Chapter 1
My phone buzzed with another text from an unknown number. This time it was several photos.
In the pictures, Marcus gazed at the woman before him with tender affection. No matter what she was doing - eating, looking at her phone, or just staring into space - his eyes were always fixed on her adoringly.
That woman was the apple of my husband’s eye, the one who taught him the meaning of love.
This mysterious number would occasionally share little moments of Marcus and Melody’s romance with me. It was through these glimpses that I saw the human side of Marcus.
The unknown number continued messaging:
[Do you know how much your husband cares for that woman? If she so much as frowns, he’s beside himself with concern.]
[They’re holding their wedding at Evergreen Manor tonight. You’re not planning to crash it, are you?]
[Why don’t you just get divorced? Do you think you still have a chance?]
I gripped my phone tightly. I had tried tracing this number before, but could never uncover who was behind it. But I had my suspicions.
The grief and terror of losing my daughter still haunted me. Shaking, I texted back:
[It’s you, isn’t it?]
There was no reply.
I won’t be going to Marcus’s wedding this time. I went in my past life.
Back then, I was shocked to learn my husband was holding a wedding with that woman. Though Marcus and I had been legally married for years, we never had a proper ceremony.
I lost all reason and rushed to Evergreen Manor. At the wedding, I caused a huge scene.
Marcus looked at me like I was a stranger and publicly handed me divorce papers.
“Just sign them. I want to give Melody a real family,” he said coldly.
Melody was sobbing uncontrollably. “No, if you divorce your wife because of me, I’ll be a homewrecker!”
Seeing her cry made Marcus even more protective of her, fueling his hatred towards me.
That wedding was the final nail in the coffin of my marriage to Marcus.
After that, every time Melody tried to run away, Marcus assumed I was behind it.
Each escape attempt resulted in Marcus torturing me - locking me in the basement, abandoning me in a snowy field overnight, or dumping me in the middle of nowhere.
When I begged for a divorce, Marcus just sneered: “Divorce? I gave you the chance before and you didn’t take it. It’s too late now!”
That disastrous wedding was the start of all the tragedies. I can’t make the same mistake again.
I went back to Lily’s bedroom. Seeing her sleeping peacefully finally calmed my racing heart.
In the darkness, a tear slid down my cheek.
It wasn’t always like this. Marcus used to have a gentle side towards me and Lily.
In the first few years of our marriage, he treated me well. His love was clumsy but passionate. He would bring me flowers every day when he came home from work.
He would hold me and say, “Honey, I don’t know how to love, but I’ll try my best to be good to you.”
Back then, he was like a lost puppy - pitiful and helpless.
I knew that Marcus’s grandfather, in order to groom the family heir, had subjected Marcus to emotional desensitization training from a young age.
Like killing the dog Marcus had raised and forcing him to eat it.
Or sending away the butler who had been so kind to him.
Most horrifically, even driving Marcus’s own mother to self-immolation…
Marcus was expected to be devoid of love or personal attachments, a puppet with no emotions of his own.
But how could a person truly achieve that?
I tucked the blanket around Lily. As my fingers brushed her soft cheek, I suddenly remembered when she was first born.
Marcus had been so tense as he carefully cradled her in his arms. He held her like she was made of the most delicate crystal.
After a long moment, he finally managed to say: “Such a tiny human.”
In the warm glow of the hospital lights, his eyes held a tenderness he didn’t even realize was there.
I thought we were finally on the right track.
But then he went back to the family estate once, and everything changed.
He reverted to his old cold self. No, he became even more callous and unfeeling.