Afterward, I began to hate myself.

Once I had tearfully arranged my mother’s funeral, I spent what should have been my honeymoon alone in the south for a month.

During that period, the only person I didn’t resent was Evren.

He was like a pearl buried in dust, a pitiful yet helpless child of fate.

Before leaving, I asked Leah to look after him for me.

She took excellent care of him. In the new home where we were meant to start our married life, she moved quickly and skillfully in the kitchen, making five dishes and a soup, all looking beautiful.

I sincerely thanked her.

That year, the connection between the three of us became closer than ever.

Evren treated me with growing affection.

With the first earnings from his company, he bought me the gemstone bracelet I had once admired.

For my birthday, he lit fireworks across the entire city to celebrate.

Each month during my period, he would cancel all his face-to-face meetings and stay home just to keep me company.

I had never questioned it.

He loved me down to his bones.

Until one day, by coincidence, I went to his office alone.

Through a half-closed, hidden door came faint, breathless sounds.

I pushed the door open.

Two bare bodies, pale as snow, cut into my sight like blades.

A scream tore out of me before I could stop it.

He reacted fast, moving to shield the woman under him.

“Who allowed you in?!”

“Get out!”

I lost control, throwing everything I could grab at them.

Blood ran from Evren’s temple, yet he still thought to cover the woman in his arms.

I wrecked everything around me, but I couldn’t bring myself to go closer.

They were the two people I had loved more than anyone.

The fear dug into my bones, and my teeth rattled as I tried to stay composed.

“Leah, look at me.”

Her face was swollen and red from crying. Wrapped in a blanket, she knelt before me.

“Paisley, I’m sorry.”

“What happened between Evren and me was wrong, but we’ve fallen helplessly in love.”

“I’m begging you, please let us be together, all right?”

The way she knelt there, pitiful and begging, looked exactly like that first year we met, when a group of delinquent girls had cornered her in an alley.

That year, to protect her, I, once the perfect student, completely offended that group, and for a long time afterward, I didn’t dare take shortcuts home.

At my wedding, I had personally handed her the bouquet, wishing her to find her own happiness someday.

And now, she lay in my husband’s arms, asking me to give her my blessing.

Tears ran down my face, and my voice came out barely above a whisper.

“When did it begin?”

Her shaking lips couldn’t make a sound, but another voice answered for her.

“Does that even matter? Haven’t you made enough of a scene? This is a company, not your home.”

“It doesn’t matter?! Evren, how can this not matter?!”

I screamed hysterically at him.

He stood completely bare, but his eyes stayed calm.

“Fine! I’ll tell you!”

“Last March, when you left me and went to the south alone, that’s when it began.”

“I never meant to hide it from you, but you had just lost your mother. I didn’t want to hurt you again, so I went along with your moods and kept the marriage going.”

“Leah has suffered enough. I couldn’t stand seeing her live in fear because of me. I planned to wait until after your mother’s death anniversary to ask for a divorce.”

“Now that you know, we might as well lay everything out.”

“Let’s divorce. You can take whatever you want. I only want Leah.”

It was only at that moment that I truly understood.

That slap I had given my mother back then, when I stood on Evren’s side, just how heavy it had been.

Before divorcing Evren, I still made a complete scene.

Using my phone, I took photos of their shameful state in bed, printed countless flyers with those pictures and captions, and sent them to every employee in their company.

Outside the office building, the banners revealing their dirty affair kept increasing.

I went to the school to report Leah for inappropriate behavior.

The forum of the art academy where she studied was filled with indecent gossip.

At her graduation ceremony, I hired people to play a looping video of the three of us laughing together on the big screen.

The memories I once treasured turned into weapons for me to strike back at them, but Evren still managed to shield her.

She graduated successfully from the nation’s top art academy. And she was soon going to hold her first art exhibition.

To clear the path for Leah, Evren finally met my eyes.

“Leah’s dream is about to come true. It has nothing to do with what happened between us. Don’t make things hard for her.”

By that time, I was already consumed by anger.

“How is that causing trouble? I’m all set for it. The guests at her exhibition will be thrilled to see those masterpieces.”

A folder suddenly landed in front of me.

“If you want to keep your mother’s resting place intact, behave yourself. Sign the divorce papers and stay far away from me and Leah from now on.”

At the time of my mother’s burial, I had been too overcome with grief, so he, her son-in-law, managed everything, including picking and buying the cemetery plot.

Maybe because land was limited, even the graves for the dead were being resold.

If Evren put his name on that document, my mother would never be able to rest quietly.

I flung a cup of coffee straight into his face.

That night, I wept myself to sleep beside my mother’s grave.

