And I didn’t even have a single piece of red clothing in my closet.

“Veronica, that day, I clearly called out to you.” The unwillingness in my heart still forced the words out.

“And then?” Veronica lifted her eyelids. “Do you want me to apologize for my psychological illness?”

“Lincoln, you already knew I had this problem before we got married.”

Looking at her indifferent face, I suddenly felt exhausted. Yes, everything was of my own making.

“Fine, I’ll go to the press conference.”

But Veronica’s eyes shifted, fixed on my bag, where half of an airline magazine was showing.

I followed her gaze and saw the page open to a group photo of a symphony orchestra performance.

Dozens of people crowded together, and in the most unnoticeable corner sat a man playing the cello. He was the man Veronica had embraced.

The photo was so blurry it was nearly impossible to make out his features, yet Veronica, with just one glance, recognized him.

So, it wasn’t that she couldn’t recognize men’s faces; she just couldn’t recognize the man she didn’t love.

My heart felt as if it were being gripped, and even breathing became painful, but I still forced a smile, pulled out the magazine, and shoved it into Veronica’s arms.

“Here, take it. I don’t want it anymore.”

With this identity and these three years of neglect, I didn’t want them anymore.

The next day, I arrived at the press conference on time.

The spotlights fell on me like countless blades striking all at once.

I wore a gray-green suit, the complete opposite of the white Veronica had always demanded. Taking the host’s microphone, I began calmly.

“The reason I was wrongly arrested was because my wife, Veronica, told the police to their faces that she didn’t know me.”

The entire audience erupted. I paused and turned toward a camera, as though my eyes were fixed on Veronica through the lens.

“I think, for someone who has been married three years and still cannot recognize her own husband, being trapped in this marriage must be nothing but painful. So, I’ve decided to grant her wish. Veronica and I will hereby divorce.”

Once I got into the car, I realized my hands were trembling, not from fear but from the relief of finally breaking free of my shackles.

My phone vibrated wildly, the screen flashing Veronica’s name, and I turned it off without hesitation.

The car hadn’t gone far when it was forced to stop by Veronica. She stepped out, her face so dark it looked as though water could drip from it.

“Lincoln, are you crazy?!”

She dragged me from the car, her nails digging into my skin. “Who gave you the nerve to spout nonsense at the press conference!”

I stared coldly at her furious face. “Which sentence did I say wasn’t true?”

She was caught off guard by my question, her anger flaring even hotter.

“Do you know this could hurt other people? What if they dig up the airport surveillance, and Enzo gets dragged in? He worked so hard to get into the Vienna Orchestra!”

She really could tell them apart, and the pain in my chest spread all at once, as if tearing me apart. “Veronica, you can recognize him.”

Veronica’s face showed thin irritation. “So what? He means something different to me, but I still married you. Don’t forget, all of this was you begging for it.”

Yes, everything was my obsession. Veronica couldn’t even remember my face, so how could she remember a promise made twenty years ago?

I wiped the tears from my face. “Veronica, I regret it. Let’s divorce.”

Veronica was silent, but her face showed none of the relief I had imagined. After a long while, she finally spoke, as if delivering a heavy decision.

“Stop it. If you keep wearing white clothes like before, I won’t mistake you. I won’t divorce you.”

“Really?” I forced a smile, lifting my head to look at her.

She had already forgotten what document she accepted from me that morning. I had only worn a wig and changed my clothes, and Veronica thought I was the new secretary.

Without even glancing, she signed the divorce papers and even had me tidy up the safe in her study.

Inside, I found a photo of Enzo carefully cut from yesterday’s magazine. The safe was filled with countless reports about him, marked in red, in blue, in black.

No matter how Enzo dressed, Veronica could recognize him.

The oldest photo showed Enzo still in high school, wearing a white shirt with his hair cropped short, the very same image I had carried with me for three years.

As I stood in a daze, Veronica grabbed my hand. “Lincoln, I won’t lose you again.”

I curled my lips in a bitter smile, just about to open my mouth and tell her everything, but suddenly she shoved me aside and ran in another direction.

I followed her gaze and saw Enzo’s back disappearing into the crowd. Halfway there, Veronica seemed to remember something.

She turned back and shouted, “Lincoln, wait for me, I’ll be right back.”

But her words were thrown toward another man beside me, dressed in the same gray-green suit.

Without hesitation, I turned and left. Veronica grew furious when she realized I had gone on my own, but that day, I was only sitting in a nearby café, discussing paperwork for a new identity. The whole afternoon until nightfall, Veronica never returned.

