Chapter 2

That was my husband, John.

The woman in his arms was wearing a backless evening gown in the dead of winter, with a men's suit jacket draped over her shoulders.

The two of them were kissing passionately in front of everyone, completely lost in each other.

I stood there, frozen in shock.

When they finally pulled apart, John's eyes were full of love. He reached out to wipe the moisture from the corner of the woman's mouth.

The woman snuggled happily into his arms.

"John, it's too bad that I caught a cold. I even got a spa treatment and was waiting to spend the holiday with you."

John tapped her nose playfully.

"That doesn't matter. I gave you medicine, and tonight we'll make love a few more times - your cold will be completely gone!"

The woman blushed and gave him a light punch.

They both burst out laughing.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I walked up to them angrily and pointed at John。

"You told me you were keeping your cousin company, and this is what you meant - making out here?"

"My mom just got out of the emergency room!"

John glanced at me and held Jessica Wilson tighter.

"Don't make things up. Jessica thought the medicine was too bitter, so I had no choice but to feed it to her mouth-to-mouth."

"Besides, that's your mom, not mine. Why should she ruin my Christmas?"

With that, he held Jessica in his arms and strode away.

The people around me were pointing and whispering, just like on our wedding day.

On our wedding day, John suddenly got a phone call.

He said his cousin had been in a car accident and urgently needed his comfort, then left me, the bride, alone at the wedding.

I had to explain to the guests one by one.

Back then, I was so in love that I didn't mind his absence.

I thought that someone who was so good to his family must be a really loyal person.

Who knew that after we got married, this so-called cousin would show up more and more often?

On our first wedding anniversary, his cousin had a high fever - he left.

On my birthday, which happened to be his cousin's birthday too, he left again.

We had even been married for five years without having kids, all because of this cousin.

Before getting married, I was a programmer at a big company, a core technical member of my team.

Because of John's sweet talk, I quit my job and stayed home, cooking and doing housework for the whole family every day.

Hoping to add some joy to my boring days, I suggested to John that we have a baby.

He refused outright, his reason being:

"Jessica doesn't like children."

I couldn't take it anymore and had a huge fight with him.

That was when I found out this so-called cousin wasn't actually related to him by blood at all.

I threw the mushroom soup I'd made for him and yelled, "You make your wife give in again and again, all for this outsider?"

He looked at the broken dishes on the floor and turned to leave.

"Jessica is the daughter of my mom's friend, so naturally, I treat her as my sister. What's wrong with that?"

"I think you've gotten too comfortable being supported by me at home!"

I snapped back from the memory. My mother had finally woken up.

Since I needed to stay with her at the hospital, I decided to go home and get some things.

As soon as I got home, a notification popped up on my phone - a shared post from TikTok's "Nearby People."

[Spending Christmas Eve with the one I love most~]

Something made me click on it. In the picture, two people were lying together under hotel covers.

The mole on the man on the left's collarbone was identical to John's.

There were several comments.

[Wishing you two forever together~]

[Oh my god, you're so lucky, making us single people jealous.]

My hands shaking, I clicked into the profile called [J's Love.] John's presence could be traced back six years.

The page was filled with posts about the two of them, and she even had over 3,000 followers.

I learned that our wedding day was actually their one-year anniversary.

I learned that several times after John and I fought and he left, the two of them immediately went on dates.

I'd played dumb for five years, but seeing all this now, I couldn't lie to myself anymore.

I turned and opened my email, replying to that headhunter email I'd received a week ago.

Over the years, though I'd quit my job, I'd never stopped doing freelance work online.

The headhunter was working for a big company, hoping to recruit me as a manager for a new project team, with a salary of $300,000 a year.

They replied almost instantly, saying I could start right away.

With this new confidence, I called my lawyer friend.

"Hello, Mr. Jones? I'd like to talk to you about drafting a divorce agreement."