Chapter 2

I wrote down: [No, no, don't go.

[She was holding a kid, and you got so worked up that she somehow ended up falling down the stairs. To punish you, Richard stripped you bare and dumped you out in the wild. He even snapped a bunch of indecent photos to blackmail you.]

I wanted to keep writing, but for some reason, everything I tried to write after that just disappeared.

It felt like I couldn't reveal too much all at once until Bella from the parallel world replied.

I waited for a long time, but that familiar handwriting still didn't appear.

I was getting more and more restless.

If this diary really was a bridge to a parallel version of myself, stuck three years in the past, I wanted to save myself, and...

As the minutes slipped by, the pitch-black night slowly gave way to the first light of dawn. I stared at the diary, not blinking once.

I even started to wonder; was I just imagining those words appearing in the diary?

Had I really gone crazy after three years locked away?

Just as I was about to close the diary in disappointment, the words appeared again:

It read: [You really think Richard would do something like that to me? What evidence do you even have?

[Richard and I have been together since school uniforms, all the way to wedding vows, eight years before we finally tied the knot. I don't buy a single word of this.

[Just be honest. Do you have feelings for Richard? Are you trying to tear us apart with these cheap tricks?]

Yeah, eight years. Richard and I had been together for eight whole years. How many people got that kind of time with someone? Honestly, most marriages didn't even last as long as we did.

It felt like I was peering through time, watching another me from three years ago, frantically writing as if she was trying to convince herself everything was okay.

It read: [I'll quietly look into the whole childcare allowance situation myself.

[I just called Richard and told him my stomach hurt, and he dropped everything to rush back to me. If he really cheated and had a kid, would he still make me his top priority every single time?]

I gripped the pen so tightly my knuckles turned white, but the tip just hovered over the page, refusing to touch down.

Even now, I still couldn't wrap my head around it. How could Richard, the man who always put me above everything else, end up marrying another woman just because of a child?

And just because that woman pretended to fall, he left me naked and abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

Memory yanked me back to that night three years ago, when I was secretly trailing Richard.

Back then, I was just like every clueless woman out there. Unless I saw it with my own eyes, I simply couldn't believe the man lying next to me would ever betray me.

I followed Richard quietly and watched as a woman with a baby rushed into his arms.

"Richard, you're finally here. Alex was crying so hard he almost couldn't breathe," the woman said, her voice trembling.

Richard gently patted her back, his tone soothing.

"Don't worry. Alex probably just missed his dad. Look, he's smiling at me," Richard said softly.

When I saw that heartwarming scene, rage exploded inside me. I didn't even think. I just stormed over and shoved the woman away.

"You little vixen, stay away from my husband!" I yelled.

The woman stumbled back a few steps, her eyes welling up.

Richard stepped in front of her, shielding her from me, his face thunderous. He shouted, "Bella! Have you lost it? What the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night instead of being at home?"

I grabbed Richard by the collar, my face contorted with fury as I asked, "Didn't you tell me she was just your secretary? Richard, you cheating jerk, you lied to me."

When I saw her photo on Richard's phone earlier, I couldn't remember who she was. But now, suddenly, it hit me. I knew exactly who she was.

She was Richard's former secretary, Sophie Lane.

"Richard, aren't you just revolting?" I snapped.

I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face.

"You act all romantic, proposing to me, but at the same time, you're cheating on me with other women. You've really got some nerve," I said.

Just as Richard was about to speak, Sophie fell to her knees with a thud, holding the child close.

Sophie said, her voice shaking, "It's all my fault, Bella. Please, don't blame Richard.

"I know Richard loves you. I would never dare hope for his love. I just beg you, for the sake of the child, let me stay with him.

"The child needs his mother."

Just hearing her mention the child made my blood boil. For some reason, as I stepped forward, Sophie suddenly shrieked.

In the next instant, she and the child in her arms went tumbling down the stairs.

"Sophie! Alex!" Richard cried out, panic in his voice.

Richard, in a fit of rage, kicked me so hard that I crashed to the floor. My head slammed against the corner, and dizziness hit me like a tidal wave.

"Richard..." I whispered, reaching out for him.

I stretched out my hand, hoping he would notice me, but all his attention was locked on Sophie and Alex.

Richard scooped Sophie and Alex into his arms, then shot me a look that could kill.

"Bella, if anything happens to Alex, you're dead," he shouted.

I stood there, stunned, mumbling my explanation under my breath.

"No, I didn't do it. It wasn't me," I said.

But Richard didn't believe a single word.

The man who used to panic if I so much as frowned now looked away, disgusted, when he saw the blood smeared across my palm.

Sophie's face was streaked with tears, looking utterly pitiful as she sobbed and wiped her eyes.

She said, "Richard, if Bella's mad, she can yell at me all she wants. But why would she hurt Alex? He's just a little kid.

"I never wanted to steal you from her. If she can't stand me being here, I'll leave right now, I swear."

Richard's heart ached for her as he whispered gentle reassurances, trying to comfort Sophie.

To stand up for Sophie, he stripped me naked right in front of her and left me out in the cold when it was five below zero.

"Babe, you really freaked Sophie out today. I stripped you to teach you a lesson. Stop picking fights with her," Richard said coldly.

Richard set up his phone and made me do all kinds of degrading things.

He said, "You're such a handful. Consider this a little lesson.

"If you even think about leaving me, I wouldn't hesitate to send these pics to your mom."

My eyes went red with fury.

"Richard! You beast," I shouted.

I hated him. Eight years of loving Richard, and only now did I see what kind of man he really was.

Eight years of love were crushed by this humiliation.