After my chemotherapy, my husband Daniel took me to a party.
There, his childhood friend pointed at my bald head and sneered, You look disgusting. Doesn’t he find you repulsive?
I waited for my husband’s defense. It never came.
Look at you, he said, his voice dripping with disgust. You’re an embarrassment.
Even my own son, Leo, screamed, “Ugly hag! Get out!”
I had just finished chemotherapy. My hair was gone. I never imagined my husband and son would treat me with such contempt.
But he forgot how he’d begged me to marry him on his knees.
I filed for divorce.
And adopted the son of his greatest rival.
“You’re sure about this? You know who his father is.”
“It’s fine. Daniel won’t care.”
The director’s expression shifted from doubt to pure delight. Since she hadn’t seen Daniel with me recently, she asked no further questions.
“Alright, I’ll process the paperwork immediately. You can expect him within days.”
I walked out of the orphanage into a heavy downpour.
The throbbing pain from my abdomen, a lingering reminder of the surgery, tried to pull me under, but I clung to consciousness, making my way back home.
The living room was ablaze with light when I opened the door.?
Daniel sat on the sofa, eyes closed, seemingly resting. At the sound of my entrance, his eyes opened and locked with mine.
“Where were you?”
Clutching my stomach, I barely had the strength to speak. I tried to walk past him and head upstairs.
But he grabbed my wrist, and immediately, the potent smell of alcohol enveloped me.
“What’s your problem now? Making a scene in front of everyone!”
“Skylar was just joking. ?Don’t be so petty.”
Petty.
He knew the chemo took my hair, yet he let her wield it as a weapon against me.
He always took her side, making me an outsider in my own marriage.
How dare he tell me not to be petty?
“Yeah, Skylar’s just telling the truth.Why are you so sensitive, Mon? You embarrassed Dad in front of everyone.”
Leo stood nearby, glaring at me with pure disapproval.
In that moment, I felt like the entire world was pointing fingers at me, branding me the worst kind of villain.
I clenched my fists until my knuckles turned white. I used to fight back, desperate for them to see me.
Now, I finally understood. Their hearts belonged elsewhere.
I was done. The fight left me.
His grip left a throbbing, swollen bracelet of pain around my wrist.
I went still after a brief, silent struggle.
Daniel mistook it for surrender, a smug eyebrow lifting in triumph.
“Go make me some hangover soup.”With that, he collapsed onto the sofa.
A wave of nausea hit me, remembering him toasting with Skylar while I was humiliated.
Why should he rest while I, just out of surgery, served him?
My decision was final. I bypassed the kitchen and went upstairs.
When I opened the bedroom door, Skylar was stepping from the bathroom, draped in Daniel’s shirt.
Steam glistened on her skin, the fabric doing little to cover her
My bed was buried under her clothes, a suitcase barring the entrance.
She gasped and clutched her chest when she saw me.
She asked, full of feigned shock and in a sickly sweet voice, “Eliza, what are you doing back?”
I scoffed. “Am I interrupting?”
I turned on Daniel as he mounted the stairs, his pace unbearably casual. “Daniel. An explanation. Now.”
He met my stare, his tone deliberately reasonable.?
“Skylar has no one else in the city. Letting her stay a few days is nothing. Are you seriously making a scene about this?”
Leo puffed out his chest beside him. “She’s pregnant. She can’t stay in the cold guest room.”
Skylar was just out of a divorce and pregnant. Offering help was one thing.
But I was recovering from surgery and couldn’t risk a chill.?
Why was she sleeping in my room?
As if sensing my thoughts, Skylar feigned alarm. “Eliza, Daniel said the guest room was too cold for me, and it wouldn’t be good for the baby, so he let me stay in the master bedroom. You don’t mind, do you?”
Her words twisted a knife to my heart.
I was the one fresh from surgery, yet his concern was all for Skylar.
To excuse her public humiliation of me was one betrayal. To install her in our home was another entirely.
A hot, suffocating rage burned in my chest. My fists clenched. The disappointment was absolute, final.
I packed a bag and moved toward the guest room. Daniel followed me inside before the door could close.
His arm snaked around my waist, his face nuzzling into my neck.
“I’m sorry I didn’t ask you first. Does your incision still hurt?”
“You’re just so stubborn.Making a public scene like that… think of my image. I lost my temper, I admit it. Forgive me?”
As he spoke, his hand groped for the light switch, leaning in to kiss me.
And I understood. He couldn’t bear the sight of me.
I wouldn’t let him. My hand shot out and flipped the switch, flooding the room with harsh, unforgiving light.
Daniel recoiled, scrambling back from me on the bed.
He was already stuttering an apology when a knock cut him off.
