Back at the villa, darkness and cold air greeted Charlene.
She stared at the matching pillows on the couch and the carefully arranged dinnerware in pairs inside the cabinet. It reminded her of the couple she saw at the airport earlier—in love.
The day she got married to Jagger… That was the only time he stepped into their home as a couple.
Charlene had chosen every single item in this space. Every matching set was her idea, thinking it would be the beginning of a sweet life together.
But on that very night—her husband slept with their housemaid!
Her fists clenched. She stared at the small room in the corner where it happened…
On their wedding night!
In the house she’d decorated with her own hands!
While she was still dreaming of a happy future, the two of them were tangled up in betrayal just a few steps away!
Furious, Charlene stormed into the maid’s room, tore the bedsheets off the mattress, and without even putting on a coat, stormed out in her slippers and dumped everything in the trash outside.
As if that could fix her marriage…
Jagger would just find someone else—his secretary, an intern, or worse, his so-called first love. He was always fooling around.
Charlene stared at the villa she’d once hoped would be a home, and thought back to the second time Jagger ever crossed its threshold.
It was half a year after their wedding—when she was pregnant for the first time and felt unwell.
Delores had demanded he come home to his wife. But all Charlene got in return was his cold voice.
“I’m not a doctor. What help can I possibly offer the baby in Charlene’s belly?”
Perhaps it was the pregnancy, but she had grown more sensitive, and his words crushed her. It smashed her dignity to pieces like a hammer.
His mother had screamed at him. “You are the father! That baby is yours too!” But Jagger just stood there in silence.
The shame in his mother’s eyes when she turned to Charlene said everything. Delores taught Jagger how to succeed, how to win, but never how to be a man—never how to be a husband.
Everyone told her to understand. To wait. That he’d come around.
She cried into her mother-in-law’s arms that night.
Deep down, Charlene knew the truth—Jagger knew how to be a husband, just not to her.
That was why he didn’t want to be the father of her baby.
But he didn’t, even if he came home that night.
Charlene was puking from morning sickness while he was screwing the maid upstairs.
Now, as Charene looked up at the single light glowing on the second floor, a familiar wave of helplessness washed over her.
Pregnancy made her tired all the time.
But even as exhaustion pulled at her body, her mind was full of Jagger and the woman from his past, looking into each other’s eyes… perfectly in love.
But for the baby’s sake, she crawled into bed to rest.
She just wanted to sleep. But when she closed her eyes, all she saw was her husband’s affair, again and again.
Charlene and Jagger had been in the same year at university.
She was top of her class; he was a prodigy in finance.
She was the campus beauty; he was the wild rich boy every girl admired.
Everyone thought they were perfect for each other—like something out of a novel.
But in the love story everyone rooted for, Charlene was never the heroine.
She was just the pitiful supporting role… because Jagger had already loved someone else for four long years.
Crystal Millsaps—the innocent, sweet woman Jagger had protected.
Back then, everyone thought he was just playing around. Even she thought it was just a phase back then—puppy love, nothing serious.
Besides, who could tell the difference between infatuation and impulse at that age?
So she buried her own feelings and moved on.
After graduation, she returned to San Francisco and took over the family business.
She worked day and night, juggling negotiations, parties, and endless family expectations.
She barely had time to breathe—until that class reunion, two years later, when she opened her eyes in a hotel room… and Jagger was lying beside her.
Time stopped that day.
He stood in front of the mirror casually fixing his collar.
She sat there, staring like it was a dream.
She waited for someone to wake her from the dream.
But the two pink lines on the pregnancy kit proved otherwise.
But the words from Jagger’s lips? “We’ll arrange a marriage between our families.”
Four years of silent love bloomed overnight into something massive, unstoppable.
But that night planted the seed of the beginning of her biggest heartbreak.
And now, everyone whispered behind her back.
“Well, wasn’t that what she wanted? She should be grateful Jagger even agreed to marry her. What more does she want now?”
“Still, they have a baby now. It’s not like she got pregnant on her own, right? Why is it always the woman’s fault?”
“Please, everyone knows he’s always loved someone else. If she hadn’t manipulated him, would anything have even happened between them?”
“Weren’t the three of them college classmates?”
“Yeah, I heard she used to say Jagger’s first love bullied her in school.”
“Gosh, now she’s bad mouthing Crystal. Jealousy’s an ugly thing. She can’t stand seeing them happy, so she lies.”
“Dang. Classic love triangle. But you have to admit—she’s clever. Got herself a marriage and a baby. That’s some strategy.”
Charlene jolted awake, cutting off the chorus of ridicule and scorn ringing in her ears.
The darkness around her felt thick, suffocating.
Even without closing her eyes, she could see them—those mocking faces, hiding laughter behind their hands.
Her husband’s indifference was a perfect show for them to enjoy her misery.
The cruel whispers weren’t new. She’d seen them. She had heard them. She had felt their stares—equal parts contempt and fear.
It was familiar. In fact, it was so familiar she could barely feel anything now.
She lay down again. Eyes open. Sleep wouldn’t come.
Every time she blinked, those faces twisted more and more—until they morphed into Jagger and Crystal, laughing at her, taunting her.
She didn’t know when she ended up kneeling on the bed, her arms hugging herself.
But she’d lived alone in every way that mattered for years now. She knew how to keep things running—perfectly, quietly, by herself.
So what was the difference now?
They could say whatever they wanted.
But she was still his wife—by law, by name. She had done nothing wrong.
And now, she was done waiting. She was leaving. She had made up her mind.
The only thing that mattered now was taking care of herself and the baby growing inside her.
She had to be well—if not for herself, then for the baby. That way, she’d prove them all wrong.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled the blanket over her shoulders and slowly closed her eyes.
