It was as if Nancy had truly made up her mind to cut ties with Shawn forever. Before leaving, she didn't forget to take with her the nightgown and thong she had "accidentally" left behind.

Shawn panicked instantly. "Nancy!"

He made to run after her. But before he could even take a step, Clementine's cries stopped him in his tracks.

And the moment his friends saw that Nancy had left in a huff, they immediately swarmed around me and turned their anger on me all at once.

"Karina, look at what you've done! Nancy came here out of kindness to celebrate Clementine's birthday, and you just had to drive her away!"

"What do you expect from a gold digger? She'll always be petty and tacky. If Nancy really had intentions toward Shawn, do you honestly think a florist like you could have married into his family?"

"Shawn, Nancy might not hold what happened today against you, but as her friends, we have to demand justice for her!"

They all fixed their eyes on me simultaneously.

"If you two don't go and apologize to Nancy, none of us will ever set foot in your house again!"

Before long, the guests had all cleared out completely.

The vast living room was left with nothing but a scene of devastation and Clementine's broken, intermittent sobs.

Shawn rubbed his throbbing temples, then suddenly kicked over the potted flowers by his feet.

"Are you happy now that it's turned into such a mess?"

Instead of answering, I simply stared at the broken pot of butterfly orchids.

Suddenly, I recalled the summer I met Shawn. He was the one who had stood with me in the rain, hawking flowers, and pushing the cart together.

He was the one who had secretly called up his own friends and used his own money to buy out every last flower on the cart. Bit by bit, he helped me scrape together the medical bills for my mother, Wanda Cobb.

Later, we finally fell in love, got married, and had Clementine.

In the days when our love was at its deepest, he said he would never let me stand in the rain or suffer hardship ever again. He also said he would always stay by my side and give me a happy home.

But when Nancy returned from abroad, everything changed.

Without me noticing when, Shawn quietly swapped out our matching couple profile pictures. When we went out, he no longer wanted to wear the flashy coordinated couple outfits with me.

And he, who once couldn't even bring himself to ride a roller coaster with me, had somewhere along the way learned to love everything Nancy did—skydiving, bungee jumping, and drag racing.

All these tiny changes gathered like streams merging into an ocean, washing away the old Shawn beyond all recognition little by little. And the ridiculous thing was, he still had the nerve to deny that his feelings hadn't changed.

As I snapped back to the present, Shawn seemed to have calmed down a little too. He stepped forward and took hold of my ice-cold hand.

"I'm sorry, Karina. I shouldn't have lost my temper at you during Clementine's birthday party. But Nancy and I really are just good friends, nothing more.

"The whole thing with the divorce papers was just an accident, and I've never once thought about leaving you and Clementine. I promise to see less of Nancy from now on, okay?"

As he spoke, Shawn seemed to transform back into the person he used to be. His eyes were sincere, and it didn't look like an act.

In the past, even as recently as just three days ago, I might have relented for Clementine's sake.

But now, looking at the face I had once fallen for countless times, all I could think about was the first time Nancy and I had a fight and how she disappeared immediately afterward.

Shawn used my account to write an apology in his friends' group chat, begging for forgiveness. In the end, he managed to coax Nancy into coming back. But in doing so, he made me the laughingstock of our entire circle.

And the night Clementine had a heart attack, Shawn was off with Nancy, partying the night away at Dream Park.

Thus, I slowly pulled my hand back.

"No, I want a divorce."

In an instant, shock, panic, and indignation flickered through Shawn's eyes one after another.

"Karina, have you lost your mind? Must you tear this family apart before you'll be satisfied?"

"It's not. It's you. You're the one who betrayed our marriage!"

In the midst of the argument, a frantic voice burst in from outside the door.

"Shawn, bad news! Nancy's been in a car accident!"

I stood at the doorway, watching the taillights of Shawn's car disappear into the night.

It wasn't until Clementine pressed her tiny, warm body against me that I finally snapped out of the numbing cold. I held her tight and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. Then, I turned around and went back inside to start packing.

Clothes, documents, Clementine's baby formula and vaccination records—one by one, I erased every single trace of my presence in this house. The moment I finished booking the plane tickets, I suddenly felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

By the time Shawn came back, the sky had already brightened. He pushed open the door and froze for a second when he saw the open suitcase sitting in the middle of the living room.

"Karina, what are you kicking up a fuss about now?"

Instead of answering, I just kept folding Clementine's clothes.

He grabbed my wrist and yanked me to a stop, his voice simmering with suppressed anger.

"Nancy got into a car accident last night because of you, and now she's lying in the hospital refusing to see me. She won't even let me visit her. What more do you want from me?"

I looked up at him expressionlessly.

"Do you have to push me until I've completely lost all patience with you before you'll be satisfied? Karina, are you really asking me to cut off a friendship of over ten years with her just for you?"

A friendship of over ten years.

Suddenly, I let out a laugh.

So it turned out that Clementine and I meant less to him than his so-called friendship with Nancy.

"If she means that much to you, then why did you pursue me in the first place?"

Shawn froze.

"And haven't I already agreed to the divorce so that the two of you can be together?"

With red-rimmed eyes, I pulled my hand out of his grasp.

"I should be the one asking you what more you want from me!"

"Divorce, divorce, divorce! Is that the only word you know how to say?"

With a furious sweep of his arm, he sent the suitcase crashing to the floor.

Clementine was instantly startled and burst into wailing sobs.

I instinctively tried to run to her, only to trip over the scattered suitcase. My whole body came crashing down hard, and the back of my waist slammed against the corner of the coffee table.

