Chapter 1

My mother was trapped in a roaring fire. My husband, Ethan, who was the local Fire Captain, rushed to the scene.

But instead of going inside, he turned the hose toward a burning trash can on the curb.

He cradled a completely unharmed stray cat in his arms and told the onlookers:

"Every life is equal. Every life deserves respect."

"Audrey's mom is a grown adult. She isn't stupid enough to just sit inside and wait to die."

By the time I got the news and rushed home, the house was nothing but a pile of smoldering ruins.

There was only a charred skeleton left, along with my mother's melted ring.

Just then, Ethan called me, his voice bursting with joy.

"I saved the cat, Audrey! The vet said if I had been even a minute later..."

My voice was dead and dry.

"My mom is dead."

"There's nothing left of her. Not even a body."

Ethan was still riding his high. He went on and on about how happy his childhood friend, Chloe, was when she saw the kitten was safe.

During the entire call, he didn't ask about my mother once.

But that was just who Ethan was.

He would spend thousands on a sick stray cat.

He would hike through the woods all night to find the owner of a lost dog.

He would climb onto roofs again and again just to rescue Chloe's cat.

He just couldn't spare a single drop of empathy for me.

I wiped my tears. I had never felt so calm in my entire life.

"Let's get a divorce, Ethan."

His voice sounded muffled, far away.

After a long pause, he gave me a half-hearted reply.

"Great. I'm glad Susan is okay."

1

The line didn't disconnect. I could faintly hear the cat whimpering in the background.

I stared at the blackened, ruined house. I couldn't even cry anymore.

Ethan's voice came closer to the phone again.

"I'll be home late. The kitten still needs some tests at the vet."

Knowing Ethan's habit of tuned-out hearing whenever I spoke, I held the phone tight and screamed with every last bit of my strength.

"I want a divorce, Ethan! I can't do this for another second!"

This time, Ethan heard me loud and clear.

His voice boomed through the receiver, making the phone vibrate in my hand.

"Are you losing your mind again, Audrey?"

"Can you stop throwing tantrums out of nowhere?"

I couldn't hold back the rage and grief screaming inside me anymore. I collapsed, clutching my head, sobbing hysterically.

"Yes! Just assume I'm crazy!"

"On our wedding night, Chloe called, and you ran out in your undershirt just to save her cat!"

"On Christmas, I cooked a whole dinner, and you told me Chloe's cat was sick and you had to nurse it!"

"My mom's house was on fire, and you chose a stray cat on the street over her life!"

"Are these lies, Ethan? Did I make any of this up?"

"You know damn well if I'm crazy or not!"

Ethan's heavy breathing filled the line.

After a long moment, he let out a sigh.

"You need to calm down. Now is not the time for this."

The line went dead.

Suddenly, I realized that screaming and crying would never change anything.

He didn't love me. So, my feelings meant absolutely nothing to him.

I knelt down, scooped up a handful of the soot and ashes from the ruins, and put it in my pocket.

When I got to my temporary place, I placed the ash gently into a clear glass mason jar.

I would find a beautiful cemetery in a few days and give her a proper burial.

When Ethan finally came home, he was covered in cat hair.

He knew I was severely allergic to cats, but he had never cared.

"Why are you so dirty? Go wash yourself."

I looked down at my soot-covered hands and my burned clothes.

He was a professional firefighter, yet he couldn't even tell I had just come from a fire scene.

"I don't have a mom anymore, Ethan. I have nothing left."

Hot tears streamed down my face.

Ethan walked over, wiped my tears with his thumb, and pushed me toward the bathroom.

He still wasn't listening. Not a single word registered.

"You look like a mess. Go take a shower. I'll dry your hair after."

He pushed me in and shut the door.

The sound of the running water couldn't drown out the sound of his phone ringing outside.

It was Chloe.

"Ethan, I love the kitten you saved today. I'll adopt him as soon as he's discharged."

Ethan's voice turned incredibly soft.

"Your house is practically a zoo already. But it's fine, as long as you're happy."

I guessed it was around 8:00 PM.

Like clockwork, Ethan and Chloe would call each other at this time every day.

They never talked about anything else—just cats.

I could never join the conversation, nor did they give me a chance. Because of my severe cat allergy, cats were a forbidden topic.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, Ethan had tossed his phone onto the couch.

He was out on the balcony, pruning the potted roses.

I looked at the coffee table. The glass mason jar was empty.

Panic seized me. I rushed out to the balcony, clutching the empty jar.

"Where are the ashes inside this?"

"What did you do with them?"

Ethan didn't even look up from his rose bush.

"Wasn't that just dirt you brought back for the plants?"

"Why are you screaming over nothing?"

The glass jar slipped from my fingers, shattering into pieces on the floor.

"That was my mother's ash, Ethan. Not dirt."

I stood there, completely numb. I didn't even have the strength to yell at him.

But he didn't care. He brushed past me, rushing toward the coffee table.

His phone was ringing. It was Chloe's custom ringtone.

"The cat climbed onto the roof again? Hang on, I'm on my way."

Ethan turned to me, his eyes filled with genuine anxiety.

"Dry your hair yourself. I have an emergency."

"Also, clean up the broken glass. Don't cut your feet."

His concern for me only existed in empty words.

But for Chloe, he was always ready to run.

The next day, I went down to a local law firm to consult about the divorce.

Halfway through the meeting, a sharp, stabbing pain hit my lower abdomen.

2

By the time I realized what was happening, blood was already running down my legs.

Only then did I remember that my period was a whole month late.

I scrambled into an Uber to rush to the hospital, but we got stuck in a massive traffic jam.

