Chapter 4

I looked up.

"Dean, do you even hear yourself right now?"

"She's been my best friend since we were kids. You're the man I thought I'd love my whole life. The two of you went behind my back, got together, had a child, and you're telling me it was an accident?"

Before I could keep going, Imogen said the baby girl in her arms suddenly let out a shriek and started wailing.

Imogen's face flushed red with panic.

"Dean, come look, quick. What's wrong with her?"

She stared at me in disbelief, her eyes going red.

"Althea, whatever grudge you've got, take it out on me. What kind of person raises a hand to a baby?"

"She has a congenital heart condition. Are you trying to kill her?"

She pulled out her phone and started dialing. "I have to call an ambulance fast, or Althea's going to be the death of my daughter!"

The corridor outside the emergency room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, nothing but my own muffled crying.

Dean came out of the doctor's office with a dark face and slapped me across the cheek.

I touched the hot, swelling side of my face and looked at him, stunned.

"Althea, of all the things you could have done, you should never have laid a hand on that child. Go apologize to Imogen right now. Apologize, and we'll all forgive you. We can go on living just like before."

I couldn't believe it.

"You cheated, and now you want me to apologize to Imogen? I never hurt the child. I just handed her back to Imogen!"

My in-laws arrived practically in tears.

The second she saw me, my mother-in-law's eyes went wide.

"Althea, you shameless little slut. You're a hen that can't lay an egg, and the moment Imogen has a daughter, you're eaten up with jealousy, aren't you?"

"If anything happens to my granddaughter, I'll take my old life and settle it with you!"

My father-in-law stood beside her, shaking his head, scolding me like I was hopeless.

"If you ask me, you're narrow-minded. You take everything too much to heart."

"So what if a man has a few women? Back in the old days men married several wives and everything was fine, wasn't it?"

"I even went and bought Imogen a house on purpose, just so you wouldn't have to live under the same roof with them and feel put out. That's how much I care about your feelings, and you still aren't satisfied?"

My parents came late.

But the moment my mother saw me, she raised her fists and rained little blows down on my back.

"You wretched girl, get in there and apologize to Imogen. If it weren't for you, nothing would have happened to that child!"

"We heard all about it on the way here. You did something to the baby. What exactly did you do?"

My father grit his teeth and blamed me too. "The child is innocent. No matter how angry you are, you can't do something like this."

Everyone crowded in front of me, accusing me.

No one spoke up for me.

They all believed I had raised a hand to Imogen's child.

That I wanted her daughter dead.

But I hadn't. I really hadn't.

All at once, I felt utterly done with it.

Too worn out to get out a single word.

After five seconds of silence, I finally spoke, my voice hoarse:

"Dean, let's get divorced."

When they heard me say it, everyone there froze.

It was as though it had never crossed their minds.

That I, always so easygoing, would be the one to ask for a divorce.

Because I used to be a pushover, taking whatever was handed to me.

No matter what they said, no matter what they asked of me, I always agreed.

Dean's mouth twitched.

"Althea, you're joking, right? I slept with Imogen a few times, we had a kid. Is that really worth a divorce?"

Even now he believed I would forgive every wrong he'd done, no conditions attached.

That none of this was worth being angry over, as far as I was concerned.

Even when I caught him in bed, he'd stayed perfectly calm.

Because he was certain I would never leave him.

"Worth it? Being with you just makes me sick."

"Since every one of you takes Imogen's side, then from now on I'm cutting all of you off. Don't contact me again."

Hearing that, Dean only sneered, his eyes dark and unreadable.

"Althea, I love you. I will never let you go."

"If you dare leave me, I'll go online and expose you by name as the mistress who wrecked what Imogen and I had, and I'll ruin you!"

"Aren't you about to sit your civil-service exams? If your eligibility gets pulled, your whole life is finished!"

I don't know how I made it home.

I only knew there was something like a huge stone pressing on my chest.

A fine, tightening suffocation had my throat in a stranglehold.

I moved through it in a daze.

Every time I thought of the five years I'd been intimate with Dean, I felt filthy, sick to my stomach.

I walked into the bathroom and ran a tub of hot water.

I soaked in it and scrubbed my body over and over with a brush, until the skin was raw and bleeding.

The steam blurred my vision.

I felt so tired. So tired.

I closed my eyes and, without knowing it, drifted off to sleep.

My brother, who'd flown home today to celebrate my birthday, called me and I didn't pick up.

He had the code to my place, and when he came in he found the living room already flooded with water from the bathroom.

By the time he walked into the bathroom, he saw me sunk in the tub, no longer breathing.

He rushed me to the hospital and called Dean.

"Dean, it's bad! Something's happened to Althea!"