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In the last month, he still chose his first love
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Chase’s first love, Joyce, posted an update on her social feed. It shared a news headline saying, “An asteroid may collide with Earth within a month. The United Nations has activated the Planetary...
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第1章
Chase’s first love, Joyce, posted an update on her social feed. It shared a news headline saying, “An asteroid may collide with Earth within a month. The United Nations has activated the Planetary Security Protocol for the first time.”
Beneath it, she wrote, “The end of the world, and you are not by my side.”
I was just about to laugh at her melodrama. Believing clickbait headlines and viral scare news, how ridiculous.
But not long after, my husband, an astronomy professor, rushed home in high spirits and told me he wanted a divorce.
“An asteroid will hit Earth in seven years. Let’s divorce. I don’t want to keep settling during the final month.”
My hands froze as I was washing his underwear. I looked at him in disbelief.
So this kind of news was not funny at all.
What was laughable was that as long as the words came from her, no matter how stupid they were, he would believe them.
I flung the dripping underwear straight at his face and said calmly,
“It’s just a divorce, right I agree.”
……
“I’m sorry, Emma.”
Chase’s voice came from the living room, calm, as if he were delivering an academic presentation.
“If this world really only has one month left, I want to spend the final days pursuing my true love.”
“That person was never you.”
When he said this, I was squatting in the bathroom, head lowered, scrubbing the underwear he had just taken off with my bare hands.
Cold water mixed with detergent ran over my fingers again and again.
My skin was already wrinkled, red, and burning with pain, yet I did not stop.
Because he was a Peking University astronomy professor.
He had always been meticulous, almost obsessive.
Clothes could not go into the washing machine. Underwear had to be washed by hand.
Every single piece.
This time consuming, exhausting housework had been my routine for ten years.
For those ten years, I buried my identity as a Beijing socialite, lowered myself into the dust, all to protect his pride.
And now, he stood in the living room and, in the calmest tone possible, sentenced my ten years of devotion to death.
When I did not respond, he seemed to lose patience. His voice suddenly rose, and he repeated himself.
“Let’s divorce.”
The television was still on.
The news anchor spoke clearly and formally.
“An asteroid may collide with Earth in seven years.”
The wording was identical to what Joyce had posted on her feed.
A 2.3 percent probability.
At that moment, it was infinitely magnified, like a nail driven straight into my heart.
I suddenly felt drained of all strength.
“Just 2.3 percent.”
I spoke softly, my voice hoarse and unfamiliar even to myself.
“You’re an astronomy professor. Can’t you tell what probability means? The chance of an actual collision is negligible.”
But he suddenly lost control, breathing rapidly, and shoved the bathroom door open.
“That’s not important!”
“Even if it’s only one in ten thousand, I don’t want to waste another moment with you!”
His eyes were red, yet his tone was unnervingly firm.
“Joyce can’t be alone anymore.”
“As long as you agree to the divorce, you can name any conditions you want.”
I stood hunched over at the sink. Water rushed loudly.
Tears fell without warning.
Ten years of marriage.
In the end, it could not withstand a hypothetical probability of the apocalypse.
The argument alarmed our son, who had been doing his homework in his room.
Felix stood at the doorway. After hearing everything, there was none of the panic I had expected on his face.
Instead, he was unusually calm.
“Mom, you shouldn’t tie Dad down.”
When he said this, his tone was exactly like Chase’s.
“An asteroid hitting Earth is such an important matter. Dad wants to be with the person he truly loves. What’s wrong with that?”
“I’ve met Aunt Joyce.”
“She’s like a fairy. She stays with Dad and me. I think it’s pretty good.”
At that moment, I froze.
So it was not just the eyebrows and eyes.
Even the way he spoke, that cold, self righteous certainty, he had learned it all perfectly.
I raised my hand and slowly wiped the tears from the corner of my mouth.
My other hand, however, instinctively pressed against my lower abdomen.
