Chapter 2

Faith's eyes went sharp the instant she heard the word breakup.

She glared at me and asked, her voice cold, "What did you say?"

If this had been before.

That look of hers would have terrified me.

I wouldn't even have dared to meet her eyes.

But now.

It was as though something in me had let go.

I looked straight back at her.

"I said."

"Let's break up."

Faith slammed the bowl to the floor.

It shattered with a crack.

Broth splattered everywhere.

"Sebastian, I'm going to pretend you were talking nonsense just now."

"Don't ever let me hear the word breakup out of your mouth again."

I sat up and looked at her.

"Faith, the truth is, you're right."

"I'm a man who's content with things as they are."

"I have no head for business at all."

"And you know it, what I'm best at is studying. What I want is to do research someday."

"But you insisted on making me start a business."

"You insisted on molding me into some successful man according to your plan."

"That kind of life has worn me out. It's suffocating."

"And you're not wrong."

"I'm not good enough for you."

"So breaking up is a good thing, for both of us."

The moment I finished.

Faith stared at me, shaking all over.

That cutting look in her eyes.

Like she wanted to tear me apart and swallow me whole.

The truth is, these past two years.

I really had been miserable.

I wanted to keep studying.

She forced me to give it up.

I wanted to do research.

She said making money mattered more.

Without money, how do you support a family?

I thought she had a point.

So I gave up my own dream.

And started a business the way she planned it.

And failed, over and over.

She was the youngest department manager at a listed company, wrapped in every kind of prestige, and everyone envied me for landing a powerhouse of a wife.

Then look at me.

Nothing to show for myself, failing at everything I touched.

At every gathering, I was the punch line for her friends.

And she didn't just fail to stand up for me.

She joined in with them, running me down.

Saying I had no drive.

Cursing me for being useless.

It wasn't that I never thought about laying it out for her, telling her I didn't want to start a business.

But the moment I let even a hint of not following her plan show.

She'd fly into a rage at me.

And little by little.

I stopped daring to say what I really felt.

Until this time, when she punished me with three days of no food.

I finally understood.

She wanted me to succeed, and it had nothing to do with loving me.

She simply believed.

That the man she chose had to succeed.

That she could never be laughed at by her friends for the rest of her life.

She wanted to use me to prove to the whole world.

That her judgment was right, that she'd made no mistake.

But I'd had enough.

I didn't want to be controlled by her anymore.

Even less did I want the rest of my life completely ruled by her!

So I decided to leave her.

"Faith, let me go."

"We don't fit."

"My life is ordinary."

"Yours is dazzling."

"We were never from the same world to begin with."