Nicolas was busy loosening his tie, raising an eyebrow and giving a smirk.

“What are you talking about? Isn’t that why we’re in this position right now?”

I never imagined he could go to such lengths just to annoy me.

His warm breath was close behind me and I couldn’t hold back any longer—I started gagging.

Nicolas almost instantly backed away, his face showing clear signs of disgust and anger. Once I managed to compose myself, he grabbed my face firmly.

“So now I’m repulsive to you, huh? But didn’t you say you loved me, what happened? Can’t no longer keep up the act, Rowena?”

Tears started to slide down my cheeks and he let go quickly, as if burned by my reaction.

I forced a smile, feeling a strange calm inside me.

“I don’t love you anymore. A cheating man is like a rotting carcass — foul, repulsive and impossible to ignore once the stench fills the air. No matter how well you try to hide it, the decay always seeps through, leaving nothing but disgust and betrayal."

Nicolas' face changed and he seemed ready to argue, but when he saw how pale I had become, he shut his mouth.

“Say whatever you want, but you have to remember that I own you, Rowena. and I’ll make you regret ever saying that to me,” he muttered, throwing those words at me before walking into the bathroom with his clothes in hand.

I held back my disgust and walked to the living room, gulping down a glass of water. Tears spilled uncontrollably, blurring my vision.

Nicolas wasn’t wrong — he did owe me.

The weather report show had already been canceled and the rain outside picked up, pattering against the windows.

My phone buzzed a few times. It was a message from Annette.

She sent a few screenshots of her bank transfers, along with a few lines of Nicolas’ complaints about me.

“I really can’t stand her. Always walking around with that sour face, acting like I really owe her something!”

“She has no sense of fun! Every time something good happens, she always ruins the mood—so boring!”

“Are you done with work yet? Change into something nice, I’ll pick you up.” 

I opened a voice message from Annette and her playful, naive voice filled my ears.

“Did you watch my show, Rowena? It’s my first time on screen. Nicolas said I did better than you, so he even sent me five million for luxury items.”

“By the way, I heard Nicolas said you were upset because of your layoff? I’m here to talk some sense into you. Being upset will only make you age faster. After all, you’re already twenty-six, so you can’t compare with us twenty-year-old girls.”

I closed my eyes, already used to Annette’s occasional provocations. But right now, I couldn’t take it anymore. Opening my eyes again, I clicked on my brother’s chat.

Last year, my brother had sent me an application for a job opportunity at a major network. Back then, I still wanted to give Nicolas one last chance and had turned my brother down. After thinking it over, I realized how foolish I had been at the time.

But now, I had given Nicolas three chances and with the layoff and the two incidents that followed, all the chances I’d given him were gone. My feelings for him had completely faded.

“About that application you mentioned last year—if I fill it out now, will it still be valid?”

His reply came almost immediately. “It will be.”

“But... have you really thought this through?”

“Yeah,” I replied, wiping away my tears.

“And what about the offer I made to you? What do you say?”

“I’ve made up my mind. I do, Kyle.”

Although my brother was an adopted son, my father had once considered him as a potential son-in-law before he passed away. If my parents were still around, I didn’t think they would have opposed it. As for Nicolas and me, there was no need to drag it out anymore. My feelings to him and our marriage had reached their end.

Nicolas didn’t say a word after his shower. He grabbed his coat and left.

For the next ten days, he moved in with Annette. Every day, I received photos of them together—Annette seemed to love rubbing it in. The day we were supposed to file for divorce, I didn’t go. Kyle had made a tight schedule for all the proceedings of our marriage and sent me home right then. As the plane I was on soared into the sky, I fell asleep, slipping into a deep dream.

Actually, things weren’t always this bad between Nicolas and me. When we first got together, our marriage wasn’t as strained. Though it had been arranged by our families, we spent the first three years living in quiet, respectful harmony.

But if I’m being truthful, I think it was because I loved him. We had known each other since childhood. We were close—the kind of close that deepened over time, from innocent teenage affection to something more profound. That’s why I never objected to the idea of an arranged marriage.

Nicolas, on the other hand, resisted fiercely at first. He would pull me aside and insist we should reject the arrangement and go our separate ways. Out of selfishness, I refused. I couldn’t bring myself to let him go. So, I let the marriage happen.

Then, out of nowhere, Nicolas gave in.

In the beginning, after we were married, we lived more like roommates—under the same roof but emotionally distant. But as time went on, I noticed something changing in him. Maybe he had started to like me, even just a little. 

Every day when he came home, he brought me something—a surprise to brighten my day. Sometimes it was flowers; other times, delicious food. And at night, he would pull me close, holding me as we slept.

