I gave up a vast fortune to be with my boyfriend Terrence.

In our poorest days, we didn't even have a single grain of rice at home.

Terrence went out to fight in underground rings, never surrendering once even when he was beaten black and blue.

With his blood and sweat, he paved the path to our future brick by brick.

In the present, his name was uttered with an undeniable tone of respect, while I was known far and wide as his missus, the woman he treasured above anyone or anything.

One year, when I left the country because of a family emergency, I learned that he even started seeing a therapist due to separation anxiety. Everyone said that Terrence loved me more than life itself, and I had believed it too, wholeheartedly.

Until I stood on our balcony, watching him tightly embracing another woman in the villa next door.

"Even though Tanya is back, the very thought of losing you makes me lose control… I can't live without you, Mia…

"If any other men ever appear by your side, I might just end up killing them…"

His voice was a low rumble, tinged with a sort of unconscious madness.

"B-But what about your wife? Didn't you say that she means more to you than your own life?"

"Well, we just have to keep this hidden better, don't we? I want to always be with you…"

My hand trembled, and I accidentally cut my hand with the fruit knife I was holding, but I felt no pain at all.

To think that just one year apart was enough to shatter thirty years of love and mutual support…

With trembling hands, I picked up my phone and called my mother.

"Mom, I'm feeling homesick… Can you get me a new identity and a one-way ticket out of the country?"

"You can always come home, sweetheart," my mother replied, as caring as ever.

After I hung up, the memories of the past thirty years played in my mind like an old movie, frame by frame.

Back when we were children, still playing in the mud, he had grabbed my hand and promised to marry me when we grew up.

When I was bullied at school, he took on ten kids by himself, shielding me with his battered body and flashing a cheeky grin through the pain. "Don't be scared! No one will ever bully you again!"

In our rental apartment, he worked nonstop—fighting in underground rings, working part-time, and even selling his blood, before tucking each and every cent he made into my hands with care.

"I'll prove to everyone that you made the right choice by picking me."

Later, after he rose to fame and was revered by many, he adopted the habit of going to auctions and winning bids just to please me.

But now, Mia was the one he couldn't live without.

All those memories that I treasured so dearly became knives, slicing back and forth across my heart.

I looked down at my palm, sliced open by the knife. The cut was deep, and blood dripped steadily onto the floor, but I strangely didn't feel a thing.

"Tanya!"

Terrence was back.

When he saw the wound in my hand, his expression changed drastically, and he immediately rushed to my side. The panic and anguish in his eyes were so intense, so sincere, that for a split second, I almost believed he still loved me.

He gripped my wrist so tightly that his fingers trembled, but his fingers cautiously avoided the wound.

"What happened? How could you be so careless?"

Before I could pull my hand away, a gentle voice came from the door. It was Mia, walking in with a bowl. Her eyes were curved into a warm smile as she looked at me kindly.

"Tanya, Terrence has been having trouble sleeping lately, so I made him some soup to help."

Then, she handed the bowl of soup to Terrence, her expression filled with worry.

Terrence accepted the bowl of soup, yet his gaze never left the wound on my hand. "Thanks."

Mia's hand casually rested on his arm, and she gently patted it, her tone affectionate as she spoke, "Drink it before it cools, Terrence. It won't work as well if it's cold."

Just then, Terrence's assistant, Robin, rushed in with a stack of documents. Clearly not fully assessing the situation and eager to please upon seeing Mia gazing tenderly at Terrence, he exclaimed, "Ah, so the new missus is here! I was wondering why you were so happy today, sir!"

The air in the room froze to a halt.

Robin, remaining ever oblivious, continued, "She's so thoughtful, even bringing you soup! Everyone in the company's been talking about you having a new lover, but no one's really believed it!

"Goodness, your honeymoon phase is seriously sweet, sir! When's the wedding banquet? We need time to prepare our wedding gifts…"

The moment Robin saw me, his voice cut off abruptly, his face turning startlingly pale as he stood there, not knowing what to do.

I looked at him, then at Terrence's stiff expression, then at Mia, who was on the verge of tears.

Suddenly, I found it all quite comical.

The whole world knew about his infidelity… Except for me, his wife.

I must have looked like an idiot.

Terrence's face was ashen, and the air around him was so heavy it felt suffocating. Through clenched teeth, he said, "Don't you know how to think before you speak? Tanya is the only woman who will be my wife, now and forever."

He proclaimed it with such conviction that I would've believed him, if not for what I witnessed on the balcony just moments ago.

Turning to look at the young man that was so scared he was on the verge of tears, and I sincerely felt sorry for him.

Tugging my hand away from Terrence's iron grip, I ignored his stunned expression and walked towards his assistant, picking up the documents from the floor and handing it over to him, patting his shoulder.

"Don't worry," I reassured him, turning my gaze towards Terrence. "Mia's young, pretty, and caring too, so it's easy to see why you made that mistake."

The silence in the room was stifling, but it was shattered with a sudden cry of pain.

Mia stood there in her white dress, eyes red and rimmed with tears, looking like a startled rabbit.

Somehow, at some point, she'd ended up with a thin silver acupuncture needle stuck into the back of her hand, the tip of the needle still trembling faintly.

