Chapter 1

My wife, after three months apart, pushed me away impatiently when I tried to get close. "Just got back and already focused on this? I'm sick of it."

She ran off right after saying that, and I instantly realized I'd been too pushy.

I knew Ava had always been distant when it came to intimacy, and I admit I lost control this time.

So I sent dozens of apologies, but my messages went unanswered.

Just as I was about to go look for her, my phone buzzed with a video.

In the video, Ava was kneeling in front of a man. His back was to the camera, so I couldn't see his face, but he felt vaguely familiar.

"Please, just take me, okay? See, I really didn't let him touch me just now. He's been starving for a month, but I only want your touch."

Watching Ava, completely different from how she was with me, all my long-buried memories came flooding back.

Before, when I tried to hold her hand, she'd say, "Don't you get it? I don't like physical intimacy. Why do you insist on disgusting me?"

Even our intimacy was rationed, a scheduled, monthly affair.

At first, I felt frustrated, but eventually, I just accepted it.

I never imagined, though, that it was all a lie.

She wasn't frigid; she just didn't want me close.

The thought made me sick to my stomach.

It seemed she'd forgotten how our marriage even came to be.