Chapter 3

3

I took a cab back home. Walking through the house we had shared for years, I saw traces of Silas everywhere. It made my skin crawl.

The memories of our supposed happiness flashed before my eyes.

Silas used to cook for me. He handled my laundry. If I mentioned a random craving at midnight, he would drive across the city to find it for me.

It was all a lie.

The words he said to me as I was dying were the only true things he ever uttered.

I called my lawyer and told him to draft the divorce papers. Then, I scheduled an appointment at the clinic to end my own pregnancy. Once I finished those calls, a weight lifted off my chest. I sat on the sofa in the dark all night.

Silas didn't come home that night.

It was expected, yet it still felt like a sharp realization.

I thought he would at least try to keep up the act for a little longer.

At least in this life, Maya survived.

At five in the morning, the front door opened. I turned my head slowly as Silas walked in. He looked startled when he saw me sitting there.

"Why aren't you in bed?"

It was the same tone of concern he always used. But I couldn't hear any emotion in it anymore.

A heart only has so much room. If you're obsessed with one person, you have no space for anyone else.

Before I could speak, Maya stepped out from behind him. She had a faint, smug smile on her face.

"Lana, Silas insisted that I stay here for a while. He says I have no one to look after me right now. You don't mind, right?"

My brow furrowed as I looked at Silas. He avoided my eyes and said nothing.

I wasn't an idiot. I knew exactly what Maya was doing.

She was bragging. She wanted me to know that Silas was willing to disrespect me for her. If I said no, I'd look like the heartless villain.

It was sickening. Not just their little affair, but the fact that this was my house. Silas had no right to bring a stranger here without my consent.

I let out a cold laugh and looked at Silas.

"Don't you think you should have asked me first?"

Silas reacted like a cornered animal. He immediately got defensive.

"Lana, don't be so cold-hearted.

"Maya has no one. she almost died in that hospital. As her… friend, shouldn't I help her?

"You're my wife. You should be more welcoming to my friends."

In just a few sentences, he tried to claim the moral high ground.

In the past, I would have sucked it up because I loved him. I would have given him anything he wanted.

But I had already died once. I was killed by the person I loved most. In this life, I was done sacrificing myself.

I scoffed.

"You seem to have forgotten that this is my house. Everything you have belongs to me. I'm a germaphobe, Silas. I don't want strangers living in my space."

And I wouldn't allow the man I supposedly loved to keep someone else in his heart while sleeping in my bed.

Silas looked stunned. He didn't expect me to be so firm. He just glared at me in silence.

Maya immediately started crying. she grabbed Silas's arm.

"I knew I was a burden. My husband is in jail, and my parents won't speak to me. I shouldn't drag you down. I'll leave right now. Please don't fight because of me."

The ice on Silas's face melted instantly. He looked at her with such pity. He pulled her toward the guest room, loud enough for me to hear.

"You're staying right here. Half of this house is mine. Even if the whole world abandons you, I never will."

He led her away by the hand. As they passed me, Maya's lips curled into a triumphant smirk. She mouthed a few words at me.

"You loser. A wife can never beat the girl he fell for first."

I just smiled back.

I didn't need her to tell me that. I already learned that lesson the hard way.