Chapter 1

Ten years ago he told me he was going south to start his own company, to build a good future for me and our child.

Ten years passed, and our lives barely improved, but I took it gladly.

Effort doesn't equal success. I knew that better than anyone, and my heart ached for how hard things were for him.

This summer break, I wanted to surprise him. So without telling him first, I set out across the country to find my husband.

Using the address I'd always mailed his hometown specialties to, I tracked down the place he was renting.

I waited until deep into the night, and he still didn't come home. But over the messaging app, he told me he was already back at the rental.

【Honey, I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed. Good night.】

I gripped my phone and stared hard at the locked door. What had I been guarding these ten years?

I stood in front of that door, took a selfie, sent it to him, and turned off my phone.

……

I didn't need an explanation. The moment the lie began, the trust had already collapsed.

I only wanted to tell him: I already knew the truth.

This relationship, ten years long, it was time for it to end.

I drifted through this unfamiliar city, bitterness washing over me in waves.

Ten years. I'd trusted him that much.

He'd said he would build a home for me and our child in this city, no matter what.

That he'd buy us an oceanview villa, where I'd see the sea the moment I opened my eyes, where I could lie in bed and watch the sun rise and set over the water.

I'd dreamed of it. I'd waited for it.

Now, thinking back, it was nothing but a joke.

Without realizing it, I'd wandered to the beach he'd told me about, and not far off stood the oceanview villa he'd once promised.

I sat down on the sand, and the tears came before I knew it.

Forget the oceanview villa. Of everything he'd promised, which single thing had ever come true?

My wrists were bare, no famous-brand watch, no jade bracelet like he'd promised.

No gold necklace around my neck either, the one he'd told me about.

Even my clothes came off a street stall. Everything on me was worth less than two hundred dollars.

For ten years, my child and I had scrimped and saved.

Between caring for our child, I earned what I could, saving penny by penny, handing the money to him so he could build his business.

I was afraid he was suffering out there.

Wait… was he only telling me the good and hiding the bad?

Maybe he hadn't gone home because he was still working himself to the bone, just didn't want me to know?

I quickly turned my phone back on.

【My wife's gotten prettier again. Love you.】

That was his reply after I sent the photo.

In that moment, my heart went completely cold.

That selfie had captured the door of his place clear as day, and he hadn't even recognized it.

But deep down I still clung to one last fantasy.

I decided to test it.