“This is my student. He’s smart, hardworking and serious.”
“For my sake, I hope you’ll all go easy on him.”
“He used to be a flower farmer; he’s suffered a lot to get here.”
“Harrison may not be the best or the brightest, but in my eyes, he’s the most precious one, my biggest pride.”
Hallie even openly admitted that Harrison’s entry into this top university was all thanks to her help behind the scenes.
She knew it wasn’t right, but she didn’t care.
All she wanted was for Harrison to have a good future.
And me? What about me? What am I? A joke?
At home, I hid away, crying night after night.
As I turned over in bed, all I could see were the cruel and mocking faces of the people around me.
Meanwhile, Hallie kept taking care of her irises.
“Byron, don't you understand?"
“Your work, your name, your place, all of it comes from me.”
“Without me, you’re nothing.”
“I already told you, Harrison won’t threaten your place. Can’t you be calm and just live quietly with me?”
No.
I couldn’t stand the thought of my wife, the woman I lived with every day.
She kept thinking about another man. I wasn’t some plaything that Hallie supported.
My love and self-respect were never for sale, not even for fame or fortune.
I began shouting and yelling, losing control completely.
Driven by anger, I took wild revenge on that disgusting pair.
When Hallie gave a speech, I switched her slides with explicit photos of her and Harrison.
While they were being interviewed, I suddenly rushed in to expose their dirty affair.
I wrote many letters of complaint and recorded many videos, but what I got back was only a diagnosis of mental illness.
Hallie was far too smart.
She pushed me to the edge, then used the video of my breakdown as proof against me.
Her mind, her influence and how well she knew me, all of it made it easy for her to destroy me completely.
In the end, I was expelled, fired and stripped of my degree.
Hallie was the one who sent me to the mental hospital.
I spoke calmly, but Cooper’s eyes were already red.
He started crying and asked, “And then?”
After that, Hallie got pregnant. It didn’t matter if the baby was mine or not.
What really mattered was that she needed someone respectable to be the father of the child she carried.
Because of that, Hallie took me back.
She held my hand and said, “Byron, I did make mistakes, but you shouldn’t have acted so rashly.”
“Your Dad and Mom have aged overnight because of you and now people whisper and gossip about them whenever they go out.”
“You’re not young anymore; please, stop being so stubborn.”
Then, she placed my hand on her lower stomach.
Half begging, half warning. “Think about this baby. Think about your parents.”
Tears rolled down into my palm.
That time, I gave in. After everything that happened, my heart was deeply hurt and all my strength was gone.
Each day, I wandered like a walking corpse, spending my time in that flower-filled house, lost in thought.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Hallie came home to keep me company, taking her unborn child with me to early education classes.
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were different; those were the days she spent with Harrison, enjoying their sweet and passionate romance.
Even with her stomach issues, she still followed Harrison to every trendy and new restaurant.
Milk tea, coffee, barbecue and ice cream.
Whatever Harrison liked, Hallie accepted without a second thought.
This same woman once thought wasting even ten minutes of her life was shameful.
