Chapter 2

After finishing her shower, Serena placed a bowl of broth on the table.

"You're home so late today. Were you busy?"

She was still playing the role of devoted wife, as if she wasn't the one who had been cheating for six years.

Serena rarely had time to cook. Usually it was me rushing home to make dinner for her.

The old me would have been moved to tears by this bowl of soup.

But I didn't touch it. I just sat down and looked at her quietly.

She sensed something was off, but still asked patiently, "What's wrong? Bad day? Didn't get any orders?"

"You don't need to put so much pressure on yourself. The kid thing---we don't need to rush it."

I smiled bitterly to myself. Yeah, your kid is already that old. What's the rush?

Throughout our marriage, Serena had used her career advancement as an excuse to avoid having children.

I thought she felt our life wasn't stable enough, and I felt bad about how hard she worked as a professor, so I desperately took on orders to earn money, driving from 4 AM until midnight.

Now it was clear. She just didn't want to have children with me.

Thinking of our seven years together, I held onto one last shred of hope.

"Serena, is there anything you're hiding from me?"

"If you tell me now, I can pretend nothing happened."

Serena's body stiffened. Clearly I'd struck a nerve.

"What do you mean?"

I didn't bother explaining further. "I mean, who are you cheating on me with?"

Suddenly, a slap landed hard across my face. Serena flew into a rage and knocked the broth to the floor.

"Holden Hayes, you sit around doing nothing all day and come up with this nonsense?"

"Imagining your own wife sleeping around---how disgusting are you?"

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth. The last trace of affection disappeared.

"I'm disgusting?"

"When you told your mom to hurt your own husband, didn't you think you were disgusting?"

Serena froze for a moment, then frowned in disgust. "You eavesdropped on my phone call?"

After a few seconds, she calmed herself and looked at me coldly.

"Since you heard it, I'll just say it straight."

"Preston and I have been together for many years. If he hadn't gone abroad that year, and if you hadn't saved me---"

"How could I possibly have married someone as useless as you?"

Her phone screen lit up. Serena glanced at something and her face filled with happiness.

I laughed bitterly inside. So that man was still her true love.

A belated pain started in my chest, followed by a dull ache from my ribs.

That was a lingering injury from when I'd saved her.

My breathing grew labored. "Serena, help me get my medicine... My rib injury is flaring up..."

But Serena didn't even glance at me. She grabbed her keys and walked out the door.

"Holden, holding a favor over someone's head works once. It won't work a second time."

"You owe Preston so much. Apologize to him properly, and we can go back to how things were."

"I'm going to spend our anniversary with Preston. Think it over, then come find me."

My heart went completely numb. In her eyes, everything I'd done for her was just me holding a favor over her head.

The pain in my ribs intensified. I struggled to move and find my medicine.

Just as I took it, Lynn, my butler, called me.

"Mr. Hayes, the arranged marriage with Miss Jones is set for three days from now. Please prepare yourself."