"Terrence…" She muttered, her voice close to a sob but clear enough that everyone in the room could hear, "Y-You've been having heart palpitations, and I wanted to help with acupuncture, but I'm too clumsy…"

I lowered my eyes.

How ironic.

A year ago, after I left the country, Terrence had suffered from insomnia and relentless heart palpitations. The reason why he went to therapists and used acupuncture and medicine to fall asleep in the first place was because he missed me too much.

And now, even when I returned to his side, he still needed it all… So who exactly was keeping him up at night?

Mia's tears fell in streams, and she bit her lip hard but didn't dare to sob out loud, just looking helplessly at Terrence with those tear-filled eyes.

Instinctively, Terrence started moving in her direction, but then forced himself to stop.

Stiffly, he turned back, reached out and gripped my hand, so tightly it was frightening. His gaze, however, kept flitting towards Mia, as if he were magnetized.

In the end, he gulped and grabbed a roll of gauze and a bottle of disinfectant, before throwing them to her haphazardly.

"Treat it yourself."

Then, he turned back to me and crouched down, carefully raising my hand. "Tanya, does it hurt?"

His movements were gentle, and so was his tone, but his attention was clearly not on me, nor my wounded hand. All of it was attracted by the woman across the room, clumsily trying to bandage herself while wincing from the sting of disinfectant.

Terrence's eyes were filled with pity, frustration, and care that he couldn't hide.

Seeing him like this, I drew my hand away carefully and lightly.

"It's fine." I looked at his eyes, my gaze, unwavering. "It's not like I could die from this, anyway."

Right then, Mia clutched her hand and ran out. Terrence withstood barely ten seconds of it before his expression went grim, and he told me, "There's been an emergency with one of my projects, so I have to go to the company."

His phone hadn't even rang. He didn't even bother to spend a few brain cells on thinking of a plausible excuse.

I walked to the window, and there they were in the yard of the villa next door. Terrence, who just said that he was heading to his company moments ago, was holding Mia in a tight embrace, examining her hand carefully.

As they stood there, the wind carried their conversation to my ears.

Mia's voice came soft and filled with sorrow, as if she was facing a great injustice. "Terrence, I hate sneaking around like this… Everyone thinks that Tanya's your wife, not me…"

Terrence sighed, his voice a low whisper. "Just wait a little longer, Mia. Tanya and I have known each other for nearly thirty years. If we move too fast, she might not be able to handle the shock, and going public would hurt your reputation too."

He paused, then gently cupped Mia's face with one hand, as if he were handling fragile glass. "Remember this, you dummy. We're husband and wife by law, so it's only a matter of time before we can be with each other openly."

They were married, huh?

So it wasn't that Robin didn't assess the situation clearly, but that he assessed it far too well.

At that moment, my phone buzzed in my palm. It was a message from Mia.

Just a video, with no caption attached.

The footage was shaky, but I could immediately tell that it was a video taken in the hotel suite that I stayed in last year, while I was recuperating from my illness overseas.

I was there, laying on the bed, breaths steady and completely unaware.

Then, the camera flipped. There Terrence was, shirtless and grinning like he'd just pulled off a prank. He held a finger to his lips, smiling with mischievous satisfaction.

Then, he waved someone in, and Mia entered the frame completely naked.

Terrence dragged her over to him and pressed her onto the other side of the bed I was lying on, clapping his hand over her mouth so that she wouldn't wake me up.

On the night I thought he had flown across the world, suffering from lovesickness for me…

The night my heart ached for him, for his exhaustion from rushing to my side across oceans…

Such a dirty, lecherous scene was playing in the room that I thought was only meant for us two.

The next moment, a few more messages came through.

"Tanya, he said that he was more excited, doing it while looking at your face…"

"He had lots of fun, you know?"

Suddenly feeling nauseous, I staggered into the bathroom and vomited endlessly into the toilet.

The bitter and sour bile burned my throat, yet I didn't feel any pain.

Thirty years spent with the man I viewed as my childhood sweetheart, and all the pure memories we had were destroyed by him in the dirtiest way possible.

Steadying myself against the cold basin, I looked at the woman reflected in the mirror—eyes reddened, pale and haggard as a ghost.

I tried to force a smile.

When I was faced with pain that was almost enough to destroy me, I couldn't even bring myself to cry. If anything, everything seemed like nothing but a cruel joke.

However, my face was already stiff.

How could he do something like that, then wake up and cook breakfast for me the very next morning like nothing had ever happened? He should receive an Oscar for his performance.

I slowly shuffled back to my room, dragging my feet. Terrence's jacket was still dangling over the sofa, one corner hanging down to the floor.

I bent down to pick it up, intending to hang it properly. It was muscle memory, at this point, a habit etched into my bones.

As my fingers brushed against the pocket, I felt something firm and square. It wasn't the old lighter that I bought him while working part-time, all those years ago.

My chest tightened, and I reached in.

What I pulled out almost made me recoil… It was a marriage certificate.

Flipping it open, I saw a picture of Terrence and Mia leaning against each other, smiling sweetly and brightly.

The date of registration was half a year ago.

That was the day I was diagnosed with major depression, and the day he dropped everything to be with me in my darkest hour… Or so I thought.

Turns out, he wasn't even there for me.

He was there to get married… and to have a honeymoon like no other.