A searing pain shot through me, so intense that my face drained of all color.

That year, when Nancy caused me to fall and go into premature labor, my lower back had been severely injured. Even to this day, just bending over to pick something up still sent a dull ache through me.

"Karina, what's wrong?" Shawn walked over with Clementine in his arms and asked anxiously, "Did you hurt your back? I'll take you to the hospital right now."

He bent down, about to help me up, when one of his friends, Doug Finley, suddenly called him.

"Shawn, get over here right now! Nancy's awake, and the moment she didn't see you, she started throwing a fit about going to a bar to get drunk!"

Shawn's hand froze mid-air, and in an instant, he forgot all about my back injury.

"What did you say? She's willing to see me?"

He immediately straightened up, unable to hide the sheer excitement in his voice.

"Tell her not to go anywhere. I'll be right there."

He stuffed Clementine into my arms and rushed out the door without so much as a backward glance.

The door slammed shut, and with that bang, the last shred of hope I'd been holding onto was shaken loose.

With Clementine cradled in my arms, I called for a ride and painfully made my way to the hospital, where I registered myself and got an X-ray.

As I passed the neighboring hospital room, I saw Nancy's bed crowded with people.

And Shawn, who had promised me to see less of Nancy just a few hours ago, was now down on his hands and knees, barking like a dog, just to cheer her up.

I tore my gaze away from that nauseating scene and looked back at the message Shawn had sent me just minutes before.

"Honey, I ordered some pain relief cream for you. They'll be delivered soon. Something came up with work, so I won't be coming home tonight."

In that moment, I found it all utterly laughable.

In the middle of the night, after finally managing to put Clementine to sleep, I had just closed my eyes when the sound of laughter and flirtation suddenly drifted in from the next room.

"You know I can't stand being away from you for even half a day, so why did you deliberately give me the silent treatment?" Shawn asked.

"That's what you get for sticking up for that old hag and forgetting all about your friends," Nancy replied, her voice uncharacteristically coquettish and petulant.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Sorry about what?"

"About… letting you go half a day without seeing me?"

"That's it? Aren't you going to make it up to me somehow? Shawn, I'm not as easy to brush off as that old hag of yours."

"How about this, then? Satisfied?"

"Shawn, you dog. Take it easy—if you leave marks, you'll be hearing from me!"

The man who had sworn that Nancy and he were just good friends now seemed to be pouring out all his pent-up frustration and desire in one go.

The sound of the headboard slamming against the wall, Shawn's heavy breathing, and Nancy's screams crashed into my ears one after another.

At the same time, an unknown number sent me a photo. In the image, Shawn's profile was buried in the crook of Nancy's neck, her bare shoulders covered in provocative scratch marks.

I clutched my phone, my knuckles turning white. Even though I had long steeled myself for this, the moment I saw it with my own eyes, it still felt as if thousands of needles were piercing my heart.

I didn't know how I made it through the night, nor did I know when I finally cried myself to sleep.

It wasn't until Clementine's heart-wrenching wails jolted me awake, and I snapped my eyes open to see Nancy standing right in front of the crib. She was shoving something into Clementine's mouth.

Clementine kept throwing up, white foam spilling from her lips.

I instantly lost it.

I lunged forward and yanked Nancy away from the crib. She stumbled to the ground, and I threw myself on top of her, slapping her repeatedly.

"You evil woman! What did you do to Clementine?"

The next second, a tremendous force hurled me off Nancy. The moment my back hit the floor, I heard the sound of bones cracking.

"Karina, have you lost your mind?"

Shawn stood shielding Nancy behind him, looking at me as if I were some unreasonable lunatic.

"Why did you hit Nancy? She was only trying to feed Clementine some milk!"

I braced myself against the edge of the table and struggled to my feet, staring at him in utter disbelief.

"Are you sure she was feeding Clementine, and not trying to harm her? Have you forgotten about the last time she put a dead rat under Clementine's blanket? Or is it because she slept with you last night that you don't even want Clementine anymore?"

Before I had even finished speaking, he slapped me hard right across the face.

"You are absolutely impossible! What has Nancy ever done to you for you to keep slinging mud at her like this?"

I stared at Shawn in disbelief, feeling as if someone had gouged a hole straight through my heart.

There was nothing left to say.

Clenching my jaw, I scooped Clementine up and turned to leave.

Half an hour later, after calming Nancy down, Shawn searched the entire hospital but couldn't find any trace of Clementine and me.

Only when his patience had completely run dry did he finally send me a text.

"I don't have time to play hide-and-seek with you. The day after tomorrow is Nancy's birthday. Come apologize and we'll put everything that happened before behind us."

I didn't reply. Instead, I boarded a plane with Clementine in my arms.

Two days later, Shawn booked out an entire restaurant to throw Nancy an extravagantly grand birthday party.

"Shawn, is Karina still mad at me? Is that why she won't even come to my birthday party?"

Nancy, perched on her stiletto heels, lazily brushed her long legs against Shawn.

"As if she would ever dare to do that. She's nothing but a lowly flower vendor. Does she really think she's climbed her way up into high society?"

"Shawn, we agreed today that you have to make Karina get down on her knees and apologize to Nancy."

"We can't just let what happened at Clementine's birthday party and at the hospital slide."

Meanwhile, Shawn saw that his messages had been read but not replied to. With a frown, he sent me one final warning.

"Karina, my patience has its limits—"

But before he could even finish typing, his phone and the phones of everyone else there all buzzed at once.

Everyone instinctively tapped to open it.

Then, every single face in the room turned ashen in unison.

"W-What is this?"