Chapter 2

2.

The nurses were the ones who finally moved me to a ward. I had spent days and nights by my father's bed, crying until my eyes were dry.

The staff recognized me. I heard them whispering behind my back about how pitiful I was.

Even strangers could see how pathetic I had become.

Yet my husband of seven years was staying in his first love's room, never once coming to check on me.

I stayed in the hospital for three days. Until the day I was discharged, Silas never showed his face.

I called the funeral home and arranged for my father's body to be cremated.

I also hired someone to draft divorce papers. I signed my name and left them on the table.

Looking at those papers, my heart was filled with a hollow ache.

When Silas and I first got together, he wasn't the man who screamed at me for being dramatic.

Back then, he was suffering after Sienna had dumped him to move abroad. That was when I started chasing him.

I went to the ends of the earth to find signed photos of the athletes he liked just to get his attention.

I even ran a 5k race at the school sports meet just so he would look at me, nearly vomiting blood from the effort.

I brought him lunch every single day. I did his homework. I checked him in for classes.

Everyone mocked me behind my back, calling me his lapdog.

But he was the one who stood up for me. He grabbed my hand in front of everyone and made a declaration.

"Riley is amazing. If anyone says another word about her, they'll have to answer to me."

Because of those words, the bullying stopped.

That was the day Silas and I officially became a couple.

He was everything I imagined a romantic partner should be.

He gave me thoughtful gifts. He made me ginger tea and warmed my blankets whenever I was on my period.

After graduation, we moved to different cities for work. He took over his family's company and became incredibly busy.

But to be with me, he moved his entire corporate headquarters to my city.

He told me with such sincerity, "Riley, every day without you feels like a year. Let's get married. I want you by my side forever."

We got married. A simple pair of rings bound me to his side.

In the beginning, he was still good to me.

He was so good that the people who used to call me a lapdog started saying they were jealous of my handsome, rich, and devoted husband.

But the truth was, only I knew the secret.

Silas had a hidden photo album full of pictures of him and Sienna.

Every act of kindness, every gift he gave me... they were all things he had originally planned for her.

Even the day he agreed to be with me was only because Sienna had started dating someone else.

When I started seeing traces of Sienna creeping back into our lives, my feelings were a mess.

I struggled. I even thought about leaving him. But every time he was nice to me, I convinced myself it wasn't a lie.

Then Sienna came back. His patience vanished, replaced by disgust and irritation.

I brainwashed myself into thinking he would eventually realize how much I loved him.

Looking back, I had completely overestimated my place in his heart.

I had made excuses for him every time he abandoned me or treated me with cold indifference for her sake.

But this time, I couldn't lie to myself anymore.

The fact that Silas never loved me was a reality I finally had to accept.

It took me five years to learn this lesson.