It felt empty there, unbearably cold, impossible to warm no matter how tightly I held it.
This child was never meant to stay.
A week earlier, in this same bathroom, I had stared at the clear red line on the pregnancy test, my heart pounding as if it were about to explode.
A second child.
I had even planned how I would tell him.
I never imagined that what awaited me instead would be this kind of judgment.
I lifted my head and flicked my wrist.
The freshly washed, dripping underwear flew through the air.
One hit Chase square in the face.
Another landed at my son’s feet.
“It’s just a divorce, isn’t it?”
I smiled, but the smile was colder than ice.
“I agree. It takes effect in seven days.”
“And as for your disgusting underwear.”
“From now on, let your fairy wash it for you.”
第2章
How ironic.
This man once loved me as if I were his life.
Eight years ago, he first saw me at the old Chase family estate.
Back then, I was nothing more than Old Master Gu’s caregiver, so insignificant that I was not even worth remembering by name.
Yet he fell in love with me at first sight.
One hundred confessions.
Not once or twice, but a hundred times.
I once lingered a little too long over the bellflowers in the garden. The next morning, every rose in the yard had been uprooted overnight and replaced with the color I liked.
When I twisted my ankle, he booked an entire hospital floor and stayed by my side for three days and three nights.
It was also then that I learned there had always been someone pursuing him.
Emma, a childhood sweetheart and the daughter of the richest family, had chased him for years, loving him loudly and fiercely.
But there had never been anyone else in his eyes.
“Joyce, I only love you.”
“So what if she’s a perfect match? All I feel for Emma is disgust.”
To force him to let go, the Chase family took back his shares and even used their connections to send him to a remote island overseas.
Twenty whole days.
He starved himself until the family compromised, and in doing so, shattered every last line of my defenses.
I believed him.
So I married him.
After the wedding, he did keep his promise, doting on me so openly that everyone knew.
For a while, I truly thought my life would stay like this.
Until half a year ago.
Emma, who had been gone for years, suddenly returned to the country.
And Chase’s attitude toward her changed.
He canceled international conferences and went to the airport himself to pick her up.
To host her welcome banquet, he stayed away from home for three full days.
I swallowed my grievance and asked him about it. For the first time, he told me the truth.
“A year ago, I was in a car accident in the UK.”
“Shiyu saved me. She was in a coma for an entire year.”
He said it so calmly, yet every word stabbed into my heart.
“Joyce, I only love you.”
“But she just woke up. I have to repay this life debt.”
“One year. Just one year, alright?”
At first, I believed him.
I thought love could wait.
Until the night of that banquet.
My old illness relapsed, and I was rushed into emergency treatment.
But Chase’s phone was unreachable, no matter how many times I called.
Left with no choice, my mother went to the luxury yacht where the banquet was being held.
She never came back.
Everyone said it was an accident.
They said she lost control of her emotions and jumped into the sea.
Even Chase, who was not at the scene when it happened, chose to believe that.
But I knew better.
That night, after I was pushed out of the emergency room, I clearly received a phone call.
The other end was chaotic and piercing.
I heard Emma’s sharp scolding, and I heard my mother’s agonized screams.
She did not kill herself.
She was forced into the sea.
For the past six months, I lived in guilt and collapse.
Crying until my voice was gone, hurting until I was numb.
Until I pried a trace of the truth from a waiter.
I begged Chase countless times to help me.
But at that criminal private prosecution hearing, he stood on the opposite side without hesitation.
He protected the person who killed my mother.
To force me to submit, he even threatened me with my mother’s ashes.
At that moment, I looked at him and felt as if this man were a stranger who had crawled out of hell.
I was desperate.
And I gave in.
My fingers trembling, I signed my crooked name on that letter of apology.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“Then let them come back from the sea…”
The words had barely fallen when a sharp cry suddenly rang out behind me.
Emma suddenly clutched her head and collapsed over the defendant’s bench.
“Chase, help me… my head hurts again.”
