Chapter 4

After she heard the whole story, my mother was so angry she couldn't say a word for a long time.

Finally, she asked me what I meant to do.

I told her the plan.

A moment passed, and then she sighed. "You're the one who has to suffer through it."

Just as I'd planned, my mother went back to the talent-program apartment, and sure enough Stewart wasn't home.

We moved everything out overnight, and I contacted the office to end the lease.

As for the lock on the new place, I changed the code right away and had the complex delete his name.

When her message came through, I was lying in bed, watching the moon outside the window.

It was full and bright, the same as the night he promised he'd be good to me for the rest of my life.

But the moon has no light of its own, just like his vows were never real.

The days I'd spent in the hospital, Stewart never came back once. Not even a single phone call.

It hit me late: he was always like this. Somewhere no one knew him, he never bothered to be considerate.

The day I was discharged, I called him first.

His voice was tired, but the words that came out still cut.

"Calmed down now? You're not going to throw a fit at me again, are you?"

"Losing the baby's not a big deal. Worst case, we adopt one later."

"I'll come pick you up now. The transfer's set for tomorrow anyway."

Swallowing my disgust, I told him where I was.

Not long after, his car pulled up in front of me.

But the moment I got in, that sickening rank smell in the car still made my eyes sting.

"Someone else was riding in your car?"

I glared at him. He didn't so much as blink.

"No one. Why are you always imagining things?"

He reached over to buckle my seatbelt, couldn't get it, then grew impatient and waved me off to do it myself.

The instant I bent down, I saw the stockings shoved into the gap.

Blood roared through me, fury shooting straight up into my chest.

He must have noticed I'd frozen in place too long.

He spoke again. "Stop being so paranoid about everything. We're getting married soon. Turning a blind eye won't hurt you—and you can't have kids anymore, so besides me, who else would want you?"

The rage overshot itself. Once the pain went numb, all that was left was calm.

I lowered my eyes and didn't look at him again.

"Isn't the transfer set for tomorrow? Let's just meet at the housing office."

With that, I unbuckled the belt and ignored his voice calling after me.

I walked away without looking back.

Stewart didn't come after me. That night, he updated his social media feed.

It was a screenshot of him winning that little figurine at auction.

【My wife wanted it, so I paid extra just to get it for her.】

Underneath, his contacts all left the same "showing off again" comments.

I didn't want to keep propping up that image of his.

So I left one comment: 【Is it only me you buy things for?】

My private messages instantly jumped to 99+.

Stewart's was among them, cursing me out, asking what had gotten into me.

I didn't reply to a single one. I only posted one line on my feed: See you tomorrow.

Early the next morning, Stewart messaged me.

He asked when I'd get there. I snapped a blurry photo of the scenery outside a window and replied that I was on my way.

Seeing the photo, Stewart let out a breath.

My reply the day before had genuinely unsettled him, afraid I wouldn't show.

But the moment he saw the picture I sent, that unease was quickly washed away.

He even started reassuring Shelby. "Relax, there's no way she won't come."

Once he stopped messaging, I dragged him into my blacklist.

Right on time, I posted the photo grid on my feed, stripping away every bit of the mask Stewart had kept up all these years.

My feed blew up in an instant, but Stewart still had no idea.

He waited at the housing office until quitting time and never saw me.

Simmering with anger, he went back to the talent-program apartment, only to be told the place had already been surrendered.

The unease inside him grew and grew. He drove straight to the new place, wanting to prove his suspicions wrong.

But at the entrance of the complex, security stopped him.

He staggered back two steps, unable to believe it. Just then, his phone rang.

"Stewart, I really never thought you were this kind of person. Let's delete each other."

He didn't understand, and only after a whole round of being cursed out did he finally see the screenshot of my feed.

"How could this be!" The phone dropped to the ground, the screen shattering to pieces.