Chapter 2

2

I always convinced myself that all my sacrifices were worth it.

He deeply loved his duty, and I deeply loved him.

We had our blissful moments, too.

When he wasn't swamped, he would drive two hours just to buy my favorite cupcakes.

He used to come home with a dozen red roses.

During my postpartum recovery, he stayed up all night taking care of Aria, doing all the chores flawlessly.

He loved to cup my face, rest his forehead against mine, and say the sweetest things.

"Mia, I know it's hard on you. Without you, this family wouldn't exist."

"I will love you forever."

That was true until his year-long undercover stint.

I never knew the specifics of his mission.

But one day, I accidentally bumped into him gutting fish at a grimy downtown seafood market.

I instantly understood the stakes, pretended he was a total stranger, and walked away without contacting him for a whole year.

I never expected that when he finally came home, he'd be a completely different man.

He would go an entire day without saying a single word.

He didn't care about anything going on in our house.

At night, we slept in the same bed, but it felt like the Grand Canyon was dividing us.

The house was constantly filled with a suffocating, awkward tension.

I genuinely tried to mend the rift between us.

But Carter avoided me like the plague, making up endless excuses to hide.

Eventually, he even looked at me with the eyes of a stranger.

He sneered, "I never realized you were so desperate for sex before."

Standing in the rain now, I finally realized exactly what had destroyed our marriage.

I stood there for a long time.

Finally, the girl noticed me.

Looking terrified, she pushed Carter away and shrank against his chest, her face flushing crimson.

A rare flash of panic crossed Carter's face.

He instinctively shielded the girl behind his back before quickly composing himself.

"Mia, she has nothing to do with this. Don't take your anger out on her. I'll explain everything when we get inside…"

"Save it," I said, staring icily at the man I once loved with all my heart.

I enunciated every word of my question. "I asked you to take Aria to her ballet class. Where the hell did you go?"

"I got an urgent work call and couldn't get away," Carter explained defensively.

"I watched Aria get on the city bus. It was only two stops away."

"She's four years old. She knows how to walk there."

A bone-deep agony forced me to bend over, making it nearly impossible to stay on my feet.

Tears mixed with the freezing rain streaming down my face.

Aria was only four.

He actually made a tiny four-year-old ride a public bus by herself for half an hour, then walk almost a mile to her class.

He knew better than anyone how wicked the world was, yet he completely abandoned his own flesh and blood.

"So your so-called 'work call' was just making out with this bitch?!" my voice cracked as I pointed at the girl cowering behind him.

She looked incredibly young, probably still a college student.

She bit her lower lip looking utterly fragile, trembling violently as I yelled.

Carter reflexively wrapped his arms around her, whispering for her not to be scared.

Then he glared up at me with sheer annoyance.

"Mia Sullivan, stop terrorizing a kid."

"Please try to understand the unique nature of my job."

"You used to be so reasonable…"

Unable to hold back a second longer, I lunged forward and slapped him fiercely across the face.

The girl let out a piercing shriek.

She reached out to stroke Carter's cheek, her eyes brimming with sheer heartbreak.

"We are getting a divorce."

After dropping those words, I turned around and walked away without looking back.

Carter didn't come back to the apartment until two hours later.

Seeing that I had already packed up half the house, his eyebrows knitted into a deep scowl.

"I'm already exhausted. Can you stop throwing a tantrum like a toddler?"

"You think I'm throwing a tantrum?" I was so physically and mentally drained that I didn't even have the energy to scream.

I just stared at him with dead eyes.