I couldn’t stop myself from stumbling.
My chest seemed like a heavy rock pushed on it, going down bit by bit.
I’d always believed that when it came to the kid, Adrian had some limit.
No matter how messy he acted, how careless, he wouldn’t treat the kid like a joke.
But then I understood I’d been too innocent.
If even he could, just because I upset Amira, take the kid and hand her off to someone like a plaything.
Then later on, would things turn even worse?
My heart slowly turned cold, and fear wrapped around my thoughts.
Adrian held the sleeping kid and walked out.
“The baby is my daughter, with me here, would I treat her badly?”
“It’s only milk powder, it’s not like I can’t pay for it, if the dog drank it, then just get more, and our baby isn’t that fragile, right?”
He played with the baby, then lightly touched my head.
“Okay.”
Adrian’s voice sounded relaxed.
“The payment for taking the baby won’t be small for you.”
I pulled away from his hand, held the child tight with shaking arms, like I’d gotten something precious back, and I couldn’t stop my tears in the end.
I just felt that the man before me was very strange, very strange.
The Adrian from earlier kept himself neat; we’d grown up together, loved each other first, both simple and pure.
This last year, Adrian tried many times to play around, but all were stopped by me in a strict way.
About the condom, before, I tried to act like I didn’t notice.
Even though I’d already made up my mind to divorce, I still couldn’t accept that Adrian
had hurt both my body and feelings.
But now, I saw the messy black stockings in the room, saw the birth control pills near the bed.
I couldn’t keep denying that Adrian had already turned unclean; he wasn’t the same Adrian from before.
My stomach turned, and I just felt very sick.
I didn’t want to lose control, so I turned around and walked away.
After I came back, I slowly moved my and the child’s things to the home I’d bought overseas.
Adrian started giving me money for my “compliance”, sending it over; the sums were very big.
Different presents also started being delivered to the house.
Like this could cover up his guilt for cheating.
I took everything and then sold it for money.
That was what he was meant to give from the start; the more he sent, the better.
I didn’t fight, didn’t cause issues, didn’t go to Adrian anymore, didn’t care about him anymore.
He instead started acting like a “good dad”.
Sometimes when he returned home, he wanted to carry the child.
But I always found ways to pull the child away, not letting him come near.
Until now, Adrian had never asked what the child’s name was. What kind of good dad was he pretending to be?
I bent my head to look at the child in my arms, gently asked her, “Baby, do you hate mommy?”
The child, of course, didn’t understand, but smiled at me.
At that time, my nose felt sore, and I hugged her more tightly.
At the same moment, parts of the dating show live stream started spreading fast.
Someone saved the part where Amira gave the baby a cookie.
Someone enlarged the clip of the milk powder dropping to the floor and being picked up again.
There were also people who kept cutting the part where the baby was put on the floor to play with the dog.
The comments section burst.
“This is too much, right? Such a tiny baby can eat this?”
“The milk powder dropped on the floor and was picked up again?”
“That woman even gave the milk powder to a dog?”
Soon, someone found out that Adrian was married.
Right after that, the clip from five years earlier was also found.
A helicopter stayed in the sky.
Rose petals dropped from above.
“This was the way Adrian chased Mrs. Wilkinson before.”
“Even more over the top than now.”
The comments area was full of angry voices.
“So this is cheating, wow, even joining a dating show to cheat, you rich people, I can’t get it?”
“What kind of show is this?”
I read those comments, and my fingers stopped for a moment.
If it had been before, I would’ve at once asked people to take down the trending topic and hold down the public talk.
At any price, keep the Wilkinson family’s name and shares safe.
But now I didn’t do anything.
There was one comment, pushed very high.
“Love can change. Childhood lovers, how many can beat someone who comes later?”
I looked at that line for a long time.
Yes.
If back then, I hadn’t married Adrian so soon.
Now he would also be drawn to the so-called new person, right? Maybe this had been meant from the start.
There were three days left until the divorce.
That day was Thanksgiving; this year, the Thanksgiving show in Daly City was handled by our company.
This had been a plan that Adrian and I had done together for two years.
We’d once put in a lot of work for it; every show list, every act was chosen after a long time of thinking.
And the most important thing was that day I would present my podcast show in front of everyone.
That would be my first time showing up before the crowd; I’d been waiting for that day very much.
But just one hour before, I went up on stage at the Thanksgiving show.
I got a message that my show had been taken off by force.
At the same time, the screen in the broadcast room showed the scene, in the middle of the large stage, where Amira held Adrian’s hand and walked onto the stage.