The next second, Chase panicked. He threw down his tablet and rushed over.
On the livestream, the countdown had already ended.
Without receiving his command to stop, several bodyguards opened the urn.
“No!”
第3章
I screamed like a madwoman.
“Chase, tell them to stop. Now!”
But they would not listen to me.
I tried to chase after him, to grab hold of him.
Yet his eyes and heart held only Emma. As he carried her out, his elbow slammed hard into me.
I fell to the ground. My forehead struck the corner of the table.
Tears fell, one by one, onto the cold screen.
Too late.
It was already too late.
On camera, the ashes were poured down from the ship.
Against the biting sea wind, they scattered, little by little, vanishing into the surging waves.
In that instant, my heart felt as if it were torn apart alive.
My mother had always been afraid of the cold.
She hated the freezing sea more than anything.
And now, not only had she died there, she would be trapped there forever.
“Mom, I’m sorry…”
I cried until I broke down completely.
At that moment, regret consumed me.
I regretted falling in love with Chase.
I regretted marrying him.
I drafted the divorce agreement. It would take effect soon.
Just after finishing it, my phone vibrated. A text from the hospital reminded me that I had an upcoming prenatal checkup.
This would most likely be my last one.
When I stepped outside, I saw the doorway piled high with packages.
Large and small, stacked neatly.
I glanced at them casually.
Cement, steel bars, timber.
At a glance, it was obvious they were materials for building an underground bunker for the so called apocalypse.
I suddenly felt like laughing.
He moved fast.
So fast that it made me suspect he had long been eager to build this so called love nest with Joyce.
I did not even dare imagine what a Peking University astronomy professor would look like, sleeves rolled up, hauling bricks and laying stones.
But not long after, I actually saw it.
Joyce posted another update, without the slightest restraint.
“Little bunker. Our home after finding our way back to each other.”
In the video, Chase looked nothing like the meticulous man I remembered, the one who would press every crease out of his shirts.
His face was smeared with dirt, his hair a mess, squatting inside a pit and digging.
As he dug, he spoke to her gently.
“Joyce, don’t be afraid.”
“When the world really ends in one month later, we won’t die either.”
In that moment, I finally understood what blinding pain meant.
Beside him, Felix struggled to pass him bricks.
Father and son, one squatting, one bent over, the scene absurd and ridiculous.
I watched and watched, and somehow started laughing.
But as I laughed, my face slowly grew wet.
So he really was willing.
For Joyce, he would give everything.
Even at the end of the world, he would still give her a home.
And I had nothing.
When I filled out the divorce agreement, it was not that I had never thought about it.
About taking every last bit of the modest income in the accounts and leaving him with nothing.
But after calming down, it felt unnecessary.
Aside from the title of Peking University astronomy professor, all Chase really had left was his self righteous pride and foul temper.
If I truly left him with nothing, he probably would not even be able to raise our son.
The car was provided by the university.
The furniture was secondhand.
The house was rented.
Back when our relationship was at its best, it was not that I had never suggested buying a home.
I had even planned it seriously.
Little by little, personally building a place that belonged to the three of us.
“I can pay in full.”
“The deed can have only your name on it.”
But he always thought I was joking.
He would even lecture me in that utterly natural tone of his.
“Don’t let yourself be tied down by worldly things.”
“A house is just a place to sleep. There’s no need to obsess over it.”
He never understood.
Money had never been a problem for me.
Across the capital’s elite circles, the properties my grandfather had arranged for me were so many that even I could not remember them all.
What I wanted was never a house.
What I wanted was a small home that had something to do with him.
第4章
Until I gave birth to our son, I had brought up buying a house again, but he still wouldn't budge.
So, like Wang Baochuan, I followed him, moving once again, from the southern part of the city to the city center, over and over.
With each move, I lost more than I kept.
In the end, all that remained was my willingness to give to them.
But I never expected that, in the end, they wouldn’t even want that.
I purposely bought a box of donuts, intending to give them to the nurses and doctors who had taken care of me all these years.
