Chapter 4

That night, as I paced around the house trying on clothes, Daniel's eyes kept darting my way.

Finally, he couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Why are you dressed up so nicely? Where are you going?"

I turned from side to side, looking at myself in the mirror, and said:

"The doctor said I'm recovering well and can go back to work. Tomorrow's Monday, too."

Daniel fell silent, and so did I.

Sure enough, a moment later he spoke again.

"I saw the weather forecast said it's going to rain tomorrow. A skirt might not be very convenient, right?"

I didn't turn around.

"Oh, I'm meeting a client tomorrow, so it's better to dress a bit more formally."

"But it's a bit too short."

"Daniel, are you crazy? It's past my knees, how is that short?"

I retorted testily.

He fell silent.

When I woke up the next day, he had already left.

But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find the skirt I'd tried on last night. I had to find a pair of jeans to wear instead.

When I went to put on makeup, my foundation, brushes, eyeshadow, and blush were all gone.

I gritted my teeth and began tearing through drawers and cabinets, but they were nowhere.

Finally, realizing I was going to be late, I rushed to the office without makeup and borrowed a colleague's meager supplies to put on a light touch.

During lunch break, I found an empty lounge.

Suppressing my anger, I called Daniel.

He finally picked up on the third try.

He still spoke in a good-natured tone.

"What's wrong?"

"Where did you hide my skirt and my makeup?"

"I'm at work. Can we talk about this when I get home, okay?"

His voice was almost coaxing, as if I were being unreasonable.

"Did I not tell you that was the outfit I needed to wear to meet a client today?"

"How come your work is work, but my work isn't?"

"Actually, I think you look better without makeup, really."

"Alright, alright, don't be mad. My client is calling. We'll talk when I get back."

"Beep-beep—"

The cold, hollow dial tone echoed in my ear. I impulsively threw a cup.

It shattered right at Brenda's feet.

"What happened? Who upset you? Tell big sister."

"Brenda..."

I sobbed, throwing my arms around her.

"I feel like I'm getting so much more irritable. I feel like when I'm with him, I'm just an unreasonable shrew."

"To outsiders, I'm temperamental and he's gentle. He takes all my abuse, letting me hit and curse him. Everyone says he's a good guy, that he dotes on his wife."

I was a bit incoherent.

Brenda patted my head.

"I'll give you some time off, and I'll advance you a month's salary. Didn't you say he hid your clothes? Go buy more."

Brenda let me leave early, but I didn't go shopping.

There was one thing I absolutely had to figure out.

Martha had been home the past few days, so I hadn't been able to search thoroughly.

But I knew Daniel had a habit of keeping a diary.

It was an old-fashioned habit, but it was also my only path to the truth.

Whether my child was actually lost because of him, I'd soon know.

I found his diary in a drawer.

My heart pounded as I flipped to the day of my car accident.

But it wasn't there.

My car accident happened on August 3rd.

August 2nd was there, August 4th was there, but August 3rd was missing.

I looked closely and found traces of torn pages in the middle.

I lifted the mattress. There was a compartment in the bed frame.

Daniel always hid small items he didn't want me to know about here, like his secret stash of money, or torn-out diary pages.

I opened the compartment, and sure enough, there were two handwritten pages inside.

"Ellie has been getting very close to that male colleague lately. They went to a hotel together, and soon after, she told me she was pregnant."

"I told her to get rid of it, but she refused and even yelled at me for being crazy. Why should I have to wear this humiliating green hat?"

"I have a plan. I'll put a 'pregnant woman' sticker on her car. Someone who doesn't like it will naturally try to cut her off."

"Heaven's blessings, that bastard is really gone!"