The driver was honking his horn, furious.

"All this traffic for a damn cat? Are you kidding me?"

"The whole street is blocked. These people have too much time on their hands."

Then, the driver looked at me through the rearview mirror.

"Miss, you look incredibly pale. Are you okay?"

"It looks like we're going to be stuck here for a while."

The pain in my stomach was getting worse, tearing me apart inside.

I clutched my stomach and shook my head, unable to speak.

Following the driver's gaze, I looked out the window.

I saw Ethan. He was climbing onto a roof.

For Chloe's cat, he had stayed up on that roof the entire night.

The crowd below was looking up at him, cheering and taking videos.

"He's so sweet! He cares so much about a little cat. Firefighters are real heroes!"

"The world doesn't just belong to humans. Animals have rights too. This makes me want to cry. He's amazing!"

"He got it! He got the cat! Thank god, I was so scared it would fall!"

The crowd cheered, clapping for Ethan's bravery.

But just yesterday, because of his "bravery," a human life was lost.

My mom had trusted Ethan so much. When the fire broke out, the first thing she did was call him.

She didn't even call 911 because she believed her son-in-law would save her.

But her trust was met with betrayal.

She must have been waiting in that burning house, praying for Ethan to break down the door and carry her to safety.

But Ethan was just down the street, putting out a trash can fire for a cat.

What was my mom thinking in her final moments?

Was she terrified? Was she heartbroken?

Maybe, until the moment she died, she was still staring at the door, waiting for him.

I lost count of how many times Chloe's cat had "escaped."

But every single time, Ethan would tirelessly go and rescue it.

I used to scream and fight about it.

Once, I even grabbed his phone when Chloe called.

"Why do you do everything Chloe asks? You'd risk your life to rescue a cat that keeps escaping!"

"Why is everything I say wrong? Why am I always the 'jealous wife'? Ethan, I am your wife! But you won't even grant me one small favor!"

"If you love her so much, why didn't you marry Chloe instead?"

That was the first time Ethan slapped me.

The stinging pain on my cheek woke me up.

His disgust for me had reached a point where he would rather use violence than speak to me calmly.

After that, I became numb.

And Ethan gave me a late, pathetic explanation.

"You don't understand because you don't like cats. Chloe and I just share a love for animals."

"Nothing ever happened between us."

My thoughts snapped back to the present.

The traffic finally started to move.

Out the window, Ethan was holding the cat, enjoying the applause of the crowd like a hero.

While I sat in the cold back seat of an Uber, watching my own baby's life slip away.

"You had a miscarriage. It was likely brought on by severe emotional stress."

"If you had gotten here a few minutes earlier, we might have saved the baby."

Listening to the doctor, I didn't even cry.

I took the prescription and walked out of the hospital alone.

Now, I could finally leave Ethan without a single regret.

3

As I reached the apartment door, I heard voices inside.

It was Chloe. She was at our place.

If this were before, I would have stormed in and started a screaming match.

But after everything, I didn't care anymore.

I opened the door.

Ethan froze when he saw me.

"Where have you been? You look pale as a ghost."

He was smiling, trying to joke around.

But I didn't find it funny.

He had no idea his child was gone because of him.

"I was at the hospital."

Ethan was cradling the cat, stroking its fur.

At my response, he just gave a distracted, "Oh."

He didn't ask if I was sick. He didn't ask why I went to the hospital.

His reaction was so cold. He cared more about the stray cat in his arms than his own wife.

Cat dander was floating everywhere in the air. I covered my nose and tried to walk past them to the bedroom.

Suddenly, Chloe gasped, covering her mouth.

"Audrey, you have blood on your pants. Did your period start?"

I clenched my fists, standing still by the door.

My blood ran cold at her words.

Ethan put the cat down and walked over to me.

"Audrey, how can you be this messy?"

"You don't care about your dignity, but I care about mine. What if someone saw you? Go change your clothes right now."

I wonder if his embarrassment would turn into regret once he found out the truth.

I turned around, my breathing already getting heavy.

Due to the miscarriage and my severe cat allergy, my body was giving out.

"What if I told you that wasn't period blood?"

Ethan leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms.

"Do you think I'm blind? Stop making excuses."

"If it's not blood, what is it?"

I let out a bitter, mocking laugh.

"Our baby."

His expression froze. His arms dropped to his sides.

He took a step toward me, but before he could speak, Chloe burst out laughing.

"Oh, Audrey, that is not funny at all."

"You actually scared Ethan for a second. You're so mean."

The tension instantly vanished.

Ethan's face twisted from shock to deep disgust.

"Enough, Audrey. That is the cheapest, most pathetic lie you've ever told."

I knew that no matter what I said, he would never believe me.

In his mind, I was already the villain.

The allergy was kicking in. My throat was tightening, and I could barely stand.

"Ethan... get the cat out of here. I can't breathe."

He turned his back on me coldheartedly and sat back down next to Chloe.

"The 'boy who cried wolf' story only works once, Audrey."

"You haven't even touched the cat. How could you be having an allergic reaction?"

I couldn't hold on anymore. I collapsed right at Ethan's feet.

The loud thud of my body hitting the floor and the blood trickling from my nose didn't move him.

Chloe was staring at her phone, scrolling through social media.

"Ethan, look! A puppy fell into the river!"

"Oh my god, so sad! Let's go save it! It's so small!"

I reached out, trying to grab Ethan's pant leg.

But he moved too fast, leaving me with no chance to ask for help.

Before he shut the front door, he glanced back at me.

"The floor is cold. Get up. Don't blame me if you catch a cold."

4

It was a utility worker who came to check the gas line who found me and called 91