Chapter 1

One day, I somehow connected to a video call with my husband from five years ago.

“Madison, you said yes to being my girlfriend today! I couldn’t be happier!

“We’ll still be this happy five years from now, right? I have promised to spend the rest of my life treating you right.”

On screen, Julian Lorde smiled with such confidence.

With downcast eyes, I didn’t say a word.

I quietly flipped the camera toward the bed.

The man tangled in the sheets with another woman was my husband, Julian—just five years later.

The sounds of their affair filled the air.

Paying no heed to the young man’s stunned expression, I ended the video call and sent a text.

“See that?

“We won't get our happily ever five years later. The only thing waiting for us is the divorce papers.”

Chapter 1

Madison's POV

Twenty minutes of silence passed before my phone blew up with messages.

“That’s impossible!

“I would never do such a thing! This isn’t who I am!

“My heart belongs to you, Madison. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Don’t you remember that we—”

I didn’t bother to read on.

By then, the sweaty bedroom workout was over.

Julian Lorde slicked his sweat-drenched hair back and ruffled the woman’s hair.

“Trish, my wife is back. Say hello.”

Trisha Walker turned and greeted me sweetly.

Her gaze, sparkling with smugness, met mine.

Not responding to her aggression, I simply stepped out of the room.

About ten minutes later, Trisha emerged, properly clothed.

While brushing past me, she sneered under her breath, “It’s so sad that you have to make way for your husband to sleep with another woman.”

I said nothing, my expression blank with a familiar, habitual numbness.

My phone showed ninety-nine messages from the Julian of five years ago.

The last text all but screamed that Julian was falling apart.

“Kick her out, please? Madison, please. Don’t look. It’s filthy…”

I tapped the screen and typed a response with composure.

“She’s not the first woman you brought home and definitely not the last.

“If I had to go out of my way to kick out every woman you slept with, I’d be exhausted.”

The younger Julian pleaded in anguish, “But how could this happen? I’ve been trying to date you for five years. I would never dream of hurting you.

“There’s no way in hell I would ever cause you pain!”

Speaking of which, I glanced at the man stepping out of the bathroom before dropping my gaze to type on my phone.

“Do you know who the last woman you cheated on me with was?”

The silence stretched on, as though he were fighting a fierce battle within.

Young Julian texted back probingly, “Who was it?”

“Cammie, my school bully.”

…

A split second later, my phone buzzed relentlessly.

His cracked voice boomed from the receiver, bordering on a sob.

“There is zero chance I would ever get involved with Cammie. Madison, I hate her more than anyone in the world.

“Do you know how much it hurt me to see you shaking when I rescued you from the sports storage room?

“At the time, I wanted to kill her so badly.

“How could I ever end up with a woman I hate to my very core?”

I listened quietly before filling in the rest of the details.

“After graduation, you ran into Cammie getting roughed up in an alley near a bar.

“You felt sorry for her, so you took her home.

“I remember it vividly. It was April 27th.”

The line went dead for a while.

Julian’s voice came back on, his tone laced with a sliver of hope amid his despair.

“That was your birthday. Surely, I must have remembered to prepare a surprise for you.”

I grinned.

“You certainly did.

“You spent the night with Cammie, on the bed we were supposed to share as husband and wife.”

Chapter 2

The young Julian from five years ago lost his voice completely.

I put down my phone and sank into the couch wearily.

Emerging from the shower, Julian towel-dried his hair and glanced my way while brushing past.

“Who were you on the phone with?”

Met with my silence, Julian didn’t pursue the matter.

He approached and got down to my eye level.

“What’s the matter? Upset?”

He cupped my hands in his and smiled tenderly.

“After all these years, you still can’t get used to this?

“That won’t do. Don’t keep carrying all this sadness. If you get sick, it’ll break my heart.”

I quietly stared at him, not even having the strength to pull my arms away.

My phone buzzed with notifications from young Julian’s text messages.

“Madison, how did we get to that point?

“Things were great for us then. Did something happen? Just tell me…”

Truth be told, I had asked myself that very question countless times.

How did we end up here?

We had been in each other’s lives early on, and I was supposed to be the apple of his eye.

Julian couldn’t stand to see me hurt or upset.

On graduation day, I asked him with a smile, “If I stop being dependent on Julian, does that mean I’m finally an adult?”

Julian met my gaze and replied earnestly, “No, it just means Julian failed you.”

Four years ago, I cried in his arms until I passed out on the day my father passed away.

I told him, “I don’t have any family left, Julian.”

