Chapter 2

The blood in my veins turned to ice, and a loud buzzing rang in my ears.

My hands shook violently as I turned the pages of the sketchbook.

Scarlett’s smiles and expressions were captured in those drawings with absolute devotion and care.

Marcus’s medical records slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor.

Those pages were covered with my messy handwriting, detailing his symptoms, his therapy plans, and daily things he needed to watch out for.

I had spent a whole month attending medical seminars and observing him every single day, taking endless notes just so his "face blindness" would get better.

But looking at the sketchbook in my hands, I realized how incredibly stupid and pathetic I was.

With a shaking hand, I picked up the medical records and tore them into shreds.

Guided by my memory, my trembling fingers typed Scarlett’s username into the search bar.

Aside from her fashion videos, her account was packed with photos of her and Marcus!

In the videos, Marcus happily posed and cooperated with Scarlett.

Was this really the same Marcus who told me that taking photos was childish?

Scarlett had recently posted a picture showing off matching couple rings on their ring fingers.

There were comments from her followers underneath.

“Such a handsome couple! Scarlett and her boyfriend are so sweet together!”

I remembered last year when I noticed Marcus had stopped wearing his wedding band. I had asked him about it back then.

He told me it was uncomfortable to wear while working.

My eyes welled with tears as I kept scrolling down.

There were over a thousand videos, dating from three years ago to the present day.

Marcus’s face appeared in almost every single one of them.

So, they had been sleeping together since three years ago!

I clicked on one specific video.

In it, Scarlett was lying on a hospital bed, her sweet, pampered voice echoing from the phone speaker.

"Great news, everyone! Both mommy and baby boy are doing great. Thank you all for your love!"

In the video, Marcus was sitting right by her bedside, gently blowing on a cup of warm water before carefully feeding it to Scarlett.

"You did amazing, sweetheart. Thank you for your hard work."

When I saw the upload date of that video, my mind went completely blank. That was the exact day of my miscarriage.

I had fallen down the stairs that day.

I called Marcus, but he brushed me off, saying he was too busy at work and couldn’t leave. He said he would send his assistant.

But his assistant never showed up. I was in so much pain I was about to pass out, so I called my grandmother.

Because of my panicked call, my grandmother drove in such a rush to get to me that she got into a fatal car crash on the way.

Because I was left alone for another half hour, the baby didn't make it.

My uterus was severely damaged, and the doctors told me I could never get pregnant again.

For a long time, I blamed myself entirely. I saw myself as a murderer.

To try and get pregnant again, I took countless pills and endured so many hormone injections that my stomach was covered in needle marks.

I even developed severe depression and thought about ending my life.

Back then, Marcus had fallen to his knees before me, his eyes red.

"It’s okay if we don’t have kids, Hathaway. I only care about your health."

But the truth was, he already had a family waiting for him outside!

I bit my lip so hard the skin broke, filling my mouth with the metallic taste of blood.

With trembling fingers, I dialed my best friend Juliet’s number.

"Marcus is cheating on me. How can I get a divorce in the shortest time possible?"

Just as I hung up, the phone on the desk vibrated.

A text from Marcus popped up:

“I have to work late at the office tonight. I won’t be coming home. Don’t wait up for me.”