Chapter 3

I stayed at my mom's house for three nights straight.

Ethan, who usually checked in on me every day,

Didn't send me a single message for three whole days.

It wasn't until the fourth day that Ethan's message finally arrived.

"Why aren't you back yet? Sophia, you didn't ignore my advice and go to the hospital, did you? I told you it's useless."

"That bank card is linked to my transaction alerts. If you buy medicine or anything, I can see it clear as day."

My stomach churned violently, a strong wave of nausea rushing up.

Looking at these two messages, I felt chilled to the bone.

This was the man I'd loved for five years, the person I thought I could live and die with.

Yet he was this petty and mean. Knowing I was dying, he was still worried about me spending a single penny of his money.

"I'm coming back today."

I typed my reply.

After all, I'd paid half the down payment on the house we were living in and had been paying the mortgage together.

Since Ethan wronged me first,

I couldn't let myself lose both the person and the property.

I had just pushed open the front door when the sound of a man and woman laughing in the living room completely threw me.

At some point, Ethan had brought a strange woman home.

The woman was wearing a miniskirt, curled up on the sofa in Ethan's arms, the two of them intimately entangled, talking and laughing.

They were sharing a grape. When it dropped, Ethan grabbed the woman's chin and kissed her.

"Ethan, I'm not dead yet."

Seeing me standing in the doorway with a dark expression,

Ethan not only didn't panic, but instead kept his arm around the woman's waist and spoke matter-of-factly.

"Sophia, you don't have much time left anyway. You can't expect me to spend the rest of my life lonely, can you?"

"I'm finding a companion in advance. When you're underground, you'll be at peace too, right?"

His words nearly made me sick to my stomach.

My mother-in-law chimed in from the side.

"Exactly. My son has such good prospects—what kind of woman can't he find?"

She glared at me coldly with a sarcastic tone.

"If you weren't such a short-lived burden dragging him down, would my son have to go through all this trouble finding another woman?"

With that, she carried a fruit plate over to the strange woman with a smile plastered on her face.

"Chloe, I just washed these cherries. Try some."

"When you marry into our family, you can eat as much expensive fruit as you want."

Chloe Brooks smiled sweetly and accepted them. "Thank you, Auntie."

My expression grew even colder.

Those were cherries I'd bought just recently. I hadn't even eaten any yet, and they'd already finished them all.

I clenched my fists tightly. At that moment, my heart was colder than ice.

Five years in this family, and I'd given my all to these people.

But they couldn't wait for me to die.

"Sophia, don't get the wrong idea. I'm Chloe Brooks, just good friends with Ethan."

Chloe flashed a provocative smile and shoved a photo in my face.

"This was taken when we were at the cycling club."

I coldly glanced at it from the corner of my eye. In the photo, Ethan and Chloe in short shorts had their arms around each other, looking very close.

This wasn't the first time I'd heard Chloe's name.

The first time was when Ethan was gaming with his teammates in his study.

"Do you know that Chloe Brooks?"

"The one with the outgoing personality. Her body is just... wow. If I could ever... ahem, forget it. That's not something we should be thinking about."

Standing outside the door at the time, my heart flared with anger when I heard this.

But since he didn't finish the sentence and nothing actually happened,

I pretended I hadn't heard it.

But now, he'd brought her home.

"Sophia."

Chloe reached out and smacked Ethan's butt, teasing.

"Last time I just wore a bikini and Ethan couldn't control himself. He pulled me into his tent to sleep."

"I was just helping him with his physical needs. Don't take it to heart."