Chapter 2

Seeing how indifferent I was, with no sign of wanting to apologize, Eric just glared at me.

He stormed off with Vicky, not even looking back as they walked out of my view.

Just like that, he left me standing there, all alone.

I watched the two of them disappear into the distance.

Maybe I messed up with what I said earlier. At the company party, the one walking beside him didn't have to be his wife. It could be any other woman.

I headed home before the party was even over.

After washing up, I went straight to bed.

Eric never came home that night.

I knew our marriage was pretty much doomed.

Eric and I dated for five years before tying the knot, and now we were in our fourth year of marriage.

I still remembered when he was just starting out. To save on rent, we moved into a tiny, rundown apartment that was barely four hundred square feet.

It was way out of the city, and our commute was a nightmare. We had to take two buses each way, and it took an hour and a half just to get to work.

I used to work in admin at a company. My salary wasn't much, but it was steady. But when Eric decided to start his own business, I quit without a second thought and became the company's all-in-one support staff.

During the day, I was out hustling, meeting clients, and crunching numbers. At night, I came home to cook, clean, and even stayed up late helping Eric polish his proposals.

During the winter, our apartment didn't have any heating, and we couldn't afford to turn on the heater. So we'd squeeze together on a tiny bed, wrapped up in a blanket, trying to stay warm.

I'd always been the type who got cold easily. My hands and feet would turn icy as soon as winter hit. Every night, Eric would pull my hands close to him, warming them up with his own body heat.

Back then, he made me a promise: once his business made it big, he'd buy me a spacious house with central heating, so I'd never have to freeze my hands and feet again in winter.

Luckily, all our hard work finally paid off.

We rode the new media wave, and in just two years, we raked in over ten million in assets.

On the day the company opened its doors, Eric pulled out a diamond ring and proposed to me.

He swore he'd always be good to me, and that I'd be the only woman he loved.

After Vicky came into the picture, I started noticing Eric wasn't the same.

Thinking back, it probably started about two weeks ago.

I tagged along with him on a trip out of town to scope out the market, but out of nowhere, he got a call and suddenly our trip was cut short.

Later, one of the veterans at the office let it slip that Eric's new assistant had pissed off a major client that day, and that was why the whole deal went down the drain.

Eric totally lost his cool, and everyone assumed he'd let Vicky go.

But he didn't.

That client wasn't a stranger to me. He had been partners with the company for years.

I asked Eric why he was still keeping that assistant around after she messed up like that.

He frowned, his tone impatient. "She didn't do anything wrong. Richard was the one harassing her. The girl's pretty timid, and she was really shaken up. Honestly, it's already good enough she didn't make a scene.

"Richard's just a sleazy old perv. I've wanted to cut ties with him for ages."

Eric was usually the cool and collected type, but seeing him so worked up that day really put me on edge.

I decided to test the waters and asked, "Are you sure it's because you don't want to work with him, or is it actually about that assistant?"

Eric banged his cup hard on the table, his temper flaring out of nowhere. "Why are you just like those busybodies, always gossiping? Don't you have anything better to do at home?"

He glared at me with obvious contempt, then stomped off to his study and slammed the door so hard it shook.

I sat frozen on the couch, shell-shocked, unable to process what had just happened.

It was the first time he'd ever blown up at me like that.

Deep down, I knew Vicky was different to him. And with that, it hit me that our marriage was already falling apart.

Eric didn't come home for three days straight.

In the past, when he didn't come home, I'd always call him, asking where he was and what he was doing.

At first, he'd patiently let me know his schedule and told me to be good and wait for him at home.

But later, he started saying I was too nosy, always trying to control him and limit his freedom.

This time, I didn't bother calling him.

When Vicky came by to pick up some laundry, she had this smug grin on her face.

She said, "Don't worry, Suzanna. Eric's been crashing at my place these past few days. The company's been crazy busy, so he hasn't had time to come home. I'll make sure he's well taken care of for you."

She kept her eyes locked on me, probably hoping to catch a hint of anger on my face.

If this had happened before, I would've put her in her place and taught her what it really meant to mess with me.

But now, I felt nothing.

Vicky made a show of tracing her fingers along the necklace at her neck, and my gaze zeroed in on it.

I recognized that necklace instantly. Eric had spent over a million on it at the auction just last week.