But he didn’t take a single bite.

“Sophia, I’m tired of this kind of breakfast. Emily once bought me bagels and coffee—I thought it was great, light and refreshing.”

But avocado toast with coffee isn’t heavy.

It wasn’t the food he was tired of.

It was me.

I clenched my fists so tightly my knuckles turned white, forcing my voice to stay steady.

“Daniel, when you’re with another woman, do you really feel no guilt toward me at all?”

He leaned back in his chair, his tone still gentle, but every word cut like a knife.

“Sophia, I thought you’d understand me.”

“The finance world is stressful. Everyone needs some way to release it, or else they’ll go insane.”

“Besides, what successful man spends his entire life with just one woman? Promising you the title of Mrs. Hughes forever—shouldn’t that be enough?”

As he spoke, his confidence grew.

“You spend all day orbiting around me, without a single real hobby. Dull. Boring.”

“You have no family background, no advantages to help my career.”

“Sophia, all you ever do is take from me. Be honest—what have you ever given me?”

I stared at him in shock. “What does any of this have to do with your affair?”

His pupils narrowed, lips curling faintly.

“You call this an affair? Don’t make me sound that bad, alright?”

My strength gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor, icy numbness spreading from my feet all the way up my body.

My parents had died early. To me, Daniel was not only my husband—he was my only family.

He once said he loved my quiet nature, loved the way I depended on him.

Now, those very traits had become the reasons he despised me.

I had checked Emily Brooks’s background. Her parents were just ordinary teachers.

What help could she possibly offer him in the world of finance?

In the end, it was just an excuse—he didn’t love me anymore.

As soon as he left for work, Robert and Margaret Hughes rushed in.

“Every marriage has bumps along the way. Daniel just lost his head for a bit—it’s not unforgivable.”

“Sophia, maybe you should reflect on yourself. Have you met his expectations in this marriage?”

“You’ve been together so many years. He must still have feelings for you.”

Margaret clutched my hand.

“You have to find a way to get rid of that other woman. Once she’s gone, Daniel will come back to you in no time.”

I treated their words like noise in the wind.

What I couldn’t accept was that ten years of love had been destroyed by a woman who appeared only a month ago.

And I wasn’t about to let her win so easily.

So I sent that video of their kiss to Emily’s parents.

As educators, they were furious their daughter had become a mistress. They dragged her to my house to apologize, insisting they would take her out of Seattle.

Just then, Daniel walked in holding a birthday cake.

And Emily and her parents arrived.

Emily glared at me, eyes filled with venom.

“Sophia, I was only secretly in love with Daniel. I told you I wouldn’t ruin your marriage. You’re truly despicable.”

Before anyone could react, she suddenly leapt out the window.

The cake crashed to the ground, Daniel’s face turning ghostly pale, as if his soul had been ripped away.

He went insane, trying to rush out the window after her, but his parents grabbed him tightly.

Thankfully, it was only the second floor. Emily didn’t die, but she broke a leg.

Daniel dragged me straight to the hospital.

My arm, forehead, and knees kept smashing against the stairwell as he pulled me, blood streaming down my face.

But he didn’t care.

He threw me in front of Emily’s hospital bed, forcing my head down, shoving me to my knees to beg her forgiveness.

Everyone pointed their fingers at me, accusing me of being reckless, of nearly killing Daniel Hughes and that “innocent” girl.

I still remember the look in Daniel’s eyes—disgust, anger, disappointment. So complicated, yet cold enough to chill me to the bone.

On my knees, my voice trembled.

“I only wanted her to leave you… I never meant for it to end this way.”

Margaret Hughes ground her teeth in fury and slapped me several times across the face.

“If anything happens to Daniel, I’ll use my life to make sure you die a miserable death!”

Daniel just stood there, looking at me with no emotion in his voice.

“Sophia, thank you for making me realize just how important Emily is to me.”

“She’s just a young woman, only twenty-three, in the prime of her life, and now she’s disabled forever.”

“You are the cause of all this. You could have handled it better, but instead you chose the cruelest way.”

He gripped my chin hard.

“Atonement! Either you pay with a leg for Emily, or we get divorced. I’ll be her legs, take care of her for the rest of her life.”

All I ever wanted was to save my marriage, protect this family.

But in his eyes, there was only one truth—

I had harmed Emily, and my sin was unforgivable.

That moment, my heart froze completely.

I bit down so hard on my lip that blood seeped out before I finally forced the words out.

“Divorce.”

His fingers jolted, as if he hadn’t heard me right.

“What did you say?”

I looked at him, all emotion gone from my eyes.

“I said, we’re getting divorced.”

Daniel froze on the spot for a full thirty seconds before a mocking smile twisted his mouth.

“Fine. I was already sick of you anyway.”

That was the truth, wasn’t it?

I lowered my gaze, saying nothing more.

Because I knew—no matter what I said, I would never win against Emily.

In his eyes, I was always the one in the wrong.

I deleted every contact, booked the earliest flight out of Seattle, and vanished.

For months I lived in a daze, until I met the man who is now my husband. We soon got our marriage license.

And I finally picked up my old profession again, finding a fulfilling job at a well-known design firm.

Life became peaceful.

The name Daniel Hughes had long since faded from my memory.

I downed a glass of whiskey in one gulp.

My throat burned, my head began to swim.

“I thought you were allergic to alcohol. You never drank,” Linda asked curiously.

I shook my head. “It’s fine. I got over it.”

After the divorce, I had drowned myself in alcohol.

One time, an allergic reaction nearly killed me in the ER.

It was my current husband who dragged me back from death’s door.

Since then, the allergy somehow vanished.

Linda suddenly raised her glass with a smile and drained it.

“Blame me. I only posted the reunion notice in our Facebook Alumni Group. I should’ve messaged you directly too.”

She shook her empty glass.

“This one’s my apology. Everyone, drink up.”

She led the toast, and the atmosphere quickly grew warm and lively again.

Still, after some hesitation, she couldn’t hold back her curiosity.

“Daniel Hughes is such an outstanding man. After the divorce… you’ve never regretted it?”

“From the way he looks at you, if you just said the word, he’d take you back in a heartbeat.”

Before I could answer, a video call came through from the nanny at home.

“Ma’am, when are you coming back? The little one won’t stop crying for you. Nothing we do works.”

The camera turned, and there was my chubby one-year-old daughter.

The moment she saw me, she stopped crying, scrunching up her little face and calling out in her baby voice:

“Mommy.”