The worst part came when people started leaving comments on the weather station’s website where I worked, asking to meet me. Nicolas flipped. He was furious. He pinned me to the bed for an entire week, acting like a possessive puppy, never wanting to leave my side and demanding I not even glance at other men. For an entire week, I couldn’t even go to the bathroom without him holding me. That was our fourth year of marriage.

Then the news came—Nicolas’ first love, the one he had never truly gotten over, had married and started a family. I overheard it from the elders during our annual family gathering. And then Annette showed up. She had that same innocent, pure charm, the kind that mirrored his first love’s allure.

And it was around that time when Nicolas discovered it— my phone’s memo. In it, I had written down everything—every hidden feeling I had for him, from my teenage years all the way to our marriage. And that was when he snapped.

He believed I had conspired with his family to drive away his first love, but the truth was, I didn’t even know about her. I didn’t know he had been seeing anyone. I had no idea about his past relationship at all.

But Nicolas wouldn’t listen. From then on, he started to act out, constantly opposing me.

Annette’s first year on the scene stirred up a scandal, one that shook our marriage to its core. With photos, videos and all kinds of evidence, Nicolas pressured me to step up and clear the air. I was labeled by the media as weak, “love-sick,” and “pathetic.” The viewership of the weather broadcasts I hosted dropped through the floor.

In the second year, things got worse. I found out I was pregnant. Annette, of course, played the drama queen and cried, creating a scene that pulled at Nicolas’ heartstrings.

He remembered the pain of losing his first love and in a moment of weakness, he made a cruel decision. He gave me medicine to “help” with the pregnancy. It was meant to promote blood circulation and reduce swelling, but for me, it was poison.

At the time, I was already in a fragile state. I was supposed to be protecting the pregnancy, but after taking those pills, I started bleeding uncontrollably.

As I my skirt soaked with blood. He just watched, cold and detached as he stunted me.

Blood seeped through my skirt, pooling beneath me, yet he just stood there, watching with a cold, detached expression. His words lashed out, sharp and venomous.

“Does it hurt? When I ended things with her, it felt like this. No, it was a million times worse!”

“So this is why you didn’t mind the marriage, isn’t it? All because of you. Pretending so well, hiding your feelings for me, pushing my parents to forget about her and acting like you were the victim.”

“Now suffer! This pain is exactly what you deserve for everything you've done. You're nothing but a pathetic faker!”

I couldn’t care less. The pain was too much and I passed out. With the little mercy he had left, he reluctantly carried me and rushed me to the hospital. The doctors said that if I had arrived any later, I would have died. And now, three years after Annette showed up, I was forced to quit my job.

***

I didn’t realize the missed calls from Nicolas until I landed in Eldermere later that evening. I opened the voice message he had sent me. His voice, dripping with sarcasm, filled my ears.

“Lost your nerve all of sudden? Why don’t you come get the divorce certificate? Scared that seeing me will make you weak like the last two times?”

“I don’t get you, Rowena. You act like you’re so over me, but deep down, you’re still crazy about me. And now you’re pretending you want a divorce? Can you stop this childish behavior? You’re a grown woman, for crying out loud!”

“I’ll let you have your way this time. Consider it a lesson. Use this time to think about all your mistakes and when you’ve come to your senses, you can come back and we can talk about getting back together.”

“But you need to remember this is the last time. No more chances. And you should understand, if I take this seriously, you’ll regret it.”

I didn’t respond. Instead, I took out the SIM card, logged out of my accounts and shut everything down.

Nicolas wasn’t wrong. The first two times I tried to divorce him, I did back down, letting my emotions get the best of me. But this time, I was determined. I didn’t avoid it out of fear, but because I was pressed for time. I had a flight to catch. It wasn’t that I didn’t want the divorce.

In Eldermere, the first person I saw when I get to home was our family’s butler. He was an old man, someone my father trusted for years. My brother had planned the wedding schedule tightly, so I was a bit nervous.

But it wasn’t until the wedding day that I saw Lyle waiting to take me to the ceremony. It had been six years since we last saw each other and now here we were, heading to my wedding. I felt uneasy.

“Hi, Lyle…” I muttered quietly. I was too nervous and didn’t know what to call him.

Lyle raised an eyebrow as he looked at me, a smile spreading across his lips.

“Looks like we have a lot of work to do to get you used to calling me by my new name, Ro.” Lyle stepped closer and whispered in my ear, “From now on, you’ll call me 'baby.’” His grin grew wider.

——

As I got into the wedding car, an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Lyle sat beside me, doing his best to appear composed, but I could see the subtle tension flicker in his eyes. I returned his gaze with a faint smile, trying to reassure him—or maybe myself.

Just then, a sleek luxury car passed us and that’s when I saw Nicolas. As if sensing my presence, he turned his head and looked out the window. When two more cars passed behind his, my heart skipped a beat. He saw me.