“Miss Emma, you’re so thoughtful,” the nurse said, taking the snack, her tone gentle. “Thank you.”
I forced a smile, one that lacked any warmth. “You’re welcome.”
Just as I was about to turn to find a seat in the waiting room, my steps suddenly faltered, and my breath was abruptly cut off.
There they were.
Chase, and Joyce.
They walked out of the gynecology clinic together, their movements natural, their intimacy undeniable. Chase’s hand rested gently on her small belly, with a tenderness and adoration I knew all too well. In that instant, my gaze seemed to be nailed in place, unable to look away.
Joyce was holding a pregnancy guidebook, its clean cover clearly displaying her name.
My mind went blank.
Countless thoughts exploded in my head, but I couldn’t find a single one that made sense.
“Is... is this their child?”
“How did it come to this?”
It was absurd and ironic.
Chase—he was the one who had personally introduced me to this gynecologist.
And now, here he was, openly bringing his mistress into the clinic, as if he was certain I would never run into them.
“So… even the doctor knows?”
As that thought crossed my mind, a sharp pain suddenly twisted in my chest, as if countless knives had simultaneously plunged into my heart, making it hard to breathe.
What about his family?
Had they known all along?
Joyce seemed to sense my gaze and finally looked at me.
But she didn’t even flinch. Instead, she curled her lips into a smile, one that was completely unguarded.
Chase suddenly stopped walking, glanced at me, and his tone became casual, though there was a subtle hint of wariness.
“What are you doing here at the hospital?”
I instinctively tightened my grip on my bag, my fingertips turning pale, but I still lifted my head and smiled at him, a smile so faint it barely held.
“Routine checkup.”
I said it casually, like it was the most ordinary thing in the world. After all, I was about to divorce him anyway.
“I’ve been feeling a little unwell, so the doctor asked me to come in.”
He furrowed his brow slightly, his gaze lingering on my face for a couple of seconds, as if searching for some sign of weakness.
But I lowered my eyelashes, avoiding his gaze, breathing lightly.
“No big deal, right?”
His question was dismissive, clearly no longer interested in probing further.
“Mm, it’s fine.”
I nodded, my voice steady. “I’ll leave once the checkup’s done.”
He simply muttered an “oh,” then turned to answer a call, his tone quickly shifting to a warm and patient one.
I stood there, watching his back, while my other hand, without my control, subconsciously fell onto my lower abdomen.
He followed my gaze, then seemed to finally realize who I was looking at, his tone so naturally casual, it felt almost like an explanation.
“She just came back to the country.”
“She doesn’t have any friends here, and her family isn’t around, so I’m the one accompanying her.”
He explained it with ease and thoughtfulness, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
I nodded, not exposing the truth, nor asking further.
It was clear now—he didn’t even think I deserved an explanation.
第5章
The next moment, a deliberately suppressed gasp came from beside me.
“Ah!”
The mistress slightly furrowed her brows, instinctively holding her waist, her expression fragile and innocent.
Almost simultaneously, he had already turned around.
His movements were swift, without the slightest hesitation. One arm steadied her shoulder, and his other hand gently rested on her hand, asking in a low voice, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
The two of them stood very close.
So close that anyone who looked at them would think they were a family.
I stood there, like an intruder, a stranger who had wandered in.
If he had paid a little more attention, even just glanced at the signs around, he would have realized that the place we met was the gynecology clinic.
But he didn’t.
His attention was entirely on her.
On her slightly pale face, on her soft voice as she responded, and on the way she leaned into him.
And I, I was nothing more than the ignored background.
I suddenly felt a bit ironic.
I was standing here, I had said nothing, and I was the one who was his wife.
But in this moment, there was no place for me in his world.
When I entered the door, the smell hit me immediately.
The lights were on in the living room.
I stood in the entrance, and at a glance, I saw Chase holding a bowl of soup, patiently feeding Emma spoon by spoon.
