"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.

"Enough already. You hit me, fine. But it's been two days. Why are you still holding a grudge?"

"Are you mad because I didn't come home that night? What was I supposed to do? Rebecca's my employee. You think I could just leave her alone at the hospital?"

"Besides, she sprained her ankle because of you. She's not even mad at you, so can you just drop it?"

I slapped him across the face as hard as I could.

"She's mad at me? What right does she have to be mad at me? Get out. Now."

"Her ankle is my fault? Did I push her?"

"Mick, if you think the last ten years between us meant anything at all, you'll get out of my sight right now."

The slap caught him completely off guard. He was about to fire back, but then he looked up and saw my face, and the fight drained out of him.

"Maddie, that was wrong of me. I shouldn't have said that. Don't be angry."

"I'm going, I'm going. Don't make yourself sick over this. If you want to stay at the hotel, stay. Just call me when you've calmed down."

"Take care of yourself. Make sure you eat..."

I shoved him out the door and slammed it shut, cutting off whatever he hadn't finished saying.

I thought I'd get at least a couple of days of peace.

But that evening, when I stepped out of the hotel to grab dinner, Mick and Rebecca were standing right in front of me.

The moment she saw me, Rebecca grabbed my hand.

"Madeline, please stop being angry at Mick. Go home with him."

"I already told him off. My sprained ankle was my own fault for being careless. How could he blame you for that?"

"Please don't be upset anymore. If you keep being angry, I really won't know what to do with myself."

Her words sounded like an apology, but every sentence was designed to broadcast how close she and Mick really were.

When I didn't respond, irritation crept across Mick's face.

"Are you really going to keep this up? The second Rebecca heard you hadn't come home, she rushed over to apologize. Why are you still acting so above it all?"

"She's the one who came home late that night. She's the one who sprained her ankle. And somehow you're the one who's upset."

"Even if you're still angry, we've both apologized now. That should be enough."

I didn't look at Rebecca. My gaze was fixed on Mick's face.

"Have you been home at all these past three days?"

He froze. A flicker of panic crossed his expression before he cleared his throat and raised his voice.

"Rebecca was discharged the next day and went home. Where else would I be?"

"If I hadn't gone home, how would I know you haven't been there for days?"

"Madeline, can you stop being so paranoid? I'm exhausted every single day. Do I really need to deal with your irrational moods on top of everything else?"

Listening to him, all I wanted to do was laugh.

Even now, he was still lying.

The divorce papers were sitting on the coffee table in the living room. If he'd gone home, there was no way he could have missed them.

Which meant Mick hadn't set foot in that house in three days.

The realization sharpened my gaze, and that was when I noticed it: a red mark on Rebecca's neck. A hickey, unmistakable, just above her collar.