Chapter 1

All because I didn't bleed on our wedding night.

Chester Gilbert, who suffered from an extremely severe obsession with purity, decided I was an unclean woman.

Every night he would hold me down in the bathtub and pour water almost seventy degrees Celsius over my whole body.

He wouldn't let me out until my skin was red and peeling all over.

No matter how I explained that this was perfectly normal, he simply wouldn't believe me.

"Josie says a girl always bleeds her first time."

"She's a woman herself. Why would she lie to me?"

"If you don't dare get in the water, it just proves you've got something to hide."

I thought about it and figured that maybe the shadow of his mother's affair in his childhood had made him a little paranoid about this kind of thing.

So I chose to bear it.

Until the night of my birthday, when I saw with my own eyes Chester and his childhood friend sleeping in our wedding bed.

When she saw me appear, Josephine even deliberately pulled back the blanket to show me that streak of red.

"See? I told you, a girl always bleeds her first time."

Chester didn't show the slightest guilt at being caught cheating.

"Eva, now we're even. I can finally forgive you."

But Chester, I will never forgive you again.

And I will never take you back either.

1.

I didn't cry, and I didn't rush forward screaming in pain.

I just quietly turned around, walked to the wardrobe, and started packing my clothes.

Josephine clicked her tongue when she saw it.

"Your wife's upset. You'd better go comfort her, or she'll grab her bags and run off in a minute."

Chester frowned, got out of bed, and roughly yanked me over to his side.

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Didn't I already say I forgive you for the mistake you made? What more do you want?"

I looked at him with red-rimmed eyes, forcing the bitterness back down my throat.

"You brought her home to sleep in our bed, and you still have the nerve to ask me what nonsense I'm making?"

Faced with my accusation, Chester said nothing.

He just dragged me back to the bed by force and made me look at that glaring streak of red.

"You're always arguing with me about medicine, saying grown women basically don't bleed."

"Josie is even a year older than you. Why does she have blood and you don't?"

"So what gives you the nerve to throw a fit at me? You're not even clean yourself, so what right do you have to have a temper?"

Josephine burst out laughing when she heard that.

"Oh, it's only natural she's got a temper. After all, back when she was chasing you, she swore up and down she'd never been in a relationship."

"But now that the lie's been exposed, of course she's angry and embarrassed."

"Though maybe it's true she was never in a relationship? After all, some women don't need to make it official to..."

Then she pretended to be shocked and covered her mouth. "Oh dear, don't read too much into it, I'm just saying whatever comes to mind."

"I absolutely didn't mean that you're the type who likes to play around."

The more Chester listened, the deeper he frowned, until at last he couldn't hold back and confronted me.

"Eva, tell me honestly. Before you got together with me, exactly how many men were there?"

I stared at this man I'd loved for so long, and in the end I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

I'd known Chester since we were very young, and I fell for him at first sight.

While I was chasing him, I also learned about his family's past—that his mother had abandoned him and his father for another man.

That was why he had such impossibly high standards in relationships, unable to accept a partner who had any romantic history.

Back then I was so grateful that I'd met him when I was still a child.

Because I was young, I had more confidence and more time to prove to him that I loved only him.

And I did manage to move him in college, until he agreed to be with me.

On the day we made it official, I even teased him with a question.

"So many girls were chasing you, so why did you choose me in the end?"

He answered very seriously then.

"Because you're the only one who revolves around me every second of the day. That's what makes me feel most secure."

He knew it himself, and yet now, over a few words from Josephine, he was starting to doubt me.

Seeing my tears, a flicker of pain crossed Chester's eyes, and his tone softened a little.

"Don't worry. We've been together this long, and we're already married."

"Just tell me the truth, and I promise I won't leave you."

I gave a bleak smile and pried his hand off with all my strength.

"But Chester, I don't want to stay with you anymore."