Mick Graves had invited a crowd of colleagues over for a dinner party at our place. His secretary suggested I drink with the men at the table.

"It's a celebration! I heard you used to pour drinks for a living anyway, so having a few with the guys shouldn't be a problem, right?" Rebecca Simmons said, her voice light and sweet.

I looked at my husband. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Rebecca's not wrong," Mick said. "You poured drinks at bars back in the day. What's the difference?"

"Don't kill the mood. You had no problem drinking with strangers back then. Why can't you have a few with my colleagues now?"

Every pair of eyes at the table landed on me, amused, appraising. I sat perfectly still.

When I didn't move, Mick decided I'd embarrassed him. His voice cracked through the room like a whip.

"What? Asking you to have a drink is beneath you now? If you hadn't married me, you think you'd be living like this?"

"Pick up the glass. Don't make me angry."

I didn't look at him again. I stood, walked into the bedroom, and sent my sister a message.

Denise, I'll go abroad with you.

I'm divorcing Mick.

——

After I hit send, I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing.

The bedroom door swung open. Mick walked in.

He must have noticed the look on my face, because he lowered his voice a fraction.

"They're all my business partners. How could you disrespect me like that in front of them?"

"You know how hard we worked to land this deal. I invited them here to celebrate. That's all."

"It was just a joke. Did you really have to throw a fit in front of everyone?"

I looked at the man standing before me and let out a cold laugh.

"A joke? Humiliation and mockery are just jokes to you?"

"What did you all just call me? A bar girl? You know exactly what I was doing back then. They might not know the truth, but you? You have no excuse."

"Mick, of all the people in this world, you are the last person who gets to throw that in my face."

Seven years ago, Mick and I had just graduated from college.

He didn't want to work for someone else. He wanted to build something of his own, and I threw everything I had behind that decision.

He and a handful of like-minded friends pooled their ambitions, set up a small studio, and buried themselves in product development.

To keep his dream alive, I worked a day job, promoted drinks at a bar every night, then came home and stayed up designing freelance projects for extra cash.

On weekends, I drove rideshare.

If it paid, I did it. No questions asked.

And he delivered. The tiny studio became a real company. The team grew from a handful of people to over a hundred.

Once the business was on solid ground, he told me he couldn't stand watching me run myself into the ground anymore. After we got married, he insisted I stop working.

So I listened. I stayed home, took care of the house, took care of him, and became the dutiful wife behind the successful man.

And what did it get me? Him, with his arm around another woman, laughing along while his so-called colleagues mocked me as some kind of bargirl.

A shout from the living room dragged me back to the present.

"Hey, Mr. Graves! You okay in there?"

"Big-shot CEO can't even keep his own wife in line?"

"Maybe your wife doesn't want us here. She should've just said so. We would've stayed home!"

Laughter erupted on the other side of the door. Not a shred of regard for me in any of it.

Mick's jaw tightened. Terrified of losing face, he raised his voice and roared at me.

"Madeline McDaniel! You think I'm being too easy on you?"

"Every single person out there is my brother. You disrespect them, you disrespect me!"

"Seems like these past few years have been a little too comfortable for you. Now you think you can pull this attitude with me."

I opened my mouth to fire back, but Rebecca Simmons appeared in the doorway, her expression arranged into something gracious and concerned.

"Oh, Mr. Graves, don't be so hard on her. We're partly to blame too."

She turned to me, her voice dripping with manufactured warmth. "But you have to admit, everyone's in a good mood tonight. You really shouldn't have ruined it for them."

"Alright, alright, everyone made mistakes. Let's not fight. Come on out, Maddie."

I shot Rebecca a cold look.

"I don't think I was offended. You actually offended me. The fact that I didn't flip the table over should tell you I have a pretty good temper."

"Now, if you don't mind, get out of my house. I need to rest."

My voice carried. Every word landed without an ounce of courtesy, and the living room fell dead silent.

Mick's jaw clenched. He ground out each word through his teeth.

"Madeline, it seems I've been way too good to you all these years."

"Stay in your room and think about what you've done, you embarrassment. You've been cooped up in this house so long it's rotted your brain."

With that, he turned and walked out with Rebecca at his side. He didn't spare me a single glance.

The door clicked shut.

I pressed my hand slowly against my lower belly, and the tears came streaming down.

A month ago, there had been a baby growing inside me.

Mick was always busy with work, always out entertaining clients, always drinking and smoking. The pregnancy hadn't been planned. It was an accident.

The baby didn't pass the prenatal screening. A month ago, I'd had the procedure.

What good did sharp words do now?

Mick and I had been together seven years. Married for three.

From eighteen to twenty-eight, he'd carved himself across every year of my youth.

And I had just lost our child.

How could my heart not ache?

I didn't know how much time passed before silence settled outside the door again. Then Mick walked back into the room.

"They've all gone home. Go clean up the dining table."

"Rebecca's a young woman. It's late, and it's not safe for her to go home alone. She can stay in the guest room."

