Chapter 3

3.

"Let's get a divorce then," I said, looking straight into her eyes.

There was a time when looking at her face made my heart race with joy.

Now, all I could picture was her writhing under another man, and it made me utterly sick to my stomach.

"Ha," she scoffed, glaring down at me from beside the hospital bed.

"You're a stay-at-home husband with zero career. If you leave me, how will you even survive?"

"Chase, stay by my side and behave yourself, and you'll always have a roof over your head. Otherwise, you'll be begging on the streets!"

It was true that I had moved into her family's house as a dependent husband.

She was the one who had begged me to do so back then.

She cried that she didn't want to live away from her mother, so my heart softened, and I swallowed my pride for her sake.

Now, my sacrifice had become her favorite weapon to mock me.

"Even if I end up begging on the streets, it has nothing to do with you."

"I want a divorce right now."

I pushed myself up from the bed.

"Let's go sign the papers."

She didn't flinch. Her voice turned chillingly cruel.

"Then you can kiss our son goodbye."

"I have the money, the real estate, and a publicly traded company. You have nothing. Who do you think the judge will give custody to?"

I froze in place.

I never expected her to use our son as a bargaining chip against me.

My boy was the most important thing in my life, and I couldn't bear the thought of losing him.

Seeing my silence, Nona reached out and lightly patted my cheek with mocking pity.

"Chase, staying as my obedient dog is the best choice you have."

In her eyes, I was truly nothing more than a pet.

All the young love and solemn vows we shared were erased from her mind.

A sharp, suffocating pain gripped my chest.

She was right about one thing: in my current financial state, I had zero chance of winning custody in court.