Chapter 3

3 To make up for the years they had spent apart, Austin stuck to Melanie like glue.

No matter where he went, Melanie was right beside him. Even when he was seeing patients at the hospital, Melanie would sit quietly in the corner, watching him work.

Almost every patient who walked in couldn't help but compliment them.

"Dr. Brooks, you're such a lucky man. Your wife is gorgeous, and you're about to be a father!"

Neither of them ever bothered to correct the misunderstanding.

Meanwhile, I, his lawful wife, had long since become nothing more than a wandering spirit in this world.

Examining a young woman with advanced cancer sitting before him, Austin couldn't help but let out a quiet sigh.

"It's quite rare to develop this type of cancer at your age. But don't worry, we'll do everything we can to treat you."

The young woman didn't seem too anxious, though she gave her husband a fond, complicated look.

"I'm hanging in there since there's still a chance. He's the one who was a nervous wreck and insisted we come see the best specialist."

Her husband smiled sheepishly beside her.

"I just care about you. Besides, what kind of man doesn't love his wife?"

Austin's hands froze as he organized his medical charts. He lowered his head and offered an awkward smile, unable to reply.

Of course there were men who didn't love their wives―because they were too busy loving someone else's.

For the first time in a while, his mind drifted to me, his legal wife.

His phone still hadn't received a single message from me. Normally, I would text him about every tiny detail of my day.

The sudden, prolonged silence made him distinctly uncomfortable. He instinctively opened our chat and scrolled upward.

He had barely ever replied. Thousands of messages were filled with my one-sided chatter.

When I burned my hand cooking, he told me to run it under cold water. When I got lost driving in a storm, he told me to figure out the GPS myself.

Once, when I was stranded in the pouring rain without an umbrella, I texted him begging for a ride.

Even though he was only a few miles away, he claimed he was swamped with hospital work and left me behind.

Yet shortly after, I saw a picture on Melanie's social media of them strolling arm in arm on a date.

Everything I had ever done for him had been a joke.

My last message had been sent a few days ago, brief and simple.

"If I'm not around anymore, take care of yourself. Your stomach gets upset easily, so don't skip meals."

Austin stared at the screen, baffled. He knew I wasn't an idiot, so he couldn't understand why I was dragging out this ridiculous fake-death charade.

For the first time in forever, he typed a few words into the chat box.

"Haven't you had enough of this drama?"

The message was sent, but silence was the only answer.

Accustomed to me replying within seconds, he felt an instant surge of humiliation. He snapped his phone shut and slammed it onto the desk.

"Who does she think she is? She was the one who begged me to marry her in the first place!"

He wasn't wrong. Years ago, Melanie had heartlessly dumped him to move abroad with a wealthy man, leaving Austin broken.

During that dark period, the once-brilliant medical prodigy had drowned his sorrows in alcohol every single day.

I went to his apartment daily to nurse him back to health, but nothing seemed to pull him out of his depression.

Finally, I held his trembling hands, looked straight into his eyes, and made a desperate choice.

"Let's get married, Austin. Let me give you a home."

We ended up getting our marriage license in a blur. In reality, I knew he only agreed because he felt pity for my years of devotion, and because he wanted to spite Melanie.

Still, I hadn't cared back then. As long as I could be with him, that was enough.

Unfortunately, some hearts were simply made of ice and could never be warmed.