bitter resentment.

As if every single day spent with me had been pure torture.

I stood there in the shadows, completely paralyzed, unable to pull myself back to reality.

I never imagined that in her eyes, our marriage was nothing more than an ugly, suffocating cage.

I took a few steps back, turned around, and walked away.

Down on the street, I stood in the biting wind for a long time.

The icy chill slowly cleared my foggy, reeling brain.

I searched my soul. I had given her everything I had.

Five years ago, Claire's father racked up a massive gambling debt with shady loan sharks.

Unable to pay, the bastard actually tried to hand Claire over to settle the score.

Claire refused. She tried running away multiple times, but she had nowhere to go.

That night, she called me, sobbing hysterically.

When I rushed over, she was curled up on the curb, carrying nothing but a small backpack.

She looked up at me with tear-streaked eyes. "Can you please help me?"

I didn't hesitate for a second.

It was every single penny I had saved since college.

I wired the money, cleared the debt, and got those predators off her back for good.

Back then, I didn't think twice about it.

All I knew was that she needed me.

And after that, she chose to stay by my side.