Chapter 4

After Lucia withdrew the divorce papers.

She never brought up the divorce again.

Even when I was the one chasing after her.

"Please. Give me the papers. I'll sign."

She only laughed, cold and contemptuous.

"You already stripped down to nothing and made a public fool of yourself out there."

"Justin says so."

"This time you have to truly understand what you did wrong."

Understanding what I did wrong.

It just meant tormenting me worse than before.

I asked Lucia to end the pregnancy.

Justin made me sit with her and drink two cases of liquor.

"Once you've gotten Lucia drunk enough to land in the hospital,"

"the baby's gone on its own, no need for an abortion. Right?"

My living allowance was cut off completely.

I had to earn each day's meal money doing housework.

The lowest point.

Was the time I washed Justin's shoes for ten dollars' worth of breakfast.

Justin sat in the office chair in Lucia's study, watching me with a sneer.

"Mr. Stephens, if you'd known things would come to this,"

"would you still have strutted around like you owned the world?"

He said it with such hatred. He'd had a good job, once.

And it was because of me that he'd fallen into that hopeless nightmare.

He'd never once meant to fight me over Lucia.

But after that.

He set his heart on settling the score with me, one way or another.

I lowered my head and stayed quiet a long time.

"Assistant Fox, do you actually know why I've ended up like this?"

Justin blinked.

"Why else? It's your comeuppance."

"You thought if you slaved away at home, gave Lucia a child, you could tie her to you."

"What a joke."

"She never loved you. Of course she'd never love your child either."

Everyone thought I'd chosen to be a househusband.

No one knew what it had cost me.

Back when Justin was fired.

Lucia acted as if nothing had happened and made up with me.

It was like we were falling in love all over again.

Every night she clung to me, whispering in my ear.

"Eddie, I hate watching you work so hard every day."

"Let's have a baby."

But Lucia had ovarian failure. Conceiving naturally was all but impossible.

Back then, for the sake of that child.

I gave up my career outright and stayed home full-time, studying how to cure her.

From the medical literature to the practical theory.

It took me two years to make her well.

I thought Lucia would understand what I'd given up.

Instead she looked down on me, same as everyone else.

And what I hadn't known.

Was that from the very moment I agreed to be a househusband.

I'd already walked into their trap.

Justin's laughter echoed in my ears.

And tangled through it, Lucia's cold, pitiless voice.

"Edward, if there's anyone to blame for all this, it's only yourself."

"If it weren't for you,"

"Justin would never have been fired."

"He wouldn't have taken a desperate gamble after losing his job."

"He wouldn't have lost his ability to have children, poisoned by someone at a business dinner."

"You did all of this."

"So you're the one who has to pay."

Those words followed me like a nightmare, clinging to me every waking hour.

I never had one good night's sleep.

Then one day, Justin's kite snagged in the branches of a tree.

He forced Lucia to climb up and get it down.

"Isn't this the perfect chance to torment Edward?"

"Lucia, you'll play along with me, won't you?"

She obeyed like a good girl.

And I was tied up beside her, forced to watch.

Nearly dropping to my knees to beg.

"Lucia's still pregnant. Please, she really can't climb a tree..."

But Justin's word was final.

He even called over a few security guards to stand watch and force her up.

Halfway up, Lucia's face twisted in pain.

Her foot slipped, and she came crashing down.

A rush of heat between her legs.

"Justin, please, call an ambulance, my baby..."

"What are you screaming for?"

Justin flung my hands off, cold.

"Weren't you the one who wanted to abort it, who didn't want this child?"

My head was roaring.

"You made her climb that tree on purpose. You wanted her to lose it?"

Meeting my stunned eyes.

Justin only sneered.

"Don't be so delicate. You think climbing one tree is enough to get rid of a baby?"

I froze.

"What do you mean?"

Justin didn't answer me. He looked at Lucia instead, his voice soft, smiling.

"Lucia, why don't we end the game?"

"Let's just tell your husband a little secret."

"His child was lost because you willingly ate that piece of cake he gave you with his own hands."

"And in that cake, I'd mixed in crushed abortion pills."

"Care to guess how he'll react?"

Lucia's face was still twisted in pain, but her eyes were cold as they fixed on me.

"Edward, I never wanted to carry your child at all."

"This time, getting pregnant by accident,"

"the only reason I didn't get rid of it was to make you taste this kind of pain for yourself."

Hearing it from Lucia's own mouth, everything inside me turned to ash.

I stayed silent a long while, then lifted my bloodshot eyes.

And looked at Lucia.

"Then I have a secret to tell you too."