I ignored her because once I changed my clothes, I became invisible in her eyes. When the overseas procedures were finished, the first thing I did was go to the mall and buy new clothes.

For years, just to make Veronica notice me more, my closet had been filled only with white, like a walking mourning hall, but now even a single glance at it made me sick.

The sales clerk eagerly brought out a light blue suit, and just as I was about to swipe my card, a cold voice cut in.

“I want this one too.”

I turned my head and saw Enzo’s arrogant face. He looked me over with contempt.

“Lincoln, what are you still struggling for? Didn’t the airport incident make it clear enough?”

He sneered. “Veronica doesn’t love you. No matter how expensive the clothes you buy, she’ll still treat you like air.”

I didn’t bother wasting words on him. Instead, I took out a black card from my wallet and handed it to the clerk.

“Wrap up this one he touched, and all the pieces from this series, for me. And also, show him out.”

The clerk immediately moved to ask him to leave, but just then Veronica appeared, walking straight toward Enzo without sparing me a single glance.

“Wrap up the clothes and give them to Mr. Lynch.”

The clerk froze and whispered a reminder, “President Vargas, but this gentleman is your…”

I had grown a beard and worn a striking gold-gray perm, so of course, Veronica didn’t recognize me.

“What is he, anyway?” Veronica’s voice wasn’t loud, but every word carried clearly across the counter. “Some nobody from who-knows-where, thinking he can compete with Veronica for anything?”

She turned to the sales clerk, whose face had already gone pale, her tone cold with unquestionable authority.

“From today on, remember Mr. Lynch’s face. From now on, every business under Vargas Corporation must give him priority service.”

Enzo tossed the suit aside with an arrogant flick. “No need. I don’t lack that. Leave it to those pitiful people who aren’t loved.”

Veronica didn’t seem to mind. “As long as you’re happy.”

I stood there, watching the way her eyes lingered on Enzo without once straying away, and the last trace of warmth in my heart turned completely cold.

When I returned to the villa I had lived in for three years, the access system failed to recognize me. Just as I reached for my phone to call the housekeeper, the door opened from inside.

Enzo stood there, wearing my slippers and wrapped in Veronica’s bathrobe. He frowned as if looking at something filthy.

“I thought you were a decent man who knew his place. Clinging to Veronica, does that make sense to you? Wearing white to copy me, does that make sense to you?”

I stood outside as the night wind cut through my clothes. Yeah, it really made no sense. What was I still holding on to?

I lowered my head and took off the diamond ring Veronica had personally designed, then placed my black card, car keys, and our marriage certificate neatly in a row, everything that symbolized “Mr. Perkins.”

After that, I turned around and never looked back.

Taking out a brand-new phone, I dialed a number. “Hello, it’s me. From now on, there’s no more Mr. Perkins in this world.”

Veronica never reached out again, probably thinking I was still throwing a childish tantrum, but it didn’t matter. I was too busy to care.

The tabloids, however, remained tireless. In every photo, she and Enzo appeared together, and on her once-cold face lingered a tenderness I had never seen before.

When asked about her and Enzo, Veronica neither confirmed nor denied. I swiped past the news, powered off my phone, and turned back to the pile of documents before me.

All the assets I had once used to climb toward Veronica I sold off, converted into cash, and donated every cent to a grassroots anti-trafficking group.

The person in charge was so excited they could barely speak, thanking me again and again, but I only stared blankly at the photos of the rescued children.

Veronica and I had once escaped from the traffickers, but we got lost in the mountains.

Little Veronica gave me the last bit of wild fruit she had picked while filling her own stomach with mud, yet even so, we were caught and dragged back.

The rusty iron rod struck our bodies, and I screamed in terror while Veronica shielded me beneath her, muffling her groans as she endured all the blows. The stench of blood filled the air, and she was on the brink of death.

When the traffickers got drunk, I seized the chance, crawled through a dog hole, and called the police.

Later, Veronica was taken away by her family, who had arrived, and I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye. Her promise before losing consciousness, that she would marry me, became my only obsession for years.

I used all my strength, step by step, to reach her side and become her husband, but it was nothing more than a one-man show, because Veronica had long forgotten.

When I returned to the short-term rental I was staying at, Enzo was sitting inside leisurely. He even lifted his eyes and smiled.

“You’re back?”

The next second, police sirens wailed outside, and the door was slammed open by a powerful force as a group of men in black rushed in, pressing me to the ground without a word.

“Don’t move!”

Then Veronica rushed in, throwing herself into Enzo’s arms with her voice trembling in fear.

“Veronica, it’s okay now. It was my oversight that led you to be kidnapped.”