Chapter 2

2

A month ago was our eighth wedding anniversary.

I had spent all day cooking a massive dinner, waiting for him to come home.

I waited from dawn until the middle of the night, but he never showed up.

Instead, I received a photo from Sienna. It showed Jace fast asleep, his head resting on her shoulder.

Sienna told me Jace was too drunk to make it back that night.

And then, the puppy arrived at the door.

The moment I saw that dog, my body went into a state of shock.

A sharp, stabbing pain erupted in my abdomen.

I forced myself to call for an ambulance.

By the time I reached the hospital, my clothes were soaked in blood.

The nurse tried calling Jace to get his signature for the emergency procedure, but he didn't answer.

I used the last of my strength to sign the papers myself before I blacked out.

When I woke up, my stomach felt hollow and flat.

The irony was that the relief I felt outweighed the grief.

I knew then that my marriage was truly over.

Jace's knuckles turned white as he gripped his glass.

He didn't ask why I hadn't told him.

He could check his phone and see exactly how many times I had called him that night.

He knew exactly what he had been doing while I was bleeding out in a hospital bed.

"If it's gone, it's gone," he said coldly. "Maybe it's for the best. You probably wouldn't have raised it right anyway. You're like a stranger to your own son."

With that, he turned and walked upstairs.

He seemed to forget that I never had the chance to spend a single full day with Leo since he was born.

How was I supposed to be close to him?

Wasn't this exactly what the Miller family wanted?

After seven years of marriage, I knew Jace too well.

This was his way of telling me to apologize and beg for forgiveness.

In the past, I would have followed him up with a bowl of soup and an apology just to keep the peace.

But now, I was just tired.

I packed the rest of my things and dragged my suitcase out the door without looking back.

We actually had a beautiful beginning.

It was a cliché case of love at first sight.

Jace had pursued me relentlessly back then.

I grew up in a broken home. My mother ran away because she couldn't take my father's drinking.

My father spent every day in a drunken stupor, leaving me to work multiple jobs just to survive.

I knew Jace came from a world completely different from mine.

I thought he was just a rich boy looking for a temporary toy, so I ignored him.

But the man I thought was a playboy became my light during my darkest hour.

That day, my father was drunker than usual. He stumbled toward me, looking at me like I was my mother.

I was terrified. I screamed his name, hoping he would snap out of it.

I pulled out my phone to call the police, but he smashed it against the floor.

Just as he reached for me, the little dog I had raised since I was a child lunged forward and bit him.

My father howled in pain and threw the dog against the wall.

He picked up a beer bottle and smashed its head over and over again.

I watched my little protector take its last breath.

I completely snapped. I grabbed a kitchen knife, ready to end us both.

That was when Jace arrived. He called the police and had my father locked away.

That day, I finally let down my guard and sobbed in his arms.

I could never forget the image of my dog lying in a pool of blood.

I never got over the trauma. I couldn't be near dogs without having a panic attack.

Back then, twenty-year-old Jace held me close and made a promise.

"From now on, I'll be the one standing in front to protect you."

I thought I had finally found someone I could lean on. I gave him my entire heart.

Unfortunately, even promises have an expiration date.

Ten years had passed, and that promise was long gone.

The trauma that nearly destroyed me had become a joke Jace told Sienna.

He had allowed it to become a weapon used to stab me right in the heart.