At the supermarket, a child slams into my pregnant belly. The pain is so intense that I collapse to the floor and cannot get back up.

I groan, "My phone... Call my husband..."

Only after giving the child a slap does the woman pick up my phone. Apologizing repeatedly, she searches my contacts for "Husband".

She calls several times, but no one answers.

"Don't panic. I'll have my husband come handle this," she says, taking out her own phone and calling her husband.

He answers after the very first ring.

"Honey, our son got into trouble again! Adjourn your meeting and get over here. He knocked into a pregnant woman!"

Ten minutes later, Shawn Leake, who is supposed to be working in another city, arrives at the scene.

The first thing he notices is the child's swollen cheek. A look of concern crosses his face as he frowns and searches the area.

He grumbles, "Was it really necessary to hit him? Who exactly did he run into—"

The moment our eyes meet, his voice cuts off abruptly.

Sela's POV

The discount groceries I'd fought to get were scattered all across the floor.

I sat amid the mess, a torn cloth shopping bag still hanging from my hand, and my washed-out skirt now covered with stains.

The distinguished man standing in front of me only made me look even more pathetic by comparison.

I stared blankly at Shawn Leake. A torrent of emotions crashed over me, and for a moment, I completely forgot how to speak.

"Honey, hurry and take her to the hospital," the woman urged. "She took a really nasty fall."

Then she turned to look at me. "I'm so sorry. Our son's been spoiled since he was little. He torpedoes around everywhere."

She opened her lambskin handbag, pulled out a thick wad of cash, and pressed it into my hands.

"I only have this much on me. Take this for now. Shawn?"

Only then did Shawn snap out of his daze. He looked at the woman. "What?"

"Give her your business card," the woman answered. "That way she can get in touch with us if anything comes up later."

I continued staring at Shawn without blinking until my eyes were so dry that they throbbed. The pain in my lower abdomen had already turned numb by this point.

"Shawn…"

My voice caught in my throat. Whatever else I wanted to say was choked back by a sob.

"You two know each other?" the woman asked.

Shawn avoided my gaze and cut in quickly, "No."

No.

It was as if I'd suddenly forgotten the meaning of the word. I turned that one single syllable over and over in my mind, chewing on it until a bitter taste filled my mouth. Only then could I barely grasp its meaning.

We'd shared a bed for six years. But we didn't know each other.

"Maybe she's seen me on the financial news channel," he added. "Let's go to the hospital first."

He crouched down, intending to scoop me up in his arms, but I shoved him away hard. I lowered my gaze, hiding my tears beneath the shadows of my lashes.

"I'm fine."

Then I stubbornly forced myself to my feet.

With a completely blank mind and a body covered in filth, I clutched my aching lower back and shuffled outside, one step at a time.

Behind me, I could hear the woman complaining about the little boy and the man soothing her with the utmost tenderness.

I didn't want to listen, and I didn't want to look, but the suspicions kept bubbling up uncontrollably. They screamed inside my head and tugged at my ears. They mocked me and ridiculed me, telling me that the husband who had vowed to grow old with me, who had sworn he'd never change, had betrayed me.

It wasn't until I was out of their sight that I finally abandoned all dignity.

Tears splashed down onto the pavement, drop by drop, as I made my way home. My fingertips trembled so badly that I tapped the wrong buttons several times before finally managing to open my chat with Shawn.

"I want a divorce. I'll get rid of the baby."

Sela's POV

I sat motionless on the couch until late into the night.

Finally, Shawn walked in carrying a large bag of groceries.

"Have you eaten dinner?" he asked.

I didn't answer.

He opened the refrigerator, took out a bowl of leftovers covered with plastic wrap, and tossed the entire thing into the trash without even looking at it.

"Stop eating junk like this. I'll hire a maid for you. And a nutritionist. I'll give you a monthly allowance of 15 thousand dollars, plus a credit card linked to my account.

"We won't live like we're broke anymore. Whatever you want, I'll buy it for you, okay?"

Before this, Shawn had only given me 400 dollars a month. He'd said that it was half his salary.

I'd scrimped and saved. I'd haggled with the elderly women at the farmers market and rushed to supermarkets to get discounted groceries. I'd done craftwork every night, under a single lamp, just so we could save up enough money for a house of our own.

Each time, I'd worked on my crafts late into the night, until my eyes grew blurry and my heart became blind—blind to who the man sleeping next to me really was, not knowing who he was anymore.

"What else have you lied to me about?" I asked.

Shawn stiffened, but he didn't answer. Instead, he turned around and walked into the kitchen.

I picked up the phone he'd tossed onto the couch. I'd never checked it before, so he'd never bothered setting a password.