"She's had too much to drink. I'm going to check on her. Once you're done cleaning up, go to bed. Don't wait up."

A bitter laugh curled inside my chest.

Check on her? Did he really think I was that stupid?

My gaze drifted to the suitcase I'd already packed.

It looked like Mick wasn't coming back to the bedroom tonight.

I'd rest, then leave at dawn. No point in letting him find out and starting another fight.

But when I stepped out of the bathroom after washing up, Mick was sitting on the edge of the bed. He seemed to have been waiting for me.

"I know you're upset about today. Fine, okay, I was wrong. Stop being angry."

"You know how it is. I'm a man. Men doing business out there need to save face sometimes."

"Don't give me the silent treatment. I already apologized."

I was about to respond when his phone chimed with a notification.

He read the message, and his expression shifted. He looked up at me, a flicker of anger in his eyes.

"This is all because of your little tantrum!"

"Rebecca says since you're unhappy, she's not staying. She left on her own."

"It's the middle of the night. She left from our house. If something happens to her out there, what then?"

He grabbed his jacket and rushed out the door.

I didn't want anything to do with their business anymore. But he was right about one thing: she had left from our home.

After a moment's thought, I changed my clothes and followed him out.

I hadn't gone far before I spotted Rebecca sitting alone beneath a streetlamp on the curb.

The second she saw Mick, her eyes turned red and glassy. She choked back a sob as she explained.

"I was trying to call a car here, but I didn't watch my step on the curb and twisted my ankle."

"Mr. Graves, am I just hopeless? I'm always causing you trouble."

"I know it's so late, but Madeline seemed upset. I really didn't dare stay at your place."

Mick listened to every pitiful word. Then he turned and shot me a vicious glare before bending down and scooping Rebecca into his arms.

"Look at what you've done. If you hadn't thrown that tantrum, Rebecca never would have sprained her ankle."

"Go home by yourself. I'm taking her to the hospital."

"You'd better pray her foot is fine."

With that, Mick scooped Rebecca into his arms and walked away without a backward glance.

I stood there alone, watching until they disappeared from sight.

I stared down the empty street, my nose stinging, tears threatening to fall.

It's too late at night. It's not safe for a girl to be out alone.

That was what he'd said about her. But what about me? Was I safe?

When I got home, my gaze landed on the suitcase.

Then I'll leave tonight. Mick wouldn't be coming back anyway.

Before I left, I went to the study, printed out a divorce agreement, signed my name, and placed it on the coffee table in the living room.

Goodbye, Mick.

My sister lived abroad year-round. I had no other place to stay in the country, so all I could do was check into a hotel and wait for her to come get me.

Too much had happened today. Sleep was the furthest thing from my mind.

I pulled out my phone and opened a short-video app, only to notice an unread message in my inbox.

I tapped it. An account I didn't recognize had shared a video with me.

In the video, Mick sat beside a hospital bed, gently cradling a foot and blowing softly on it.

The toenails were painted a delicate pink. Unmistakably a woman's foot.

I scrolled to the comments.

"Only Rebecca could make our Mr. Graves this worried, huh?"

"What happened to Rebecca? A night like this should be worth a fortune, but that looks like a hospital?"

"Bro, you clearly don't get it. Looks like things got a little too intense tonight—had to take it all the way to the ER, lol."

…

After reading those comments, there was nothing left for me to misunderstand.

Rebecca and Mick's relationship had been an open secret for a long time.

I was the only one who hadn't known.

I watched the man in the video, brow furrowed, blowing gently on that foot, and my heart sank. Then it sank further.

On our wedding day, when he'd come to take me to the ceremony, Mick had kissed the top of my foot and made me a solemn vow, word by word.

"The kiss on the foot means that every road in this life, I will walk beside you."

"Madeline, I, Mick Graves, swear I will never betray you."

"In this life. In every life."

Three years ago, he had done that for me and carried me into our home as his bride.

Three years later, he was doing it for Rebecca. And I had already left that home.

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of my lips. I typed Congratulations in the comment section, then locked my phone.

I stayed in that hotel for two full days.

Early on the morning of the third day, I was jolted awake by heavy pounding on the door.

I opened it. Standing in the hallway was Mick.

The moment he saw it was me, his face went dark. He shoved past me into the room, eyes scanning every corner as if searching for something.

"I checked the location on your phone. You've been at a hotel these past few days, haven't you?"

"Where is he? Where's the guy you're screwing?"

"I have to hand it to you, Madeline. The second I walk out the door, you run off to get a room with someone else. I really underestimated you."

Mick and I had shared the same phone account for years. I'd completely forgotten he could track my location.

His words hit me like a slap, and I snapped.

"Mick, don't be so disgusting! Just because you're garbage doesn't mean the rest of the world is dirty too!"

"Get out! Get the hell out of here!"

He searched the room thoroughly. Only after he'd confirmed there wasn't a single trace of another man did his tone soften.