Chapter 2

"Claire, Ethan used to buy me gifts all the time back then. I really didn't know you would be this angry..."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have accepted them. I'll give everything back."

"If you're still mad, slap me again. Slap me twice. I won't fight back, I swear."

Chloe's voice shook like a frightened leaf.

She played the fragile victim so well that anyone would think I was a monster terrorizing her.

I stepped around Ethan and walked straight up to her. She immediately scrambled back in fear.

"Didn't you just say I could slap you two more times if I was still mad? What are you running away for?"

I stared down at her, a cold sneer playing on my lips.

She froze for a brief second.

Then, with a dull thud, she dropped to her knees right before me.

"Claire, I'm so sorry! I really know I was wrong! But Ethan and I are completely innocent. We've never done anything behind your back!"

"Even if you don't believe me, you have to trust your own husband!"

"Claire, don't you dare push your luck!"

Ethan practically lunged forward to pull her off the floor. "A dirty mind sees dirt everywhere. You don't owe her an explanation."

He turned to glare at me with pure venom. "You really have zero trust in me, don't you? Fine! If you want a divorce so damn bad, you've got it! Just don't come crawling back on your knees begging me to take you back!"

With that, he shoved me ruthlessly toward the front door.

As if I were the outsider in this house.

I tried to fight back, but Ethan's grip was brute strength, pinning my arms until I couldn't move.

The moment the front door slammed behind me, I stood alone in the freezing snow for a long time.

Seven years of marriage. I had abandoned my family and walked away from my fortune, moving across the country for love—only to end up homeless on New Year's Eve.

I suppose those who feel unconditionally loved are always fearless. That was why Ethan was so convinced I would inevitably crawl back to him in tears.

Ethan and I had first met in college.

Back then, he was the charismatic senior running club recruitment, and I had fallen head over heels at first sight.

Just to be close to him, I joined the debate club, something I had never been good at.

I chased after him for three grueling years, getting rejected two hundred and thirty-nine times.

Ethan had never spared me a smile. Most of the time, he just told me to stop bothering him.

After my two hundred and forty-ninth confession failed, I finally had enough.

I decided to give up on him, quit the debate club, and take back my own life.

Then, one late evening, Ethan showed up at my dorm, cornering me in the dim hallway.

His eyes were bloodshot as he pinned me against the wall, resting his chin on my shoulder.

His warm breath ghosted against my ear, his voice trembling as he asked if I truly didn't want him anymore.

In that single second, my resolve completely melted.

I cupped his face and kissed his lips.

"Ethan, do you want me?"

He didn't answer with words.

Instead, he kissed me like a madman right outside my dorm, completely uncaring of who might see.

The very next day, news of the campus heartthrob being taken swept across the entire university.

Everyone told me that landing a guy like Ethan was the greatest stroke of luck I would ever have in my life.

Back then, I foolishly believed them.

I thought I was genuinely blessed to have such an exceptional man fall in love with me.

I had completely forgotten who I actually was. I was Claire Vance, the sole heiress to the Vance empire. I had the looks, the pedigree, and elite talent in every art imaginable.

Ethan was the one who had hit the lottery by dating me—not the other way around.

Right after graduation, we walked down the aisle.

Because his career was just starting out, I demanded zero dowry or gifts.

My parents were vehemently opposed to me marrying down, but I didn't care about his lack of money. I had plenty of it. If he needed it, I could just give it to him.

Ethan swore to me that once he made it, he would give me the world.

And like an idiot, I believed every word.

It wasn't until Chloe returned that I realized how pathetic and naive I had been.

Chloe was his childhood sweetheart who had moved abroad with her family when she was eighteen.

The only reason Ethan had rejected every girl in college was that he was waiting for her.

As for that night when he showed up at my dorm with red-rimmed eyes? I later found out that he had just received news that Chloe had gotten engaged to another man overseas.

To spite Chloe, he grabbed his most loyal, desperate backup option.

Me.

I thought he had cried for me, but the entire foundation of our relationship was a sick lie.