Collecting the death certificate, I turned around and reminded Ethan, “Remember to sign it.”
He looked like he wanted to say something, but the annoyance on his face vanished the moment his gaze drifted past me.
“You’re awake?”
Lila stepped out of the master bedroom. Her silk pajama strap dangled off one shoulder and a deep red mark at her collarbone practically screamed for attention.
“Ethan, did you have a fight with Annelise?”
She picked up the agreement in exaggerated shock, her wide, doe eyes full of feigned innocence.
“Annelise, are you divorcing Ethan?! Why? Is it because of me?”
I snorted and stared straight at her. “Yes. Because you shamelessly carried a married man’s child. Because he has no shame in building another family outside this one.”
Her eyes immediately welled with tears. She tried to cover the red mark on her chest with her hand, still pretending to be embarrassed.
“I’m sorry, Annelise. I... I didn’t know opening the door that night would cause so much misunderstanding... I thought Ethan came to talk to me about something bothering him.”
I almost laughed out loud.
What kind of ‘bother’ makes a man abandon his wife on their anniversary to console someone else?
Ethan grabbed his jacket and gently placed it over Lila’s shoulders. “Don’t listen to her. She’s not thinking straight today.”
I didn’t want to waste another second with the two of them. Ignoring the gleam of provocation in Lila’s eyes, I walked into the nursery to pack Charlie’s clothes.
When I came back out, Lila was alone in the living room. She had crumpled a piece of paper into a ball and tossed it at my feet.
I recognized it instantly—it was Charlie’s death certificate.
“Who said you could go through my things?” I asked coldly.
She feigned surprise, though the glee in her expression couldn’t be hidden. “Annelise, your son really died from diarrhea? That’s insane! Ethan was right—kids with weak constitutions are just hard to raise. Ahaha!”
Rage overtook me. My whole body shook. Without thinking, I stormed over and slapped her hard across the face.
She shrieked and collapsed to the floor.
The next second, two sharp slaps landed across my head and cheek.
Ethan had lifted her off the floor and now stared at me with fire in his eyes.
“Annelise, that was too far!”
Lila clung to his chest, crying pitifully. “I just asked about Charlie... I only said maybe Annelise shouldn’t raise him to be so delicate... I didn’t mean anything bad... Ethan, did I say something wrong?”
Ethan shook his head.
“Annelise, which part of what she said was wrong? What’s happened to you? This is the second time you’ve hit her. One more time and I swear—this divorce will be real.”
He carried the sobbing Lila out the front door without another word.
Not wanting to see their faces again, I waited fifteen minutes before dragging my packed luggage downstairs.
Maybe Ethan had forgotten.
I wasn’t someone who caused trouble over everything. I was gentle by nature—never difficult, unless someone crossed a line. And hitting someone? That wasn’t like me at all.
That set of jewelry at the center of the last argument—six years ago, he had gone abroad to commission a famous designer to create it as part of my dowry.
Not just Ethan, but everyone seemed to have forgotten the Fletcher and Carter families had once supported each other.
But after the plane crash, the Carters had faded into obscurity.
That jewelry was part of the vow Ethan made to my parents—kneeling at their grave, promising to love me as they had, to give me everything perfect and good.
But six years had passed. He’d forgotten. The jeweler eventually auctioned off the set.
And I only ever wanted back what was originally mine.
But Ethan froze my accounts. And because of that—Charlie never got his medicine...
