On our tenth wedding anniversary, my husband gave me a puppy as a gift.

I took the puppy back to the pet store and sent him a divorce agreement.

His girlfriend came to me crying, "Mrs. Chambers, I didn't choose the appropriate gift for you. Vent your anger on me if it helps. Don't bother Mr. Chambers with such trivia."

Sean Chambers held her in his arms to comfort her but said to me with a reproachful look, "Stop. You are already thirty, too old to throw a tantrum like a kid."

As a thirty-year-old woman, I no longer had the right to ask for what I deserved by acting coquettishly, but I had the ability to quit in time.

I was on the plane when Sean finally thought of me and called me.

——

After returning home, Sean sat on the sofa with a cold face.

The house was in a mess, with the lilies on the table already withered.

"Why did you run away from home? Why did you do such a stupid thing?"

I had been to Switzerland for nearly a month, yet Sean didn't realize that I was not at home the whole time until now.

He still considered me the young girl who would put him first in everything and would even risk her life for him.

I opened the suitcase, took out the souvenirs along with a divorce agreement, and placed them in front of Sean.

Sean uttered a cold laugh after a casual glance at them.

"Come on, you are too old to play such a childish trick."

I remained silent.

Sean gave a light cough.

"Fine. Mandy... Amanda didn't do it intentionally. Little girls of her age all prefer such furry animals. If you think that gift is not valuable enough, I might as well give you something else."

With that, he casually threw a jewelry catalog to me.

I remembered when we just got together, he would rack his brains to prepare a surprise for me on the 100-day anniversary of the first time we held hands.

Now, however, he had even forgotten the journey we had planned to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary.

I was just about to get up and unpack my suitcase when a set of tourmaline jewelry in the catalog attracted my attention.

On my 30th birthday, I had received a tourmaline bracelet, which was a part of this set.

I supposed the remaining earrings and necklace should be on Amanda Zweig.

I took a deep breath and tugged the bracelet off my wrist with disgust.

The tight bracelet hurt me so much that I could barely hold back my tears.

Focused on his phone, Sean couldn't be bothered to pay attention to what I was doing and just nonchalantly tried to make conversation.

"Choose one for Phoebe as well. Also, buy a pink dress for her. Pink flatters little girls like her."

I suddenly remembered that Amanda was in a pink dress when she cried in front of my house that day.

"I don't know her size."

I could hardly remember how long it had been since I last saw Phoebe.

Back then, Sean urged me to quit my job and have a child.

But after I gave birth to Phoebe, the Chambers family had taken her away when she was only one month old with an excuse that a daughter should be raised in luxury and shouldn't be influenced by my poor air.

I could only see Phoebe at family dinners during the holidays.

I was not even allowed the chance to hug the daughter I had given birth to after ten months of pregnancy and difficult labor.

Sean said with a hint of displeasure in his tone, "Forget it, I'll let Amanda do it.

Her taste is way better than yours. I hope Phoebe can be like her in the future."

I was well aware that I was not in Amanda's league.

Amanda was Sean's young and beautiful neighbor, the apple of her family's eye.

She had been sent to Sean's company to relieve the boredom of her carefree life after graduating from college abroad.

The Chambers family didn't allow me to visit them, but they always welcomed Amanda.

Even in the family photo, Amanda was standing right next to Sean, carrying Phoebe in her arms on my behalf.

I rubbed my red wrist and said, "You are right, so we should get divorced as soon as possible so as not to hinder your family reunion."

"Are you done with your insanity?"

Sean raged and threw his phone on the coffee table.

"I've been good enough to you. Don't push me too far. Don't forget that you are nothing without me!"

He finally spoke out his true feelings.

For the past ten years, deep in Sean's heart, he felt he was out of my league the whole time.

I felt a lot more relaxed at once.

We finally didn't have to pretend in our life together anymore.

"Yes, you are good to me..." I said calmly, "When my mother died, I called you but you didn't answer. You should have been watching a concert with Amanda at that time."

It was funny that my husband was a billionaire, but my mother had died because I couldn't afford the surgery.

My parents had favored boys over girls. Soon after my father passed away, the five sisters in our family had all run away and had then lost contact with each other.

I was the only one who would visited my mother occasionally after she fell ill.

As Mrs. Chambers, I seemed carefree on the surface, but in truth, I had to ask for every penny I needed in advance.

The day my mother suddenly fell into critical condition, I had called Sean countless times.

The call was connected for only three seconds, and I hadn't heard Sean's voice but only deafening music.

As a man in his thirties, he was too busy with work to accompany his wife to visit her dying mother yet he could have the energy to go to a concert with a young girl.

Hearing what I said, Sean frowned.

"Look at you now. You are no different from your mother."

He returned to the bedroom impatiently, as if afraid that I would continue to pester him with this matter.

If it were in the past, I would cook a plate of spaghetti as an apology whenever Sean ignored me though it was not my fault at all.

Finishing the spaghetti was his implication that we could make peace.

However, this time, Sean would only see an empty room instead of spaghetti after pushing open the door.

The suitcase was right next to me, so I didn't even have to bother packing up my stuff and could directly go away in a car.

The sparkling street lights outside the window flew behind me, just like our brilliant youth.

Sean and I were each other's first love since we were still students.

I had asked Sean why he was in love with me in the first place.

His reply was, "Because you are different from others."

Born wealthy and successful, he could get everything in the world without the least difficulty.

I was the only exception.

Ever since he failed a grade due to illness, I had always been ranked above him.

He had also been overshadowed by me with the honors I had won.

Sean had hence begun to pursue me like crazy.

He had publicly professed his love to me at the commendation ceremony.

After knowing my family was poor, he had persuaded the principal to set up a scholarship specially for me.

He had influenced my life by osmosis.

He was bold but always considerate.

If that was all, I could still suppress the budding love in my heart with my senses.

I hadn't let down my guard until when my mother gave birth to a son.

I was the eldest with lots of younger sisters in this family in straitened circumstances.

I had picked up a puppy outside but I hadn't dared to take it home, so I had secretly kept it in the woods nearby with Sean.

However, my father had killed the puppy in my presence, skinned it, and stewed it to nourish my mother so that my little brother would have more breast milk to drink.

I had cried my heart out, wanting to kill my father and myself with a knife.

Sean had arrived in time and had taken me away after leaving a stack of cash, saving my future.

That day, I had opened my armored heart to him, pouring out the grievances and difficulties I had been through for about 20 years.

I had said to him that I would never have a dog again, for it was a pain that would haunt me my whole life.

I had made up my mind that I would study hard and would allow myself to be at the mercy of others.

Hearing my resolutions, Sean had held my hands gently but firmly.

"I'll stand by you all the time."

Unfortunately, he had broken the promise made at the age of eighteen by the time I was thirty.

Sean had told Amanda my most embarrassing secret as a joke.

The salvation I had thought turned out to be just another abyss.