Felix sat beside them, behaving unusually well.
“Auntie, you’re so gentle. Can you be my mom?”
In that instant, it felt like I had been shoved into an ice cellar.
How could these words come from my own son?
Emma smiled gently and gracefully, reaching out to rub Felix's hair. “Of course, as long as your dad agrees.”
My heart jerked painfully.
I walked into the living room with a blank expression.
“It’s so late. Where have you been?”
Chase looked up, and seeing my pale face, he was clearly taken aback. His tone softened involuntarily. “What happened to your forehead?”
I didn’t answer.
I had just come from the hospital and stumbled at the door. What was the point of saying anything?
Emma immediately raised her voice in a playful tone, “You’re back, Joyce! Just in time, I brought you some gifts. Come look.”
Chase cleared his throat, his expression a bit awkward. “Joyce, Shiyu is pregnant and needs to rest. For now, she’ll stay here. You should be more mindful. She’s lactose intolerant, can’t eat cold food, needs to sleep until 10 AM for her beauty rest, and the fruits need to be juiced…”
Each word felt like a knife, stabbing deeper into my heart, one after another.
I couldn’t believe it and let out a cold laugh. “What, you want me to take care of her?”
“Be good, Joyce. Everything in the past is behind us, don’t dwell on it,” he paused for a moment, then spoke with casual certainty, “You’ve worked as a maid in the Chase family, so I trust you to handle these things.”
He didn’t finish the sentence.
Felix, standing beside us, innocently added, “Yeah, mom, I like Aunt Lu too.”
I lowered my head and saw on the side of the dining table a list of 267 “care instructions for the young lady.”
On the floor were a few luxury shopping bags haphazardly discarded. A Chanel handbag with worn-out corners, an Hermes keychain from a gift package, and Dior high heels that were clearly used.
The so-called “gifts” were nothing but a pile of discarded junk she had thrown away.
Suddenly, I remembered many years ago.
Chase’s good friend had once called me “the maid who serves,” and he immediately turned hostile, halting a billion-dollar project that night.
He said, “Joyce is my wife. Whoever dares to belittle her is slapping me, Chase, in the face.”
But now, he had slapped his own face.
He had made me serve the enemy as a personal maid.
It turned out that deep love and vows could be so easily shattered.
第6章
I would never believe again.
The wetness in my eyes was tightly suppressed.
In the final thirty days, I had to endure.
But I didn’t expect that the first night Emma stayed over, she would start causing trouble.
She rushed barefoot into the master bedroom while Chase had just finished his shower.
“Chase, I can’t sleep alone,” she said in a soft, delicate voice, immediately crawling into his bare arms. “The guest room mattress is too hard, I’m scared… Will you sleep with me?”
Chase furrowed his brow.
I knew, he felt pity.
So much so that he completely ignored me standing in the room.
He scooped Emma up onto his lap, holding her comfortingly, his gaze shifting to the left side of the double bed. “Joyce, Shiyu’s never had a hard life… How about you go sleep in another room for now?”
In that moment, I clearly saw the hint of provocation flash across Emma’s face.
I gave a sarcastic smile, grabbed the pillow, and got off the bed.
“Since Miss Lu likes it, I’ll let you have this bed.”
Not just this bed.
This master bedroom, this man.
I didn’t want any of it.
In the following days, with Chase accompanying her every night, Emma quickly regained her energy and even started inviting her friends over for afternoon tea.
“Shiyu, Chase must still have feelings for you,” someone laughed, “During that year you were unconscious, he flew to the UK all the time, even made a vow that if you woke up, he would divorce for you.”
I happened to hear this while passing by.
My heart felt as if it were being violently ripped open.
When Chase wasn’t around, Emma couldn’t even be bothered to pretend.
“Joyce, your coffee tastes like dishwater. It’s disgusting to look at.”
I reached out to take the coffee away, but my wrist was suddenly twisted.
