"Caroline is definitely career-driven, and she takes good care of Noah too."

"But when it comes to feelings... who can really say?"

Letitia caught the implication. The smile tugging at the corners of her mouth was barely containable.

A strange, bittersweet ache bloomed somewhere near my heart.

I steadied myself for a moment, then walked up to the counter and asked the owner to pack up an order of fried rice.

"Babe?"

Corey spotted me and went visibly stiff, scratching the back of his head with a guilty sort of restlessness. "The band's having a dinner tonight. I forgot to mention it. What are you doing here...?"

"Hey, sis!"

Letitia's voice rang out, bright and chipper. "We just got started. Want to join us?"

Then she tugged at Corey's sleeve and pouted.

"Honestly, Corey, how could you not tell her? Now she has to eat all by herself, poor thing."

I heard exactly what she meant. My expression didn't change.

"No need. Noah spiked a fever and he's in the hospital. I need to get back."

Corey froze. His brow furrowed on instinct.

"A fever? How does a perfectly healthy kid get a fever? How are you taking care of him, Caroline?"

I tugged the corner of my mouth into something that wasn't quite a smile.

"I had work to handle—"

"Work?!" His voice shot up. "All you ever think about is work. You can't even take care of an eight-year-old, and you call yourself a mother?"

Something in what I'd said had set him off. He jabbed a finger in my direction, brimming with self-righteous fury.

"And another thing—you couldn't have called me sooner? Do you even consider me his father? I bet that's it. You look down on me. You've always looked down on me, the guy who's 'wasting his life' playing in a band!"

He was practically shaking with indignation.

"Let me tell you something—our band is competing in the National Band Championship next month. The judges think highly of us. So don't you dare look down on me!"

I listened to his tirade in silence. Around us, the rest of the band watched with thinly veiled amusement.

When he finally ran out of steam, I spoke.

"Are you done?" My voice was level. "The reason I didn't call you was because I didn't want to interrupt Letitia confessing her feelings to you at the hotel."

Corey's expression locked in place.

"Wh—what hotel? What confession? Don't make things up! Letitia and I aren't what you think."

Letitia clutched the hem of her shirt, her face flushing scarlet.

"Sis, please don't get the wrong idea. I did ask Corey to meet up, but only to thank him for letting me into the band so I could make a living. That's all. Nothing more."

Looking at the two of them squirming, a wave of exhaustion washed over me.

"Whatever. I'm leaving."

I grabbed the takeout and headed for the hospital.

Before long, footsteps trailed behind me.

Corey had followed.

"I'll come check on Noah..."

Under the medication, Noah was still asleep. I opened the container and picked at a few bites of rice.

Corey glanced at me several times before speaking, his voice low.

"Babe, you've been working hard. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blown up like that..."

He knew perfectly well why we'd gotten married. We'd done it for Noah.

Corey had spent the first twenty years of his life in a band—never earning much, but living free. I was an investment manager at a securities firm, surrounded by money every day. If it hadn't been for that one drunken night when we crossed a line, neither of us would have given the other a second look.

Two weeks later, I showed up at his door with the ultrasound results and laid it all on the table.

Maybe it was because I looked so uncharacteristically vulnerable that day. He stared at me for a long time, then suddenly pulled me into his arms.

"Caroline, let's get married."

For a while after that, he stopped going to band practice. He came with me to every prenatal appointment, cooked meals tailored to my pregnancy cravings. The day I gave birth, he cried louder than I did, and even through the tears, he didn't forget to hold me.

From the day Noah was born until he turned three, Corey was the one doing the midnight feedings and changing diapers, present for every milestone.

Noah's very first word wasn't "mama."

It was "dada."

A man like that, falling for him was something I couldn't control. And I had my reasons.

But it turned out that when a man wanted to put on an act, he could keep it up for years.

Fine. Let him chase his dream. I'd live my own life.

"By the way," Corey rubbed his nose and lowered his voice. "We've got the National Band Championship coming up, so I'll be pretty tied up. Might not make it home some nights. Just... bear with me, okay?"

I went blank for a moment before remembering that their entry slot for the competition was something I'd begged a client to arrange, practically groveling for the favor.

With his band's actual skill level, they never would have qualified on their own.

But that entry slot? I didn't feel like giving it to them anymore.

So I nodded lightly.

"Sure. Got it."

Corey froze. Whether it was guilt or something else, he suddenly wrapped his arms around me from behind, pulling me close.

"Babe."

His voice was muffled against my hair.

"Thank you. For supporting my dream. For understanding."

In my previous life, Corey eventually found out about the investments I'd secretly funneled into his band.

Unlike what I'd expected, he was furious. He trashed the entire apartment.

"What's that supposed to mean, Caroline? You bought me a national championship with your money, is that it? I'm telling you, this is an insult!"

"Take your money and get the hell away from me! My band could've taken first place on our own talent. You were just sticking your nose where it didn't belong!"

We didn't speak for weeks after that. It took Noah playing peacemaker before the cold war finally ended.

Sometimes I genuinely had no idea what that man wanted.

I snapped back to the present and pushed him away gently.

"Alright, if there's nothing else, you should go. I need to stay with Noah."

Our voices must have been too loud, because Noah woke up anyway.

He rubbed his eyes, spotted Corey, and broke into a grin.

