What Was Lost

The Group Chat

As expected, Serene turned to me with an apologetic gaze after ending the call.

"Joseph, Keith isn't feeling well. I'm going to visit him with Tina. Start without us. We'll be back soon."

Before this, I would have been too cowardly to say anything as she left.

This time, however, I did not want to compromise anymore.

I looked down at the food, picked up my cutlery, and said coldly, "We're eating."

Serene and Tina froze. Then Tina swept her plate to the floor.

"I'm going! I don't want to eat your food! I want to eat crabs and lobsters with Keith!"

I kept my head lowered.

"I said, you can go after you eat!"

Serene's face grew stormy as well. "We can eat whenever we want. Right now, we're going to visit him. He's all alone in the hospital without a single family member by his side. I can't let him suffer like that.

"Fine. You want a meal together, right? You can cook a new meal after we return later. We'll eat then."

I told her to wait. Then I walked to my room, took out a few documents, and placed them in front of her.

"Let's get divorced."

Serene paused just as she reached the mansion doorway.

She turned and stared at me in disbelief. "Really? It's just a meal."

"It's not just a meal. If you don't sign, neither of you is leaving this house today."

Tina tugged at her arm. "Mom, sign it already. We'll get dinner for Keith. He must be starving."

After shooting me a glare, Serene grabbed the papers and signed them without even reading a word.

"I won't be at the city hall once the 30-day cooldown period is over anyway, so this agreement is all for nothing. Go ahead with your tantrum."

Then, without giving me another glance, she left.

What she did not know was that she had also signed a Power of Attorney. She would not need to appear at city hall.

Hopefully, I would be able to survive until the day I could embark on a new path all on my own.

I stared at the table laden with untouched food.

Sitting back down, I slowly ate in silence. Somehow, it was the best meal of my life.

When we got married eight years ago, Serene told me to quit my teaching job so I could focus on taking care of her at home.

Like a servant, I had to prepare lavish meals for her every single day.

She had been pregnant then, and even a few bites would make her nauseous. I had to patiently coax her and feed her bite by bite.

After the whole ordeal, each meal would take at least one hour.

I could only eat the cold leftovers after she was full and had left the room.

Then, Tina was born. I shifted from taking care of Serene to taking care of Tina, but my life remained the same.

Before my mother passed away, she often told me, "You must first learn to love yourself before you can love others."

Looking back now, she was absolutely right.

I had already lost sight of myself, which was why I ended up losing my lover and child as well.

After the meal, I heard a buzzing coming from the couch.

When I walked over, I realized the buzzing came from Serene's tablet. It had been buzzing nonstop with notifications from her messaging app.

In the past, I would never touch any of her devices. According to her, all her messages contained company secrets, since she was in charge of a major company.

This time, for some odd reason, I tapped into the app.

The messages came from a group chat. The participants were her friends from high society.

Elaine had written, 'That freeloader actually had the nerve to ask for a divorce? Now I've seen everything. Just divorce him, then. He's going to die anyway. You don't want to be stuck mourning him after he dies, do you?'

Serene replied, 'You don't get it. The company will be going public soon. If I divorce him now, my reputation will take a hit.

'I've already asked around. After he dies, our marriage will be automatically annulled. Then I'll hire someone to write a piece about how devoted I was to him. That'll bring some good publicity to the company.'