Chapter 2

The next morning, I'd barely stepped out of a meeting at the office when Garry blocked my path.

"Come to my office. We need to talk."

I followed him in without a word.

The moment the door shut, everything he'd been holding back came crashing down at once.

He grabbed my shoulders with shaking hands and shook me.

"You, why didn't you bring Barbara the hangover soup?"

"Why did you have to make her suffer?"

"Do you have any idea? I waited until two in the morning and you never showed up."

"If I hadn't noticed something was wrong and gotten her to the hospital in time, she'd be dead by now."

"I know you've been jealous and upset lately because I've been focused on the project and getting close to Barbara. But everything I do is for this family! Can't you just not make trouble for me? Not fight me at every turn?"

He vented all of it while staring into my eyes, trying to make me fall in line.

"You're coming with me to the hospital right now to apologize to Barbara in person."

Listening to him made me sick. I threw his hands off me.

"If you want to lose your mind, do it alone. Leave me out of it."

"What did you say?"

Furious, he backed me into the corner and clamped his hand around my jaw.

"Ursula, I don't care whether this divorce talk is just you playing hard to get."

"But let me be very clear. Today you're going, whether you want to or not."

"Otherwise, you know exactly what happens."

He let go of my jaw, pulled out his phone, and opened the photo album. Those pictures we'd taken for fun as a couple, one after another, blown up in front of my eyes.

Back then he'd insisted it was just for fun, just something to remember us by. So it turned out he'd been saving them for this all along.

I'd thought that once I divorced him and cleared the way for him and Barbara, we could part on good terms.

I'd thought I knew this man, the one I'd loved for eight years, well enough.

Human nature really can't survive a test. It never once crossed my mind that he'd use our old sweet moments to land a killing blow.

"Fine, I'll go apologize!"

I said.

"But on one condition. You delete every one of these videos and photos, no copies left."

"Otherwise, I'll ruin you completely!"

Faced with the certainty and hard set of my expression,

he faltered for a second, frozen.

"Don't worry. As long as you come apologize with me today, these photos and videos will disappear on their own."

I went with him to the hospital. We'd just reached the entrance of the inpatient ward when I overheard the young nurses gossiping.

"Some woman came in last night, drunk, complaining her head hurt, and her boyfriend swore it was her stomach and forced her to be admitted. They kept us running all night."

"Still, her boyfriend really does love her. Boiling hangover medicine in the kitchen in the middle of the night."

"That was four in the morning, you know."

The nurses spotted Garry and scattered.

The moment I stepped into the room, Barbara looked at me like she'd seen a ghost, got up from the bed, and dropped straight to her knees in front of me.

"Ursula, it's all my fault! I shouldn't have gotten drunk."

"I shouldn't have caused trouble for you and Garry."

"Yesterday Garry just felt sorry for me and looked after me for the night. Nothing happened between us."

Watching her put on such a show, I felt nothing at all. I only wanted to apologize and leave.

I stepped forward to help her up, and out of nowhere she threw herself backward, cracking her head against the bed.

At the thud, tears poured down her face and she started her lie.

"Ursula, I know you're angry, but you can't just hit people. I already knelt down and admitted I was wrong."

Before I could say a word, Garry drove his foot into my shin and roared.

"Get out!"

"Just wait. You're going to pay for this!"