While giving a client a tour of my hot spring business, I never expected to stumble upon my husband, tangled in pleasure with a seductive woman in the steaming pool.
For the sake of his dignity, I held back my fury and waited until he returned home before confronting him. But instead of guilt, he wore arrogance like a shield.
"It’s a good thing you didn’t go crazy on the spot this time. If you hurt Ophelia again like before, I wouldn’t have forgiven you."
"After all, isn’t it because of me that you have everything you own today?"
Our daughter, startled awake by our argument, came running with tear-filled eyes, reaching out for her father’s embrace. But he shoved her aside without a shred of warmth.
"Get lost!" he spat. "You and your mother both annoy me just by existing."
I scooped up my daughter from the floor, holding her close as I soothed her trembling sobs. I met his gaze and demanded a divorce.
But he only smirked, his arrogance dripping like venom.
"Divorce? Without me, you’re nothing. Isn’t it better to keep playing the role of the so-called legitimate wife? After all, if you leave me, you’ll be nothing more than a beggar."
Yet, in the end, he was the one who ended up begging on the streets.
——
This wasn’t the first time I had uncovered his betrayal.
The first time I caught him cheating was at my mother’s birthday banquet. He had claimed he had an urgent business trip. Yet, I later saw him in the room next door, throwing a lavish celebration for Ophelia Grayson.
As I passed by, a crack in the door revealed a sight I could never erase. He and Ophelia were feeding each other red wine, their lips brushing in an intimate exchange.
Because I had been raised in a single-parent home, I understood all too well the void that came from growing up without love. I couldn’t bear to let my daughter suffer the same fate.
So I endured. Again and again, I swallowed my pain, hoping, foolishly, that one day he would come to his senses. That he would regret it all and find his way back to us.
But he never did. He continued indulging in his own pleasures, oblivious to the cracks he had carved into our family, until I finally snapped. For the first time, I stormed in and beat up his so-called "true love."
I hadn’t expected him to turn on me. To protect her, he struck me across the head with a wooden stick, the impact sending a sharp pain radiating through my skull. But that wasn’t enough for him.
He went home and took his rage out on our daughter.
He locked her in a dark room, forcing her to watch horror movies, her cries echoing through the walls.
"Clara, this is the price you pay for daring to touch Ophelia.”
"Remember, for every time you hurt her, I will hurt your daughter in return."
He spoke as if she meant nothing to him.
"Nathaniel, you’re heartless! She’s your daughter, too!"
"No. She’s a bastard child, an obstacle that kept me from being with Ophelia."
Seven years ago, he had been drugged and drunk at a business dinner when a female client tried to take advantage of him. And from that night, our daughter was born, a child he had never wanted.
At the time, his family’s business was still struggling.
When he fell into trouble that night, I was the one who saved him, taking him to a nearby hotel to rest. But in his drunken haze, he suddenly lost control, pulling me into a desperate kiss.
I tried to resist, but then he whispered my name, his voice raw with longing. He said I was the one he loved most.
Nathaniel Carter had been my dream for years and that night, I surrendered to him.
We married soon after and for a while, it felt like a dream. But the moment I became pregnant, everything changed.
That was when Ophelia returned from abroad and suddenly, the man who once adored me turned cold.
His late nights became more frequent and his presence at home was a rare occurrence.
Then, one night, he stumbled in, reeking of alcohol, his eyes filled with hatred. Without warning, he lunged at me, his fists clenched.
"You damn bad luck! You never should’ve been here!"
"Because of you, Ophelia won’t touch me!"
"She said that if she got together with me now, she’d be the other woman!"
A sharp pain ripped through my abdomen and I realized he didn’t care if he killed us both.
I stared at the man I had once loved with every fiber of my being, my heart shattering into pieces.
He had struck the child in my belly, not out of anger toward me, but because he couldn’t sleep with Ophelia.
That night, we fought. His words were venom, his rage a wildfire that burned through the last remnants of my hope. In the end, he stormed out, the door slamming so hard it rattled the walls.
The next time he returned was the day I gave birth to our daughter.
But he hadn’t come for us.
He had only come to take back the Infinity necklace he had once bought for me at an auction.