"Daddy!"

Corey opened his arms, his eyes brimming with warmth as he scooped the boy up.

"Did you miss Daddy? Still feeling sick? How about Daddy goes and gets you some food, hm?"

While the two of them chatted, the door swung open without warning.

"Hey, sis."

Letitia stepped inside, a smile already arranged on her face.

"I heard your little one was sick, so I picked up some light dishes for him."

Under the fluorescent lights, the red-dyed tips of her hair were impossible to miss. She was barely in her early twenties, eyes bright and sparkling.

If I was being honest with myself, she really was striking.

No wonder Corey had zeroed in on her the moment they met, even posting their photo together on social media, calling her his kindred spirit.

I said nothing. Corey took the food from her hands.

Noah studied her curiously, then blinked.

"Hey, miss, the perfume you're wearing smells exactly like Daddy's. That's so cool!"

The air in the room turned to ice. Both their expressions went stiff at the exact same time.

"Noah, what are you talking about? Daddy's cologne is a common brand. It's totally normal for someone else to wear the same one." Corey scrambled to cover.

But Noah had never been one to filter his thoughts.

"Nuh-uh. Daddy's cologne is the custom one Mommy got him when she was on a business trip overseas. It's one of a kind in the whole world."

Corey's gaze darted sideways. He covered his mouth with a cough.

"This kid... always saying the wildest things."

"Alright, Noah, let's go to the bathroom." I cut in just in time, then looked at the two of them. "He needs to rest and get some sleep soon."

The hint to leave couldn't have been more obvious.

At the doorway, Corey suddenly turned back.

"Babe."

He tugged at his hair, visibly uncomfortable.

"Letitia's outfit was too short during a performance, so I lent her my jacket. That's how she got my cologne on her. Don't overthink it."

I couldn't be bothered to guess how long it had taken him to come up with that pathetic excuse. My eyes stayed on my phone screen.

"Relax. I don't have the bandwidth to obsess over this stuff. I'd rather spend my time reviewing investment portfolios."

His expression froze, then darkened.

"Money. That's all you ever think about. Do I even exist in your world? Am I even your husband?"

"Fine. Let's see how well you hold this family together on your own!"

He shoved the door open and stormed out.

Letitia trailed after him, her voice dripping with smug sympathy.

"You know, Caroline, being a wife means learning to soften up a little. If you keep this up, Corey's going to be really hurt."

She paused at the threshold. "And honestly, how can you put a price tag on someone's dream? You still don't understand him at all."

I didn't respond. I got up and gave Noah his medicine.

After they left, Noah looked crestfallen too.

"Daddy's leaving already? He hasn't been home in so long. I miss him."

I let out a heavy sigh and pulled him close.

"It's okay, sweetheart. Mommy will always be right here with you."

Corey didn't show up again, not even once, all the way through Noah's discharge. Like he was punishing me with his absence.

I went back to work and scheduled a meeting with a client.

The meeting spot happened to be a café near the mall. After we wrapped up, the client pointed through the glass window with an amused grin.

"Kids these days. So much energy."

I followed his gaze toward the mall's outdoor stage and froze for a second.

It was Corey's band.

What were the odds.

The last pounding notes faded, and as the crowd broke into applause, Letitia rose on her tiptoes, threw herself into Corey's arms, and kissed him hard.

The audience went still for a beat, then erupted into louder cheers.

Something flickered inside me, faint as a breeze across still water. Then it was gone.

I wrapped up the conversation and headed out. The band was coming offstage at the same time, and Corey and I walked straight into each other.

He spotted me, and his expression shifted into something almost defiant.

"It's just a gig, and you show up to spy on me? Caroline, can you give me some space for once?"

Space. The word hit a nerve. In my past life, he'd begged me on his knees to set him free. The memory left a bitter taste.

"I was here meeting a client. Trust me, nobody wants to watch you make out with your drummer."

He went rigid, eyes wide.

"What... what did you just say?"

I looked straight at him, then at Letitia beside him, barely concealing her satisfaction. Every word landed clean and deliberate.

"I said I have zero interest in watching you date someone else."

Corey's chest heaved. The color drained from his face, then flooded back.

Something snapped in him, and he doubled down, righteous as ever.

"Yeah. Letitia gets me. She knows what I need."

"But you, Caroline? All you've ever done is nickel-and-dime everything down to the last dollar. Do you understand what our band stands for? Do you have any idea what I'm chasing? No. You don't know the first thing about it."

His eyes were full of disappointment.

"Let's get a divorce."

My heart lurched.

Damn it. He beat me to it.

I didn't hesitate. I nodded.

"Fine."

The speed of my answer caught him off guard. He stared at me, visibly stunned.

"Noah stays with me. I'll have a lawyer split everything fifty-fifty. You won't get shortchanged."

I pulled out my phone and texted the divorce attorney I knew on the spot.

His eyes went wide with disbelief.

"Even now, it's still about money? Caroline, do you even have a heart? Did our marriage mean nothing to you? Almost ten years, and this is what I get?"

Ten years didn't even begin to cover it.

Counting my past life, my marriage to Corey Vance had spanned close to seventy or eighty years.

And in all those decades, I was never as happy as the world assumed.

After he quit the music scene, he used his "bad moods" as an excuse and never shared a bed with me again.