Back when we were dating, all I had to do was talk to Jack for a few extra minutes and Theodore would hold me close, murmuring jealous nothings into my ear for the rest of the night.
He used to bury his face in the crook of my neck, his voice muffled and low.
“Summer, you're only allowed to love me.”
Over the years since then, I had cut off nearly all contact with Jack on my own.
And now.
The same man who once couldn't stand me exchanging a single sentence with another man was openly doting on someone else, then turning around to interrogate me as though I were the one who'd been unfaithful.
I snatched my phone back.
The divorce agreement wasn't signed yet. I couldn't afford to tip him off.
I forced down the churning in my chest, kept my voice casual：
“Jack's getting married. He just wanted some wedding advice.”
The tension visibly drained from Theodore's shoulders the moment he heard that.
He let out a low, cold laugh.
“So he's finally willing to settle down.”
He reached out and pulled me into his arms, the familiar hold closing around me.
But the scent I breathed in wasn't the cedarwood that once made me feel safe.
It was the cloying jasmine that clung to Hilda.
I swallowed the nausea, steeled myself, and handed him the divorce agreement disguised as a property document.
“I found a house for the baby. Just sign here.”
“Already? I thought you were going to wait so we could look together.”
Theodore was about to check where the property was when his phone rang.
He signed his name on reflex and rushed out to answer the call.
He moved fast, but not fast enough. I saw the name on the screen. Hilda.
I laughed bitterly to myself and tucked the signed divorce agreement into my bag.
Minutes later, Theodore stormed back in, seized me by the throat, and slammed me against the wall.
His fingers locked around my neck like a vise. The whites of his eyes were streaked red.
“Summer Simmons, why the hell did you say those disgusting things to Hilda?!”
“Do you have any idea she's pregnant? She's already emotionally fragile, and because of you, she nearly slit her wrists!”
His voice was unhinged, almost hysterical, as if he wanted nothing more than to choke the life out of me.
I couldn't breathe.
I genuinely believed that if he squeezed any harder, I would die right there.
But worse than the suffocation was the disbelief, the realization that Theodore would actually put his hands on me for Hilda's sake.
There was a time when a tiny nick from a paring knife on my finger had him so panicked he couldn't sleep. He'd held me all the way to the hospital to get it bandaged.
Now this same man had his hands around my throat.
“I……what did I even……”
My voice shook.
Theodore shoved his phone in my face.
“See for yourself!”
My vision was already going dark.
But I could still make out the chat log on the screen.
In the message thread, “I” had sent line after line of vicious, cutting words.
【Some dirt-poor nobody from the sticks thinks she deserves to be near Theodore?】
【A motherless little tramp. Stay away from him, or I'll make you regret it.】
The last item was a photo of a slashed wrist.
Below it, Hilda had sent a single line.
【Professor, does someone like me even deserve to be alive?】
Hilda had done this on purpose.
And Theodore believed every word of it. He hadn't even asked me. He'd already decided I was the one who drove Hilda to cut herself.
My heart sank, inch by inch, like dropping into a frozen sea where the cold reached all the way to the bone.
The tears finally broke free.
I looked at Theodore, my voice scraped raw, barely holding together.
“Theodore……”
“You'd strangle me……for Hilda?”
That snapped him back. He released me.
I slid down the wall, coughing violently.
My throat felt like it had been sliced open.
Theodore looked down at the red marks blooming across my neck, and something close to guilt flickered through his eyes.
It was gone almost instantly.
“Summer, you never should have humiliated Hilda like that.”
“She saved my life!”
“If anything happens to her, do you have any idea what people will say about me?”
A hollow smile crossed my face. The light in my eyes died, bit by bit.
“It wasn't me.”
“Theodore, I never sent those messages.”
But he had already lost all patience for hearing me out.
He didn't even let me finish. He turned and headed for the door.
I grabbed his arm on instinct. ：“Grandmother's memorial is in a few days. You——”
“Handle that yourself. It doesn't matter. Right now I need to go save Hilda's life!”
Theodore wrenched his arm free.
In the struggle.
The jade pendant around my neck snapped from its cord and hit the floor, shattering into pieces.
I stared at the fragments on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
That jade.
Theodore had climbed nine hundred and ninety-nine temple steps on his knees, bowing at every one, to bring it back for me.
He'd even done something absurd: pricked his finger and smeared his own blood on the stone to “bless” it.
He told me that way, the gods would always protect me on his behalf.
Now the jade was broken.
Just like his love. Shattered beyond repair.
Theodore barely glanced down.
Then he turned and walked out to find Hilda without a second of hesitation.
I pressed both hands over my eyes.
The tears kept seeping through my fingers anyway.
My grandmother was the one who had taken Theodore under her wing, brought him into the world of research, given him every opportunity to climb.
Now her memorial meant nothing to him. Less than a mistress.
I didn't know how long I cried. Eventually I picked up my phone, sent the scanned copy of the signed divorce agreement to my lawyer, and typed a message to Jack.
“The wedding. I'll follow your lead.”
One month from now, I would take my child and remarry. Theodore Delgado would never have any part of my life again.