The next day came, and I still went to the city hall, but what I faced wasn’t what I had imagined, since Evren only gave me one of his family’s old houses.

“When you reported the company’s financial issues, a large part of the funds got frozen. This is all I can give you.”

“If it weren’t for Leah pleading for you, you wouldn’t get a single cent.”

I had never been able to compete with Evren, not even when we were kids.

By nature, he was calm and composed, never reckless, and skilled at using tactics and influence to reach what he wanted.

I, on the other hand, was the kind who rushed forward without thinking, hurting the other side by eight hundred and myself by a thousand.

Quieting down, I did exactly what he wanted.

The house was sold, and before I headed south, I still went to Leah’s art exhibition.

I decided at the last minute.

The giant screen in the city center showed the woman’s gentle, lovely face, and the exhibition was named The Key of the Soul.

That phrase had appeared countless times in the letters we once exchanged during our youth, a word that carried pure, innocent hope, a mark of the most genuine beauty between friends.

With the last bit of almost self-inflicted nostalgia, I wrapped myself tightly and stepped into the exhibition hall, like a rat sneaking a glance at someone else’s happiness.

I didn’t realize what I was seeing until my eyes landed on the painting called The Key of the Soul.

Two bare bodies.

The mole on the man’s shoulder blade was one I had brushed my fingers over countless times.

The woman held the pillow so tightly that the fabric creased. The backdrop was a bed covered in pale purple sheets, and beyond the window, magnolias bloomed in full splendor.

That was the exact kind I had chosen myself at the flower market.

Pink petals, wide as cups, quiet in their beauty.

That had been my home.

It turned out to be the place where she and Evren first lay together.

So the soul belonged to her, and the key was his.

A rush of sickness climbed up my throat.

I threw up right there on the floor.

The noise startled the two of them as they greeted guests nearby.

Then a soft, delicate voice reached my ears.

“Are you alright, young lady?”

The brooch shaped like a heart on her chest shone so bright it almost stung my eyes, matching perfectly with the key-shaped cufflinks on the man’s sleeve.

Like someone who had lost control, I grabbed that brooch and dragged it across the painting on the wall.

The sound of tearing canvas spread through the entire hall, and people around let out shocked gasps.

Everything turned chaotic at once, and the guards shoved me down to the ground.

My cheek pressed against the cold floor, and the man, holding the sobbing woman, met my eyes.

It was the look one gives to a rat crawling out of the gutter.

“Call the police,” he said.

I started laughing, louder and louder, so loud that everyone nearby backed away.

Because the damage amount went over ten thousand dollars, I was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay for property loss and emotional distress.

During my time there, I tried to take my own life several times, yet somehow I was always rescued by chance.

Later, for good behavior, I, Paisley, was released early, completely broke.

But I had already made up my mind.

When the car stopped at the destination, Leah went to the restroom to fix her makeup.

Standing beside me, Evren spoke in a low voice, apologizing.

“I’m sorry.”

“What happened back then was our fault. I’ll tell Leah to be more careful next time.”

I lifted an eyebrow. The Evren I knew before would never have lowered his pride to me.

Now he was the one choosing to apologize first.

Puzzled, I looked at him.

“No need. You’re husband and wife. Seeing you two just reminded me of the past, that’s all.”

A brief sadness appeared in his eyes. I couldn’t make sense of it, nor did I want to.

Luckily, Leah returned. She seemed to have completely brushed off everything that had happened in the car.

“We three used to love pitching in for barbecue. Let’s eat until we can’t anymore today.”

Evren didn’t quite agree.

“Back then, Paisley only ate barbecue because of us. Her stomach’s sensitive, she can’t handle too much spice. How could you forget that?”

“It’s okay. My stomach’s fine now.”

Years of proper care had already brought both my body and mind back to their best condition.

My phone suddenly rang.

On the screen, the large words “Husband” showed.

I answered.

The man’s clear, pleasant voice came with a playful complaint.

“Wife, taking that little rascal on TV tired me out more than working ten straight days. When you see me later, you’ll definitely say I’ve lost weight.”

From the background came a young boy’s soft, childish voice complaining, “No way! Mommy, Daddy got hit on by an auntie today, and they talked so happily…”

“You brat, setting me up for your Dad again! That was the host!”

Listening to their noisy chatter on the other end, I couldn’t stop smiling.

When I lifted my head, the big screen in the mall showed the man’s handsome face as he spoke seriously during an interview.

Beside him, a round, pink-cheeked child turned his head curiously, his wide eyes shining with innocence, looking almost too cute to be real.

After a bit more talking, I ended the call and snapped a picture of the screen.

Right as I sent it over, I noticed the two people beside me had frozen completely.

“Paisley, you’re married?”