“Daniel… I’m a little scared. Could you come out and be with me?”
I yanked the door open without hesitation, glaring at Skylar, who stood there in a thin nightgown, crying dramatically. “If you’re scared, then get out!”
Skylar immediately looked like she’d been grievously wronged. “I’m so sorry, Eliza, I didn’t mean to disturb you two, I… I… If you don’t like me, I’ll leave right now!”
With that, she wiped her tears and started to walk downstairs.
Daniel immediately panicked. He pushed me aside.
The violent shove sent me crashing against the wall, making me gasp in pain.
Daniel spun around, roaring at me, “What the hell is wrong with you?! Skylar’s pregnant, how can you be so vicious, trying to force her out?!”
“If anything happens to her, you’ll regret it!”
He then rushed after her.
I struggled to my feet from the cold floor, feeling blood seeping from my incision.
The pain made it impossible to stand straight.
I hastily cleaned myself up in the bathroom, hoping that with him gone, I could finally get some rest.
But in a hazy dream-like state, I was suddenly yanked from my bed.
A chilling cold enveloped my entire body.
Daniel snarled through gritted teeth, “How dare you sleep?! Don’t you know Skylar’s in the hospital?!”
I was dragged to the hospital by Daniel, where Skylar lay in her room surrounded by an array of treats. Seeing us enter, she put on a pathetic, innocent act.
“Eliza, I didn’t mean it, please don’t be angry…”
I hadn’t even said a word, and Skylar was already offering tearful apologies.
But this wasn’t an apology at all. It was clearly her trying to pull the same old trick, making Daniel feel sorry for her again.
Her acting was so clumsy, anyone with eyes could see through it.
But Daniel, once again, fell for it. He grabbed my arm, his voice sharp and severe. “Apologize to Skylar.”
“If you hadn’t upset her and made her leave, how would she have tripped on the stairs?”
I was so infuriated by his baseless accusations that I laughed. “What does that have to do with me? You yourself said she fell, didn’t you?”
“Daniel, you know perfectly well that I’ve just had surgery and shouldn’t be running around, yet you’ve repeatedly humiliated me. Have you forgotten how I got this illness in the first place?”
At my words, Daniel froze. Others might not know, but he knew the truth all too well.
Back when he was starting his business, I accompanied him to client meetings.
I drank so much every day that I’d vomit blood from my stomach.
I was rushed to the emergency room multiple times.
It was from that time that my kidneys started having problems.
Until this year, when it escalated, and I was diagnosed with early-stage kidney cancer.
“I…”
Before Daniel could reply, Skylar sat up from her hospital bed.
She knelt on the floor, bowing her head repeatedly.
“I’m so sorry, Eliza, it’s all my fault, please don’t blame Daniel…”
I didn’t understand what she was playing at.
The slight regret in Daniel’s eyes flickered and then vanished.
He then spoke to me in a cold tone. “Even so, you can’t bully Skylar. She’s innocent.”
“You’re just jealous of her beauty, aren’t you? You’re acting like such a shrew…”
I couldn’t bear to hear him berate me any longer. The pain in my abdomen started up again.
I clutched my stomach and crouched down, sweat beading on my forehead.
“Eliza, stop faking it. You see Skylar apologizing to you, so now you’re trying to act pitiful? Get up and apologize to her.”
Daniel frowned, showing no concern for my distress.
Then, my vision blurred, and I collapsed.
When I woke up again, I was in a hospital bed.
“Stop pretending. The doctor said you just have low blood sugar. Why are you being so dramatic?”
Daniel stood over me, looking down, a hint of impatience in his eyes.
I didn’t reply. I didn’t want to talk to him.
Daniel couldn’t stand it when I was like this. He snapped, “How long are you going to keep this up? Can’t you learn to be more sensible, like Skylar?”
“Keep this up? Daniel, I’m already in this state, what do I have left to ‘keep up’ with you about?”
For him, I had undergone chemotherapy at 25.
I had become this ghost of my former self, and now he was tired of me. He was disgusted by me.
The man who once loved me so deeply had become a cruel stranger, a puppet in her hands.
“But you still can’t give Skylar the cold shoulder. She’s pregnant; what if her emotions get out of control and affect the baby?”
Mid-sentence, Daniel paused, noticing my pale face.
He used to be so concerned about me, but now, because of Skylar, he was yelling at me.
Completely forgetting that we had been married for over ten years.
He controlled himself. “I was too emotional… Eliza, you know, Skylar’s parents were very good to me. I can’t just stand by and watch her suffer.”
I gave a cold laugh. “So I deserve to suffer instead?”
“You!”
Daniel was choked by my words.
