Chapter 2

“Divorce?” Kane looked at me like I just told a boring joke, irritation tightening his brows. “Nicole, you’re a housewife with no income. How are you going to live once you leave?”

His words were an ice pick. They pierced right through me.

Yeah.

Five years. To play “Mrs. Johnson,” I’d already thrown away the ability to earn my own living.

Every fight ended the same way: I gave in—

Because this marriage was what I’d stolen from the start.

Maybe he saw the color drain from my face, his tone softened rarely—just a little.

“Ashley is sick. At most, she has only one year left. Her last wish is to have the wedding she unfulfilled back then. Do you really have to compete with someone who’s dying?”

Ashley covered her face and sobbed on cue. “Kane, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come back… I’ll go right now…”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Kane pulled her into his arms, gentle as if she were glass.

The accusations pressed down on me until I couldn’t breathe.

Because she was “dying,” her wishes were above everything.

She was pitiful, so I was supposed to be disposable?

Then what was I?

Ashley clutched her chest, face pale, voice thin. “Kane… I don’t feel so good…”

Kane panicked instantly, sweeping her into his arms. His voice turned into the kind of tenderness I’d never gotten. “Don’t be scared. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Before he left, he shot me a glare.

“Nicole, reflect on what you’ve done.”

James ran after them. At the door he glanced back once.

There wasn’t a shred of reluctance in his eyes—only the calmness you’d give a stranger.

The huge living room swallowed me whole.

In the house where Kane and I had lived for five years, a foreign floral scent drifted through the air.

Ashley’s perfume.

Back in the bedroom, I started packing.

Five years of marriage. I’d given up my violin, even given up the name Serena—willing to spin around the family as a housewife.

I thought sincerity could win sincerity. Now I understood how ridiculous I’d been.

Halfway through packing, James’s excited voice floated in from outside:

“Aunt Ashley, here—this lucky charm is for you. Mom knelt for a whole day and night to get it. She said it keeps you safe!”

My hands froze.

That charm…

James was born prematurely and was weak. I’d knelt at the church out in the suburbs for a week, my knees bruised and bleeding, just to beg for it.

He wore it every day and used to say it “smelled like Mom.”

Now he was giving it away like an old toy he didn’t need anymore.

Their laughter faded down the hallway.

I squatted beside my suitcase, and the tears I’d been holding finally fell, splashing onto the suitcase.

I took a deep breath, wiped my face, pulled out my phone, and dialed a number I hadn’t called in years.

The moment the line answered, my voice trembled—yet I was quite firm:

“Mr. Garcia… I want to pick up the violin again.”

When I dragged my suitcase out the front door, a strange lightness filled my chest.

Only James’s words kept echoing: “I only want Ashley to be my mom.”

It tore a fresh hole in my heart.

I got in a taxi and gave the driver Mr. Garcia’s studio address.

The car rolled smoothly through traffic.

Then the driver muttered, “What’s up with that car behind us? It’s so close…”

I looked up at the rearview mirror.

A white Bentley was glued to us, so close it was almost kissing our bumper.

Ashley was driving.

Before we could react, the Bentley sped up.

The next second it swerved without warning and slammed into us from the side.

Bang—

The impact flung me hard into the door. Pain exploded through my body; I couldn’t move.

The Bentley’s passenger door flew open. Kane stumbled out.

For one second, some absurd hope sparked in my heart.

I held onto my fading consciousness and looked toward him—

But he didn’t come to me.

He ran straight to the driver’s seat, carefully lifted Ashley out, and carried her away without even looking back.

The air was thick with blood.

My head sank, heavier and heavier.

With shaking fingers, I pulled out my phone and called Kane.

I watched him glance at the screen, then hang up without hesitation.

Tears mixed with blood and dripped down my face.

The last sliver of hope I’d kept for this marriage finally dissolved.

I couldn’t hold on anymore.

Everything went dark.