But in the next breath I swallowed every word.
There was no point explaining anymore.
I turned and walked into the kitchen.
Without a sound, I set the pan back on the heat and started over.
I made three versions, each a different flavor, so she'd have nothing to pick at.
But when I carried the plates out, Virginia only gave them a faint glance before sinking lazily into Quinn's arms.
"I don't feel like eating after all. Quinn, I'm a little sleepy. I want to lie down."
His expression softened.
That tenderness in his eyes was something I hadn't seen in a long time.
He reached down and lifted her steadily into his arms.
"All right. I'll take you to bed."
With that, he turned and carried her toward the master bedroom.
Not once did he spare me a glance.
I stood where I was, watching their backs recede, my heart still as dead water.
My heart had already died a few hundred times over.
There was nothing left in me now that could stir.
I cleared the table in silence, then went into the guest room and packed up the few things I owned.
I had just finished when Quinn's voice came from the doorway.
"Narelle. Come here."
I set down what was in my hands and went into the master bedroom.
The room was a wreck.
Quinn's clothes and Virginia's lay scattered across the floor.
What they'd done was obvious at a glance.
It stung to look at.
Quinn stood by the bed and tossed a stack of cash down in front of me.
"We're out of condoms. Go downstairs and buy some."
My body stalled for a moment. I looked down at the money on the floor.
My eyes burned.
After two seconds of silence, I still bent down, picked it up, and turned for the door.
Behind me came Quinn's cold laugh.
"You've gotten more dutiful by the day. Obedient about everything. Not a trace of temper left."
There was an anger in those words that even he hadn't noticed.
Everything he'd done was meant to make me obey.
But now that I obeyed, he found it unbearable.
I kept my eyes lowered, nothing moving inside me.
The heart that had once burned for him had gone numb through disappointment after disappointment.
Quinn thought I was giving in. What he didn't know was this.
I had made a deal with the System.
For every point my Heartbreak Value and my Good-Wife Value climbed, I could redeem a hundred points.
The System's voice sounded in my head.
【Cooking reward, 50 points.】
I smiled.
Two hundred points to go.
Once I had enough, I could take my son and leave this world.
I walked out of the mansion with the money in my hand.
Only then did I notice the rain pouring down.
The cold bit into me.
I felt none of it.
There had been a time when Quinn took me up to the old hilltop chapel to pray for blessings.
On the way back, the rain came down hard and a flash flood broke loose.
We had no time to take cover, and a slide of boulders pinned us in.
One of them, easily half a ton, came down hard on Quinn and held him there.
His face twisted, blood at the corner of his mouth.
The sight of it terrified me. I shoved at him with everything I had, screaming.
"Go. Leave me!"
But Quinn forced himself to hold that boulder up by sheer strength.
His back stayed rigid and straight, and even with blood soaking through his clothes, he wouldn't give up.
His eyes on me were absolutely steady, every word scalding.
"Nare, I will never give up on you."
"We live together or we die together. In this life I'll marry no one but you."
Back then it moved me to pieces, and I believed his lies.
"Miss, the rain's coming down hard and you don't even have an umbrella. You're soaked through."
The convenience store clerk's voice pulled me back to reality.
Only then did I realize I had walked into the store without noticing.
Soaked to the bone.
I pushed down the bitterness churning inside me and quietly picked up two boxes.