“What’s your attitude? You make coffee for Shiyu like this, and you still dare to act like this?” one of her friends scolded harshly, “Do you want to kneel and apologize?”
The next second, my scalp burned with pain.
A whole cup of boiling coffee was poured over my head.
“Stop!”
Chase’s furious shout exploded at the door.
He rushed over and shielded me behind him.
“Who allowed you to bully her?”
Before he even finished speaking, Emma already had tears in her eyes, holding her stomach and trembling as she spoke. “Chase, it’s not like that… She put dairy in my coffee, my stomach hurts so much.”
Chase froze in his movements.
He looked at me, and his gaze instantly turned cold.
“Joyce, I told you she’s lactose intolerant, didn’t I?”
How ridiculous.
From protecting me to pushing me aside, all with a single lie.
“I didn’t.” My voice trembled. “She’s faking it.”
But my explanation was completely drowned out by her superb acting and the agreement of others.
Chase, furious, smashed the coffee cup on the table, then turned and picked Emma up in a horizontal carry. “Qin Chaolu, you stay at home and reflect on this!”
Emma wasn’t satisfied and cried out with tears streaming down her face. “I won’t go to the hospital… No one has ever treated me like this, I can’t take it…”
Chase finally coldly ordered the bodyguards, “Take my wife to the backyard and lock her up.”
At that moment, I felt a chill all over my body.
The two-square-meter enclosed darkroom was a punishment reserved for bodyguards who made principle mistakes.
Insects and ants would be released in batches.
I struggled desperately. “No… I don’t want to go!”
But the figure carrying Emma never looked back.
A full twenty-four hours.
I curled up in the corner of the darkroom, letting the insects and ants crawl over my skin. The fiery pain and itching made me nearly collapse.
I screamed until I lost my voice.
And outside the door, the bodyguards Chase had arranged remained unmoved.
第7章
A sudden, strange sensation spread from deep within her body.
She froze for a moment, feeling a tightness in her lower abdomen, as though something had gripped it forcefully. Then came the unmistakable warmth and wetness.
She looked down and saw the blood trailing down her legs.
In that moment, her mind went blank. The sounds around her seemed to mute, and the world was left with only the frantic beating of her heart. Instinctively, she reached out to steady herself against the wall, but she lacked the strength to remain standing.
Before her consciousness faded, the last thought that flashed through her mind was how quickly loss could arrive.
When she opened her eyes again, the harsh white light blinded her.
The smell of disinfectant reminded her that she was in a hospital. The ceiling felt cold, devoid of any warmth. Drops of water from the IV drip fell steadily, rhythmically, almost cruelly.
Her hand subconsciously rested on her lower abdomen.
It was unnaturally flat.
No pain, no response, as though it had never carried a life.
The doctor’s voice sounded low and steady beside her, controlled, but each word felt like a dull knife, cutting away at her heart inch by inch.
She didn’t cry.
She just stared at the blank ceiling, suddenly feeling like she had been hollowed out.
The bodyguard stood to the side. She knew it was the bodyguard who had saved her.
“Don’t tell Chase.”
She whispered the order.
The bodyguard didn’t ask further, simply nodded in silence.
On the day of the divorce registration, they appeared together as a family of three.
Joyce was holding Chase’s arm, her body almost pressed against his side, their posture natural and intimate.
Felix stood beside her, his small body deliberately straightened, like two loyal bodyguards, firmly protecting the “princess” in between them.
The moment they saw me, both father and son visibly froze for a moment.
That brief hesitation quickly disappeared, and they resumed their tacit, harmonious demeanor.
I had returned to using the expensive cosmetics and skincare products from before, wearing a hand-tailored dress.
In the mirror, I had become the exquisite, sharp, and unignorable woman from the Beijing elite circle again.
It was a far cry from the plain-faced woman in home clothes, busy in the kitchen, forgetting to eat.
My expression was calm as I subtly lifted my chin, signaling them to enter.
But the next moment, Felix suddenly raised his hand, blocking Joyce from moving forward.
