Chapter 1

On the day his first love came back to the country, I tapped “confirm divorce.”

A line popped up on my phone screen: [Divorce application submitted. Cooling-off period: 30 days.]

I stared at that line for three seconds, then placed my phone face down on the table and took a sip of coffee.

The coffee was cold.

I had ordered it half an hour ago. Back then, I was waiting for a phone call.

I thought he would call me to tell me he wouldn’t be coming home tonight, to tell me that the woman named Giselle Framitt had returned, to tell me he needed to go pick her up at the airport.

But he didn’t call.

I found out on my own, scrolling through social media.

Dustin had posted a photo. At the arrivals gate, a woman in a white coat was pulling a suitcase as she walked out. Her long hair fell over her shoulders, and she smiled gently. The caption read: [After seven years, I finally get to welcome you back.]

Posted: ten minutes ago.

My phone was quiet. No calls, no messages, no explanation.

I took another sip of the cold coffee.

Then I opened the City Hall website, found the divorce application draft I had saved three months ago, and tapped confirm.

I'd been ready for this three months ago. Back then, Giselle was still overseas, and Dustin came home on time every day, took me shopping on weekends, and sometimes even brought me flowers. Everything seemed normal.

But then I saw that WhatsApp text.

He was in the shower when his phone lit up. A message popped up on the screen, from someone named "Gigi." It just said: [I miss you.]

I didn't open it.

I put the phone back where I found it, lay back down on the bed, and stared at the ceiling until dawn.

After that, I started paying attention. He was texting more, working late more often, and his gaze would wander whenever he looked at me. He thought I was clueless.

He had no idea how much I actually knew.

I knew Giselle was his college girlfriend. They were together for four years, but when she left to study overseas, they broke up.

I knew they'd stayed in touch for seven years, sending each other holiday greetings and occasionally chatting about their lives.

I knew he kept her photos on his phone, hidden in some encrypted folder, and would pull them up late at night when the house was quiet and he thought I was asleep.

Honestly, I didn't care about any of that.

But what really mattered to me was something else.

Dustin and I had been married for five years.

For five years, I got up at 6:30 every morning to make him breakfast, sunny-side-up eggs and coffee without sugar, just the way he liked it.

Every night, I waited for him to come home for dinner. The food would get cold, then I'd reheat it, and it would get cold again. Waiting until ten or eleven was just normal for me. I remembered all his relatives' birthdays, prepared gifts, sent out cash gifts, and kept up all those relationships he couldn't be bothered with.

When his mother was in the hospital for a month, I took my annual leave and stayed by her side every day, taking care of everything, even the messy stuff, making soup and bringing meals. He only visited three times, and each time, he left in less than half an hour, saying he had a meeting.

The day she was discharged, his mother held my hand and said, "You are the best, but my son is useless."

I gave her a small, helpless smile and said, "He's just busy with work."

She let out a sigh and stayed quiet.

Dustin might've known about all this, or maybe he just never cared. He got so used to having me around, to me handling everything for him, just like he expected that cup of coffee without sugar every morning.

But it was that message "I miss you" that finally made everything clear to me. In this house, I was nothing more than a perfectly functioning machine. If I broke, he'd fix me. If I was gone, he'd just get another. But nobody ever truly loved a machine.

I wasn't his dream girl.

I was just his plain bread, something he ate every day without thinking, never savoring, only noticing the emptiness when it was gone.

Three months ago, I started getting ready for the divorce.

I found a lawyer and asked about splitting up our assets. He told me that under the marriage law, everything we got after tying the knot would be split fifty-fifty. The house was bought after we got married, so we'd need to calculate how much it had gone up in value. I just listened, nodded, and handed over all the paperwork.

The lawyer glanced at me. "Are you sure about this?"

I said, "Yeah, I'm sure."

He asked, "Is there really no way to fix things?"

I thought for a moment, then said, "No."

On my way home that day, I hung out at the bubble coffee shop near our apartment complex for a while. The owner knew me well and asked why I was alone today. I told her Dustin was working late. She said, "You two are so sweet. He picks you up from work every day."

I just smiled and didn't say anything.

Dustin and I met at work. I was in the marketing department, and he was in tech. Our teams were working together on a project, and he was the lead. At our first meeting, he showed up ten minutes late, walked in with a cup of coffee, and set it down in front of me.

"This is for you," he said. "I passed by the coffee shop and thought you might need it."