Chapter 5

I stared blankly at that divorce agreement.

The enormous shock hit me. At this moment, I seemed unable to even feel the bone-deep pain in my head.

I read through it word by word.

"One daughter born during marriage, Mia Smith, custody to go to Mr. Julian Smith."

"The two parties, due to irreparable breakdown of their relationship and inability to continue living together, are filing for divorce."

Below, Julian's name was already signed, but my side was still blank.

I frowned and opened my diary.

This diary had been written in for a long time. Only a thin half remained blank.

But in the filled portions, there were often water stains, blurring my handwriting into ugly ink blotches.

Clearly only half a book of content, yet it seemed to hold all the tears of the first half of my life.

I saw what I had written about the joy of being confessed to by Julian after that mudslide.

I wrote about the surprise of being proposed to.

I wrote about Harmony, as my bridesmaid at my wedding, crying uncontrollably.

Later, perhaps because discovering infidelity always follows the same pattern.

I wrote about Julian never coming home at night.

I wrote about the unfamiliar perfume smell on him, and about the photos of him with Harmony on her social media.

And just when I was first considering divorce, I discovered I was pregnant.

During those nights when my pregnancy symptoms were extremely severe, I held my father's pen, waiting night after night for Julian to come home.

Later, Mia was born.

I wrote about holding her as she slept, begging Julian not to leave, begging him to think about our childhood friendship.

Looking at those words with edges frayed by tears, I only felt it was absurd.

With only twenty-two years of memories, I didn't know why my future self would humble herself so much for a man.

And on the day I inexplicably rolled down the stairs, I had actually already decided to divorce Julian.

It was just that everything had been put on pause because of that accident.

The aroma of food drifted in through the crack in the door.

I closed the diary and looked at the dim yellow light bulb overhead. I gently pressed my chest.

"Good thing I'm back to being the fearless Snow Miller from her twenties."

I settled into living in this house.

On one hand, because after losing my memory, I really did need time to adapt to current society.

On the other hand, I felt there were still many places in this divorce agreement that could be adjusted.

Julian had cheated during our marriage. Leaving with nothing was what he deserved.

And I needed time to collect evidence.

I lived in this house like a silent shadow. Only Mrs. Davis, who came daily to cook, was willing to say more than a few words to me.

But she too was always careful not to mention Julian and Harmony.

After I moved in, my first major conflict with them occurred on the day I was supposed to go to the hospital to have my cast removed.

That day was also the parent open house at Mia's elementary school.

Mia, who had never shown me a kind face, knocked on my door for the first time the night before, twisting her clothes nervously.

"Take me to school tomorrow."

Her tone was stiff, nothing like the innocence and coquettishness she showed when talking to Julian and Harmony.

"No."

I looked down at the bank statements my lawyer had obtained for Julian's accounts, my tone flat.

"Don't you want Harmony to be your mom?"

"Let her take you."

But Mia suddenly burst into earth-shattering wails. "I don't want to!"

"They all say Harmony is a homewrecker!"

"They say I'm the daughter of a homewrecker!"

"Now no kids want to play with me anymore!"

"It's all your fault!"

Mia rushed into my room and slammed hard into my injured arm. "If you hadn't taken Harmony's place, I'd still have friends!"

I gasped from the sudden intense pain.

The next second, I raised my hand and slapped her across the face.

"Get out."