His tone was filled with clear defensiveness and hostility.
“Don’t hurt Aunt Joyce. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
In that instant, I suddenly realized.
In his heart, the “bad guy” had always been me.
In contrast, Joyce, protected between two men, seemed poised and composed.
She gently spoke, her voice soft and perfectly measured.
“Actually... I owe you an apology. My relationship with Dongting started before you two were married.”
This matter, I was not completely unaware of.
He would occasionally mention it when drunk.
Those years, he often invited friends over for dinner.
To entertain them, I would always prepare a full table of dishes, running back and forth, barely remembering when I would eat myself.
That’s how I went from a Beijing socialite who had never lifted a finger to a housewife who could recite a thousand recipes.
But he hardly ever mentioned my efforts.
To him, those were just the things a wife should do.
But when it came to her, he would drink glass after glass, ignoring everyone who tried to stop him.
That was one of the rare moments he lost control as a teacher.
What he repeatedly expressed was bitterness and regret.
His youthful first love had become an indelible mark on his heart, something he could never let go.
第8章
I originally didn’t care.
Who doesn’t have a past?
Besides, after he sobered up, he would return to his meticulous scholar self.
He would go to work on time, not participate in social gatherings, and always report his business trips.
Even his students would laugh and say,
“Professor Wei loves his wife so much. As soon as class ends, he rushes home. He’s basically a wife slave.”
Our relationship couldn’t be called passionate, but it was respectful, and it had remained steady for many years.
But now, Joyce suddenly brought up “the order of things.”
It made it seem like I had barged into their relationship, becoming the third party disrupting their love.
I glanced at Felix.
At just eight years old, he had already learned to judge right and wrong with bias.
I didn’t need to guess; I knew what he must have misunderstood.
I didn’t want to explain.
I just smiled and said to Joyce,
“No need to apologize. I heard you’ve even built an underground bunker?”
I paused, my tone warm and sincere.
“Then I wish you two a shared life, and may you both lie together in the same grave.”
It was nothing but a fitting blessing.
Yet, for some reason, Chase’s expression suddenly darkened.
His tone became irritated, clearly showing impatience.
“Are you cursing us?”
Then, he sneered.
“If you kneel down and apologize now, maybe I’ll consider, as your husband, letting you stay in a doghouse.”
“So when the asteroid hits, you won’t have nowhere to hide.”
I smiled.
Should I be grateful for such a “gift”?
I didn’t say another word.
I raised my hand and flagged down a car.
As the door slammed shut, she almost rushed in, as though escaping.
The driver started the car, and she instinctively began rummaging through her bag. Her fingers traced over everything—phone, keys, documents—only to find that the thin piece of paper was missing.
The miscarriage form.
Her movements suddenly stopped, her chest feeling as though it had been struck hard.
In that moment, she couldn’t tell if she was anxious or if she should laugh. The paper was so light, yet it carried all the truths she hadn’t yet voiced.
The car had already driven past the hospital, but she didn’t ask the driver to turn around.
There was no need.
A few seconds later, the phone screen lit up.
The first call.
The second.
The third.
The vibrations were relentless, the sound a troubling, late panic, desperately knocking at the door. She didn’t answer, only staring at the familiar name flashing on the screen, again and again, until it disappeared.
Soon, the calls turned into messages.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Where are you now?”
“Did the hospital make a mistake?”
“Pick up the phone.”
The words came quickly, but too late.
She stared at the messages and suddenly found them a bit ridiculous.
If he truly cared, why would it take a miscarriage form for him to realize what had happened?
Her finger hovered over the screen, but she didn’t respond.
The view outside the car window sped by, the white hospital building long gone behind her. She took a deep breath and pressed the power button.
The screen went dark, and for the first time, the world was silent.
This time, she wouldn’t explain, wouldn’t wait, and wouldn’t look back.
I don’t know if the world will end in one month later.
But I know this, Chase—between you and me, it is truly over.