“You’re always so willful and defiant. Can’t you learn to be a little more sensible and gentle like Skylar?”
He forgot that when we first got together, he used to say he loved my straightforward personality the most.
Now that he was tired of it, he blamed me.
But it didn’t matter anymore. If he couldn’t stand it.
I wasn’t going to force it.
“I can’t learn, and I won’t. If you want someone ‘sensible,’ go find her.”
“What do you mean?”
I looked at him coldly. “Let’s get a divorce.”
Daniel’s face instantly darkened. “Divorce? Eliza, do you know what you’re saying?”
“I’ll have the divorce papers prepared today. You can leave now.”
I had given him his marching orders, but Daniel suddenly became agitated.
“Just because I asked you to apologize to Skylar? You’re threatening me with divorce?”
He wouldn’t believe it.
Ten years into our marriage, I had never once talked about letting go, so Daniel naturally assumed I was just throwing a tantrum.
But the truth was, I wasn’t.
“Eliza, when did you become so petty?”
I ignored him.
Daniel gritted his teeth. “Fine, you’d better think this through. If we divorce, I won’t ever remarry you!”
“Don’t come crawling back to me then!”
Bang!
He slammed the door shut, and silence returned.
Daniel didn’t visit me once during my three-day hospital stay.
On Ins, Skylar’s updates kept coming.
In the photos, Daniel held her hand, tucked into his pocket.
Skylar smiled, radiating happiness, her other hand holding Leo’s.
The three walked side-by-side under falling snow.
The caption read: “With you two, this winter isn’t cold at all.”
In the comments, Daniel’s friends were all teasing.
“Skylar has him absolutely whipped.”
“All that attention on her… how can you not be jealous?”
…
Those blessings felt like slaps across my face, making me feel ashamed.
After all, Daniel and I had been together for so long, and he never allowed me to post pictures of us together on Ins.
When I asked why, he’d always say, “What’s the point? It’s enough that we know.”
Turns out, it was just because I wasn’t the right person.
I put away my phone and checked myself out of the hospital alone.
The doctor said my condition was quite good, and with a few more months of consistent care, I could be fully recovered.
Before, during my treatment, because I was helping Daniel’s company, I hadn’t gone for physical therapy very often.
The healing process had been slow, but now I had all the time in the world to recover.
Back home, I started packing my things.
The family photos on the wall, the matching family outfits we’d bought in the living room – I threw them all into the trash.
When I finished packing, everything fit into a single suitcase.
All these years, I had dedicated myself to this family, giving Daniel and Leo everything good, while I couldn’t even bring myself to buy a new dress.
Looking back, it was truly laughable.
I called my best friend, Chloe, asking her to pick me up.
Once in the car, Chloe asked curiously, “Why are you suddenly separating? Did you two have a fight?”
“It wasn’t a fight,” I said, my voice deadpan. “We’re getting a divorce.”
Chloe gasped. “Divorce?!”
“Yes.”
I told her the whole story, and Chloe exclaimed indignantly, “How could he do that to you?! Has he forgotten that if it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t be where he is today?!”
Daniel and I met on a blind date.
His family wasn’t wealthy; he had a critically ill mother.
Our family, while not rich, was comfortable.
The moment I saw him, his looks captivated me.
After getting to know each other, we officially started dating.
Back then, Daniel had just graduated from college and was working at a small factory.
I would wait for him outside the factory gates every day, come rain or shine, nothing deterred me.
And with my daily presence, Daniel gradually opened up his heart.
He began to return my affection.
That period was probably the most unforgettable time of my life.
He said he wanted to start a business, so I took out all my savings to invest in him.
To help him build connections, I reached out to every classmate, colleague, and even relative in my contact list.
Later, when his studio was established, I accompanied him to client meetings to secure orders.
I was put through difficult situations by clients, drinking until my stomach bled and I ended up in the emergency room.
That night, Daniel was devastated.
He said, “I’m so sorry, Eliza. I promise I’ll make it up to you, I’ll give you a good life.”
After that day, he seemed to change.
He became ruthless and incredibly driven, stopping at nothing to close deals.
Within just one year, his company went public.
We built the life we’d always dreamed of.
Then Leo was born, and I was sure my long-awaited happiness was complete.
Until Skylar appeared, and it all came crashing down.
She was Daniel’s first love, his childhood friend.
They had dated for five years, eventually breaking up because Daniel couldn’t offer her a future.
They weren’t supposed to meet again.
But when Skylar interviewed for Daniel’s assistant position, they rekindled their old flame.
Yes, rekindled.
Even though she knew Daniel was a married man.
↓ ↓ Download the Novel Master app, Search 【 305627 】reads the whole book. ↓ ↓
NovelShort
