Chapter 3

I had no choice but to follow them.

Charles made one phone call.

Ten minutes later, a car arrived to pick them up.

It turned around right in front of me.

Then headed back the way we had come.

I followed.

My breathing became more and more ragged.

The car returned to our neighborhood.

They drove right past my house like they had done it countless times before.

Then stopped at the house directly behind mine.

My already-still heart seemed to stop all over again.

Then plummet.

They had been living right behind my house.

Less than a five-minute walk away.

Yet I had spent 286 days trapped in misery because I couldn’t find Charles.

I had even died because of it.

Holding back the pain, I followed them inside.

The home Charles shared with Lydia was warm and inviting.

The walls were painted cream.

Lilies were embroidered on the silk curtains.

Lydia’s favorite flowers.

Looking at them, I suddenly remembered my own room.

The paint on my walls was scarred and uneven.

I had no idea how many times I had carved into it with a utility knife.

Threads had been pulled from my curtains too.

Marks left from all the times I had curled up in the corner and clutched them in my fists.

There used to always be fresh tulips on my windowsill.

Charles replaced them regularly.

After he left, the flowers died.

The soil dried out.

And when liquid finally soaked into that soil again, it wasn’t water.

It was the medicine I couldn’t force myself to swallow.

My gaze shifted to the living room.

A huge family portrait hung on the wall.

There was an empty space between Charles and Lydia.

Gladys noticed it too.

“Why did you leave a spot open?”

Lydia smiled shyly and touched her stomach.

“It’s for the baby.”

“After tomorrow...”

Her eyes lowered.

The happiness around her suddenly vanished, replaced by sadness.

“After Charles and Katherine get married, this picture can at least be something for me and the baby to remember him by.”

Mark answered without thinking.

“That won’t happen.”

“Katherine doesn’t have a chance anymore.”

The entire room fell silent.

Charles’s voice turned cold.

“Mark, what the hell are you talking about?”

Mark realized he had said too much.

He looked desperately at Gladys.

She hesitated for less than a second.

Then Lydia’s eyes turned red.

Gladys immediately comforted her.

“Don’t cry. It’s not good for you.”

Then she looked at Charles.

“Charles, Mark wasn’t talking nonsense.”

“You should cancel the wedding the day after tomorrow.”

Charles shot to his feet.

“Mom! What the hell happened?”

Lydia began sobbing harder.

Gladys didn’t hesitate.

“Katherine cheated on you. She already ran away with another man.”

After thinking for a moment, Mark added, “She left with him only a few days after you disappeared.”

Oliver’s expression darkened too.

He patted Charles on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Charles.”

“Katherine was the one who wronged you.”

“We tried to talk her out of it, but she’s an adult. We couldn’t physically stop her.”

Charles stood frozen.

His feet seemed nailed to the floor.

Lydia wrapped her arm around his and called his name worriedly.

He didn’t hear her.

When Gladys saw his reaction, she didn’t even think twice.

She dropped another bomb.

“Charles, you should just stay with Lydia from now on.”

“A while ago, I heard a neighbor mention seeing Katherine in the maternity ward.”

“She probably... already has a baby of her own.”

Charles’s eyes turned bloodshot.

He stumbled backward and collapsed onto the couch.

A long time passed before he finally looked up.

His voice was hoarse.

“Mom, I understand.”

“You’re Lydia’s adoptive mother. We’ll still be family.”

Three days later, Charles held a banquet at a hotel.

He wore a perfectly tailored suit.

But the exhaustion on his face was impossible to hide.

He invited more than a thousand people.

Close friends.

Relatives.

Casual acquaintances.

Anyone who had ever had the slightest connection to me was there.

He walked onto the stage.

His gaze was dark.

“My former wife, Ms. Katherine, cheated on me while I was away for work.”

“I’m announcing today that from this moment forward, Katherine and I have nothing to do with each other.”

Even after he finished, the whispers below the stage didn’t stop.

I floated above the crowd.

Guests came and went.

Some looked disgusted.

Some cursed me.

Only one person looked different.

She seemed shocked.

Confusion filled her eyes.