Julian shuffled my hair and teared up as his heart went out to me.

He kept assuring me that I still had him. From then on, he would be my forever rock.

Julian meant every word, and his broad arms held me tight.

I believed him.

Yet on the day we went to pay our respects at my father’s grave, he was in bed with my best friend.

…

I could still remember the moment like it were yesterday.

My best friend sat on the bed with her legs crossed, giggling away.

“You don’t have much going for you, but I’ll give you this. You’ve got good taste in men.”

Julian’s face went white.

He explained in utter desperation that somehow one thing led to another after taking a drink.

My best friend, arms folded, mused nonchalantly, “Why are you getting so worked up? She’s not going to leave you.

“I know her better than anyone. She’s a naïve, idiotic loser. If she ever goes for divorce, she might not have the will to live.”

Julian shook his head frantically.

He kept pleading with me, begging me not to walk away.

Staring down at his panic-stricken face, I relented and gave him one more chance.

However, to Julian, this very act validated my best friend’s claim that I couldn’t live without him.

So, while I was still clinging to the hope that somewhere, somehow, he still loved me, he’d already crossed every boundary with my best friend, again and again.

We started fighting constantly.

During one of my hysterical moments, Julian said the one thing I could never forget.

“Madison, you have no one now. Without me, who do you have left?”

From then on, Julian brought different women to our home.

Every corner of our home had been tainted by his betrayal.

His cheating only grew more brazen over time.

Four years later, whatever hope I had left was finally gone.

In the video feed, young Julian bawled his eyes out.

“I knew your dad’s passing must have been soul-crushing. I knew I was all you had left…”

Maybe it was the very fact that I had nowhere else to turn that gave him the license to be so cruel.

Julian was convinced that I would never leave.

He was certain I could never walk away.

Pulling out the divorce papers, I flashed my pearly whites at him.

“Since you’re a law major right now, why don’t you review the clauses for me and see if they’re fair?”

Young Julian paused for a moment, then nodded, the light dimming in his eyes.

He combed through the terms on the sheet.

As I observed the features I knew too well, my mind wandered back to the day he told me how he felt about me. Back then, he was so tense.

Chapter 3

Julian was so nervous that he could barely speak. His hand shook violently as he handed me the love letter.

The moment I gave him the nod, he looked like he’d stumbled upon a hidden chest of gold.

Thrilled, Julian scooped me up and spun me around.

I trusted that Julian had once loved me with all his heart.

Still, no doubt that version of Julian who loved me was already gone, long before he lost himself.

A loud snap brought me back to reality.

On the screen, blood dripped from young Julian’s hand as he gripped a broken pen.

He stared at one of the clauses and murmured, “In the event of an accidental miscarriage during the marriage, the husband shall be liable for appropriate compensation…

“What’s this supposed to mean, Madison?”

The incident came back to me. It happened around three months ago.

The years of emotional abuse left me with severe depression. I survived on heavy doses of antidepressants just to make it through each day.

When I collapsed and was rushed to the hospital, the doctor told me I was pregnant.

Nevertheless, my long-term dependence on medication had halted the baby’s development.

The nurse tried calling Julian, my emergency contact, to let him know what had happened.

The phone rang for what felt like forever before going straight into voicemail.

Under the doctor’s sympathetic gaze, I was wheeled into surgery alone.

When Julian came to find out, he showed up riddled with guilt, saying that he'd been caught up at work and hadn’t noticed the call.

Teary-eyed, Julian apologized and said he had messed up.

At the time, I no longer cared to guess whether he had actually been working or spending time with Trisha.

Anything related to him no longer mattered to me.

The line went quiet for a bit.

I was about to break the silence, assuming that the connection had dropped.

Young Julian spoke up.

“Madison, is it just the divorce you’re after?

“What if I tell you that I can get you the divorce and make him pay?”

…

After a long pause, I chuckled.

“Why should I believe you?

“Let’s not forget that you’re the exact same Julian. No one would be happy to throw away their future for someone else.

“Not to mention, you’ve always been a smart guy, Julian.”

Julian let out a wry smile.

“You’re talking about the twenty-seven-year-old Julian.

“The twenty-seven-year-old Julian would use his intelligence to manipulate you and keep you tied to him.

“But the twenty-two-year-old would use that same intelligence to help you.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you, Madison. I can’t bear to see you hurt.”

I was taken aback, finding the irony almost laughable.

At twenty-two, Julian could make a life-altering choice simply because he loved me.

Meanwhile, Julian at twenty-seven forgot what responsibility meant the higher he rose and the more he achieved.

