Legally Her Husband, Emotionally the Extra

"What are you still daydreaming for? Eat. The beef wellington here is your favorite, isn't it?"

I took in Selena's elegant movements and her expressionless face and felt a chill like never before sweep through me.

At that moment, I finally understood something.

It wasn't that she didn't care—she just didn't care about me.

…

On the journey back to our house, a dead silence stretched between us. I gripped the steering wheel tightly, the force turning my fingers white.

Meanwhile, Selena was in the passenger seat, her head tilted to gaze out the window at the flashing neon lights.

She was still in the white dress I had painstakingly picked out for our anniversary. Under the moonlight's illumination, she glowed, as beautiful as a goddess.

However, I knew under the ethereal-looking skin lay a cold and selfish heart.

"Why?" At last, I couldn't hold back anymore and spoke up in a hoarse voice, "Why would you do this to me?"

Selena didn't even turn to look at me as she asked, "What did I do to you?"

Her tone was light and flippant, much like how one would ask about the weather.

"I just want to have a baby with you. Is that wrong?"

Hearing that, I abruptly slammed on the brakes. The car tires screeched against the asphalt as the vehicle suddenly halted, the momentum throwing both of us forward.

"Have a baby with me?" I whipped my head around to snap, "Don't you mean it's because you've received permission from your first love and decided to grace me with the honor of having a baby with you?"

That had Selena finally turning to lock eyes with me. There was no anger or guilt in her gaze, just cold indifference.

"Adrian, if you insist on thinking of it that way, then there's nothing I can do about it. Everything is in the past now, and Shane has also said the promise is void and null. From now on, we can live like a normal pair of husband and wife. Isn't that a good thing?"

"A normal pair of husband and wife?" I scoffed as though I had heard the biggest joke of the century. "Selena Sander, tell me—just what sort of normal couple has the husband taking hormonal pills for three entire years, all because his wife has to keep a promise to another man?

"Do you have any idea just how much harm those pills cause to the body? Every time I go for a medical checkup, the doctor warns me that my liver function is abnormal!"

I thought she would finally feel guilty after hearing that and she would apologize.

However, all I received in response was a frown.

"Didn't I already promise to buy you plenty of supplements once you stop taking the pills? Why are you being so petty? It's just a few pills. Is it really necessary for you to hold a grudge for so long?"

Immediately, all the blood froze in my veins.

As it turned out, the suffering and pain I endured was nothing but "a few pills" to her.

I thought back to three years ago, when we first married.

At the time, I had been eagerly fantasizing about how our children would look. However, she told me she wasn't ready yet and that she was allergic to latex. Not wanting her to suffer the side effects of taking contraceptive pills, I voluntarily suggested that I do it instead.

She had hugged me with red-rimmed eyes, saying, "Darling, you're truly so good to me. I'll never be able to leave you for the rest of our lives."

I had been so touched by her words then that I had even thought doing anything for her was totally worth it.

Looking back on it now, I realized that she had probably been thinking of Shane at the time.

Her lower abdomen carried the humiliating mark another man left on her, while I, the official husband, killed any possibility of us having children with my own two hands.

What a fool I was.

The air within the car seemed to grow thin, making me feel as though I couldn't breathe. As I stared at the familiar face before me, one that suddenly seemed like a stranger, I felt nothing but utter disgust.

"Let's get a divorce."

My voice wasn't loud, but it still went off like a bomb in the silence of the car.

At long last, there was a crack in Selena's indifferent mask. She shot me a look of disbelief and annoyance, as though I were an unreasonable child.

"Adrian Luther, could you stop with the tantrum? Just because of a few words from Shane, you want to divorce me? Is your love that cheap?"

A laugh burst from my lips, and I couldn't stop even as tears threatened to fall.

"My love isn't cheap. It's just that you, Selena Sander, don't deserve it."

…

I didn't even turn off the engine as I dumped Selena back to the place I no longer called home, immediately jamming my foot on the accelerator once she was out of the car. With a roar, it sped forward like a loose arrow.

My destination?

A place in the suburbs, one that I hadn't been to in a long time.