Chapter 3

Evan shot to his feet.

“Claire, are you insane?”

“Was trapping me for ten years not enough? Now you want to ruin her life, too?”

He shoved over my IV stand.

Glass shattered across the floor.

“Don’t forget, this hospital might be in your name, but I gave it to you!”

That afternoon, while I was in too much pain to move, I was “escorted” out of my room.

My attending physician looked uncomfortable.

“Mr. Whitmore thinks it would be best for you to recover at home.”

I hadn’t been home in three months.

When I walked through the door, even my dog didn’t come to greet me.

Lily, who supposedly had a fever, was lying in the living room in my pajamas.

Noticing me looking for the dog, she explained.

“Mrs. Whitmore, I’m allergic to dog hair.”

Only then did Evan glance over.

“If you have the strength to walk home, you really have been faking it these past few days.”

“I boarded the dog at a pet shop. Pick him up yourself when you’re better.”

Once I got better, I wouldn’t be coming back.

Traces of Lily were everywhere.

The bedroom. The bathroom. The kitchen. The rooftop garden.

There was even a printed photo album in the study.

The pictures inside were more intimate and explicit.

“If you can’t stand it, move out. Haven’t I bought you several houses?”

Anything Evan gave me, he could take back whenever he wanted.

In ten years, I’d held on to neither love nor money.

I’d only worn myself down, growing sick, foolish, and old.

I stared at his back and spoke through my despair.

“Evan, you only lost a kidney.”

“Why does it feel like you lost your heart?”

His steps faltered, but he never turned around.

He simply picked up the barefoot Lily with care and carried her into the bedroom.

He hadn’t lost his heart.

He’d given it to someone new.

Evan stopped hiding their intimacy from me.

So I installed security cameras throughout the house and recorded them.

After Lily was fired from the hospital, she became his personal secretary.

Today was the Whitmore Group’s annual gala.

I arranged for someone to play a video at the event.

When Evan brought Lily home late that night, anger radiated off him.

She held his arm and gave it a little shake.

“Don’t be upset, Evan. Since your wife got sick, she’s become so much… less attractive.”

“Anyone with eyes could tell that wasn’t her in the video. It was AI.”

My eyes widened. She came closer, as if by accident.

“Replacing my face with yours was my little thank-you gift.”

She stepped back, smiling with perfect innocence.

“Oh, do you miss your dog?”

“When you have time, take a look in the garden.”

Evan pulled her behind him.

“Stay away from her. Who knows what other dirty tricks she has waiting for you.”

My hands and feet went cold.

Not because of Evan, but because a terrible thought had flashed through my mind.

I dug in the garden for three hours.

Until my fingertips touched something stiff.

The little dog Evan and I had once rescued together.

Now he lay in my arms, horribly cold.

When we married, Evan said he couldn’t bear to put me through childbirth.

The puppy we’d rescued, Puff, would be our child.

“While I was staying with you at the hospital… I didn’t keep an eye on Puff. He accidentally starved.”

Evan turned his face away, his throat moving.

“I’m upset he’s gone, too.”

Something like panic crossed his face when he saw my empty eyes.

“I was worrying about you day and night. About the surgery. That’s why I forgot about him.”

He caught my hand and pressed it to his lower abdomen.

“I lost a kidney for you. It hurts like hell here, too!”

I said nothing.

I pulled my hand away, picked up the shovel, and drove it toward my stomach.

“Evan, take your kidney back.”

“I owe you nothing. I want a divorce.”