The next day, I showed up at Julian’s firm.

His assistant told me he was away and told me to sit and wait a little.

I shook my head and placed the divorce papers on his desk.

Not every ending needed a goodbye.

Right after I left the agreement, my phone rang.

The call was from the cemetery office.

“Mrs. Lorde? We’re calling to confirm a grave relocation request your husband submitted this morning. Before we proceed, we’d like to verify that you approve moving your father’s remains to a plot on the north side of the cemetery. It's a more secluded area with limited sunlight...”

My mind went blank as a loud ring echoed in my ears.

I bolted out of the firm and hailed a cab frantically.

In the back of the taxi, I tried Julian’s number in a fluster.

By my fiftieth attempt, the call finally connected.

Losing my composure, I rasped out, “Julian, that’s my father’s grave we’re talking about!”

Silence lingered in the air before Julian’s resigned voice came through.

“I know your father means a lot to you, but Trish’s dog just died. It’s a trying moment for her.

“You know what a headache it is when she gets emotional.”

Before I could say anything more, Trisha’s whimpers echoed in the background.

Distracted, Julian uttered in a hurry, “I’ve already had your father’s remains moved to a new plot. It’s just a grave. It doesn’t really matter where he’s buried.”

Chapter 4

“Can’t talk. I’m busy.”

The line went dead.

By the time I arrived, the plot where my father had been buried had already been torn apart by excavation.

The flowers I’d left for him just a few days earlier had been trampled into the dirt.

A cemetery staff member approached me with a sympathetic look before explaining, “Miss Walker wasn’t comfortable with a plot that had already been occupied, so she chose another location instead.

“If you’d like, we can relocate your father’s remains back here.”

My gaze fell upon the broken headstone, where my father smiled back at me from his portrait.

All at once, every last bit of my strength left me.

I emptied my savings to purchase my father a new burial plot. By the time the paperwork was finished, it was well past midnight.

Upon my return home, I sat on the sofa on my own until morning light.

Julian came out of the bedroom and strode toward me with a frown.

“You haven’t been picking up your phone all day, and now you’re sitting here alone. What are you playing at, Madison?”

I stiffly met Julian’s concerned gaze.

My voice was flat.

“I want a divorce, Julian.”

Julian froze for a minute, then rage took over.

“Are you threatening me with a divorce now? Didn’t I tell you that Trish was emotional? She needed assurance.

“Besides, I paid for your father’s burial. If you walk out on me now, you won’t even have enough money for a proper burial.

“Know where you stand, Madison.”

Having said his piece, Julian rose and dressed for work.

He stopped at the door and sighed.

“Madison, so long as you play nice, everything I own will be yours. No one can take that away from you.

“Give it some thought. I’ll take you out for dinner when I get home later.”

The door shut with a slam.

Silence fell over the room.

After a long moment of reflection on the couch, I took out my phone.

Young Julian said, “Well? Did you manage to locate evidence of the illegal operations I told you about?

“I know myself best. The folder sitting out in plain sight on my computer is the last place anyone would think to look. That’s where I’d hide the most incriminating files.”

I looked down at the tiny flash drive resting in my palm and said nothing.

The Julian from five years ago understood the man he’d become better than I ever could.

With his help, I had gathered every piece of evidence exposing Julian’s malpractice.

Met with my silence, young Julian asked, his eyes red-rimmed, “Madison, is there anything else you need me to do for you?”

I drew a deep breath and replied, “Julian, the last five years being married to you have been absolute hell.

“Please set me free, stay away from me, and never show your face to me again.”

Following a heavy pause, young Julian stared at the screen and uttered with a struggle, “Alright. You have my word.”

Ending the video call, I wheeled my suitcase and opened the door.

I walked away from the place that was once my home for five years.

…

Likely rattled by my words about divorcing him, Julian was visibly edgy during his drive to work

In the past, I would never mention divorce no matter how intense our fights were or how long the silent treatment went on.

I was never the type to stake our marriage on the chance that Julian would come back to me.

Yet, I was acting out of character today.

Julian wasn’t able to shake off the uneasy feeling even when he arrived at his office.

He opened the door to find the hallway swarming with people, their expressions anxious.

His assistant hurried up to him and whispered, “This is bad, Mr. Lorde. Confidential files from our firm have been leaked, and the media and clients are blowing up our phones.”

Julian hesitated for one second before blurting, “Get my wife the first flight out of the country. Keep her out of this mess.”

Baffled, his assistant pulled a funny look.

“Mr. Lorde, you’ve never been married. What wife?”