Love Left Me Wandering

After ending the call, my mother-in-law's moist eyes overflowed with tears. She held my hand tightly, her voice trembling with a cry, "I'm sorry, Aria…. This is all my fault. I should never have forced you to stay with him, causing you to suffer so much …."

It was true — she had orchestrated my marriage to Sean.

After I graduated from college, she arranged a blind date and told him bluntly that I was the only suitable daughter-in-law for the Carter Family.

He protested and fought against the idea, but he couldn’t overcome her persistence. We got married.

At first, I thought I’d found my safe harbor, someone I could rely on. I was filled with hope for our future.

I poured my heart into being a good wife, putting him first.

Whenever my colleagues invited me out for dinner, I declined, worried he wouldn’t eat properly if left alone.

Eventually, they stopped asking.

I put all my thoughts on him and did not care about contact with the outside world.

I thought my sincerity would be returned in kind.

But I was wrong. Not long after our wedding, Sean began staying out late.

Naively, I assumed it was work-related. I prepared nutritious meals and delivered them to his office, urging him to care for himself.

Until one night, I attended a banquet with him. Midway through, a glamorous woman approached with a provocative smile.

"So, you're Mrs. Carter?" she sneered. "I heard you're an orphan. No wonder your cooking is so good — it must've been a survival skill, huh? Were you a chef before?"

Then, I realized the meals I had painstakingly prepared for him had been going straight into another woman’s stomach.

When we got home, I confronted him for the first time.

To say it was a fight is more like a catharsis for me alone.

He was unimpressed, as calm and self-possessed as a madman.

Once I had exhausted myself, he calmly remarked, "Aria Hampton, don’t you think your self-pity is a bit pathetic?"

That single sentence shattered every defense I had.

My good to him, he is completely not on the heart, as if watching the drama of the passer-by. He calmly watched me pay and then cloudy commented: You are in self-touching.

How ridiculous.

I didn’t know how to face him or our future, so I chose avoidance. I stopped caring about what he did.

Soon, rumors about his affairs became frequent headlines.

One day, he attended a fashion show with a young model. The next, he dined with a flight attendant. Then, he slipped into a hotel with a business partner.

Each scandal chipped away at my resolve until I was ready to file for divorce.

But my mother-in-law insisted, "It’s all just for show, nothing serious. Aria, he likes you but just doesn’t know how to express it. Please, for my sake, give him one more try."

She had been my benefactor since I was five, supporting me through life at the orphanage.

Thanks to her, I never suffered the way other orphans did.

Remembering that she had favoured me, I put up with it.

After that, I slowly went from pain to numbness to his cheating.

But last year, when my mother-in-law discovered I couldn’t sleep without medication, she finally conceded.

"If you give Sean a child — boy or girl — I'll agree to your divorce."

Desperate for freedom, I forced myself to recover and take care of my body.

But he wouldn't touch me. He preferred living at the office to coming home.

So, I took matters into my own hands, using his sperm to undergo IVF.

Thankfully, it worked.

I got pregnant and gave birth.

Now, I was finally on the brink of freedom.

Not long after my mother-in-law's call, Sean stormed into the hospital room, his face cold as ice.