Chapter 5

Daisy POV

I turned and walked upstairs. Seconds later, Ethan followed me inside.

The air in the living room felt so heavy it was ready to freeze solid.

"What did you just say?" he asked, shutting the door.

My voice was flat. "I'm exhausted. I'm not wasting another second of my life on you."

Ethan stared at me, then let out a patronizing chuckle, like he was listening to a toddler throwing a fit.

"You just had a baby. Your hormones are all over the place, so I won't hold it against you. But don't throw around the word 'divorce' so carelessly."

I looked up into his eyes. "Ethan, I know you're cheating on me."

His smug smile instantly died.

Before he could stammer out an excuse, I cut him off. "I went to that apartment complex. I know exactly what you two were doing behind that door."

His face twisted through several colors before he softened his tone, putting on an understanding front:

"Daisy, have you ever stopped to look at yourself? After you got pregnant, your temper was unbearable. I worked insane hours at the lab, and coming home meant dealing with your constant mood swings. The pressure was suffocating. Not to mention, for almost an entire year, I couldn't even touch you. I'm a healthy man with basic physical needs! Getting some relief on the side is completely normal, but I was always going to come back home to you."

"So cheating is my fault?" I asked, my face blank.

"I'm not saying you're entirely at fault," Ethan reasoned smoothly, shaking his head. "A marriage breaks down because of both parties. You can't just pin all the blame on me."

I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, there was nothing left inside me but absolute resolve.

"We are getting divorced. And you're walking away with nothing."

Ethan's mask cracked completely. "Daisy, don't push your luck."

I let out a cold, sharp laugh. "You didn't think you were pushing your luck when you cheated? You didn't think you were pushing your luck when you uploaded footage of me to a paywalled site for sick freaks to gawk at?"

His pupils shrank into pinpricks.

I didn't give him a chance to spin it. "You bought the camera. You uploaded the files. You think deleting the logs wipes your tracks from me? Ethan, you're going to prison."

His face drained completely white.

Karen, who had been eavesdropping from the hall, suddenly barged in, pointing a crooked finger right in my face:

"You dare bring up divorce?! My son works hard to support your lazy ass, and now you want to dump him?! Fine! Pay back every single dime he spent on you! Fifty grand, not a penny less!"

Staring at her twisted, greedy face, a wave of pure nausea hit me.

"Your son is an adulterer, and you want to talk about money?"

"So what if my son stepped out?! It just means you couldn't keep your man satisfied! You're a useless woman, who else are you going to blame?!"

I shook from head to toe. In that exact moment, the brutal truth finally hit me: they had never seen me as human.

I was an incubator. A live-in maid. An appliance to be discarded whenever they saw fit.

I pulled out my phone to dial the police, but Ethan lunged, ripping the device from my grasp with enough force to snap my fingernail clean off.

Pain blinded me for a second, and before I could recover, Ethan shoved me hard into the bedroom.

"Ethan! This is false imprisonment!" I screamed, pounding against the wood.

"I'm your husband, and it's my job to protect you! You're having a manic episode, and I can't let you run out and do something reckless!"

I slammed my fists against the door until my knuckles bruised red, but nobody answered.

Outside the window, dusk turned to pitch-black.

I don't know how long I sat there before a sharp, acrid smell filled the room. Thick, suffocating smoke.

I shot to my feet.

"Ethan! The house is on fire!"

I threw myself against the door, screaming until my vocal cords shredded, but silence met my cries.

The smoke thickened rapidly, sending me into a violent fit of coughing.

Suddenly, the door clicked open.

Standing in the doorway through the haze of smoke wasn't Ethan. It was Evelyn.

She stood amidst the curling fumes, a lighter gripped in her hand, a twisted smirk playing on her lips.

"Daisy, do you like my little housewarming gift?"

My breath hitched. "Are you insane?! This is an entire apartment building!"

Evelyn's eyes turned dead and vicious. "Once you burn to ashes, your life, your house, and your husband will all belong to me!"

She slammed the door shut and locked it from the outside before running off.

Ethan was nowhere to be found. Karen was gone.

I curled into a ball by the window, desperately gasping for whatever clean air was left.

Just as my vision began to fade, the door was violently kicked off its hinges.

My best friend Chloe, completely drenched and wrapped in a soaking wet blanket, burst through the flames and grabbed my arm.

"With me, now!"

We stumbled and coughed our way through the raging fire, breaking out into the cool night air.

Downstairs, a black SUV was idling by the curb.

Chloe shoved me into the back seat, jumped behind the wheel, and slammed the gas.

"The visa you asked me to expedite just cleared! We’re catching a red-eye flight tonight!"

I stared blankly out the rear window as Ethan's burning house faded into the dark.