I went through every single app. And then, I discovered that he'd saved my contact as "housekeeper".

My heart went completely cold.

I continued searching until I eventually found the person he'd saved as "Wifey". It was the woman I'd seen at the supermarket earlier today. When I clicked into her social media page, I found plenty of photos, mostly pictures of the two of them together.

Whenever Shawn told me he was traveling for work, he'd been lying. He'd actually been vacationing with this woman.

When I had been hospitalized with appendicitis and in so much pain I couldn't get out of bed, he'd been overseas attending fashion shows with her. His phone had been turned off the entire time. No calls went through, and all my texts went unanswered.

In the end, I'd struggled through the discharge procedures alone, went home, and lay in bed for several days. I lost over ten pounds during that time.

When Shawn finally came back, the first thing he said was, "Why did you send me so many messages while I was working? I don't have time to look at them."

I'd sympathized with how hard he worked, so from that point on, I shared only the good news and kept my worries to myself.

Little did I know, he just couldn't be bothered with me.

As I continued to scroll, I found a photo of Shawn sleeping on a lounge chair, with the woman and the little boy nestled in his arms, a picture of absolute bliss.

The caption read, "The happiness of a family of three".

I took a deep breath and used Shawn's phone to call that woman. She picked up almost instantly.

"Hello, honey—"

I cut her off.

"Do you know that Shawn has a family?"

Sela's POV

The other end of the line went completely silent.

I waited for a few seconds, but only the sound of heavy breathing could be heard.

Shawn happened to come out of the kitchen just then. Seeing me on the phone, he dashed over frantically and snatched it away. When his eyes landed on the call log, his expression darkened instantly.

"Are you insane?" he roared.

"What did I do wrong?" I shot back. "You hid an affair from me for so many years, and you even have a child with her! Why can't I call her and demand an explanation?

"If you've got the guts to keep a mistress, then you should have the guts to admit it!"

Right then, the woman called back.

Shawn ran his hand through his hair in frustration, hesitating between answering the call and hanging up.

I pried the phone from his hand and answered it.

"Who are you?" the woman demanded before I could speak.

"And who are you?" I retorted. "You've been with Shawn all this time. Shouldn't you be the one explaining yourself?"

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line.

"Of course, I know Shawn has a family."

My heart lurched.

"Because I'm his first love and his legally wedded wife," she added. "So in what capacity are you speaking to me?"

Her answer was like a savage slap across my face. I could feel the stinging pain and hear the loud ringing in my ears.

First love. Legally wedded wife. So the one who was the dirty little secret… was me.

My hands began to shake uncontrollably, and tears poured down my face. My mouth gaped open as my chest heaved violently, and only then could I draw in enough air to breathe.

I could no longer tell whether I felt more sorrow or more despair.

Memories flashed before my eyes like scenes from a movie. Shawn taking off his own jacket to warm my freezing feet in our tiny rented apartment. Him going to construction sites to haul steel and bags of cement, then using his daily wages to take me out to buy wholesale ice cream.

And because he couldn't afford a wedding, I'd worn a wedding dress I'd sewn myself, and we'd exchanged handmade rings. In this very apartment, I'd handed myself and the rest of my life over to him, swearing to trust him, love him, depend on him, and never betray him.

And he'd used his cheap lies to easily swindle away my priceless youth and love.

"Why? Why, Shawn? Why?"

By the end, my words had turned into a piercing shriek.

Shawn tossed the now-dark phone back onto the couch. His eyes looked up at the ceiling, then down at the floor—anywhere but at me. He pressed his lips together until they lost all color. Only then did he finally speak.

"I promised Kelly that I would only ever marry her. We were promised to each other as kids. Later, my family went bankrupt, and I left to make a living on my own.

"And then I met you."

He sighed. "Sela, you were just so… wonderful. Truly. You were so wonderful that I couldn't bring myself to reject you or push you away. I could only watch myself fall deeper and deeper for you.

"I admit that the marriage I gave you was fake, but my love for you is real," he said, his expression painfully earnest. "Four years ago, I got back on my feet and officially married Kelly. But Sela, I never forgot about you. I was just too terrified of losing you, so I used lies to cover up lies."

My limbs had gone from feeling cold to feeling utterly numb. Shaking my head, I kept backing away.

He felt like a total stranger to me.

"Sela, I have money now. And I love you. I'll give you everything you ever wanted. Once our baby is born, they'll be living an exceptionally privileged life, too. I can guarantee that the both of you will live the rest of your lives completely carefree."

He advanced toward me, step by step.

"Sela, just pretend none of this ever happened. After all—"

I slapped him across the face, cutting him off.