Twenty Years of Marriage Reduced to One and Two Chapter 03

Twenty Years of Marriage Reduced to One and Two Chapter 03

Something wet slid down my face.

I didn’t wipe it.

I just moved like a ghost, picked up the meal I’d prepared earlier, opened the lid, and forced the still-warm food into my mouth, bite after bite.

I chewed like I was punishing myself.

But the moment I remembered that this same box had been inside that lab tonight, my stomach twisted.

My stomach churned, bile rising in my throat.

I rushed to the bathroom and dropped to my knees, gripping the toilet as I threw up violently.

Tears streamed down with it.

The doorbell rang.

It was his supervisor.

“Maris, Alaric’s at St. Aurelius Medical Center. Get here now!”

“What happened? Is he okay?”

Before he could answer, a woman’s sobbing voice cut in through the phone.

“If it wasn’t for helping me get those corporate datasets, you wouldn’t have been forced to drink so much… you wouldn’t have ended up with gastric bleeding…”

“I’ll go make you something gentle to eat right now…”

Alaric’s voice came, weak but clear.

“Don’t… stay with me. Let her handle that kind of stuff.”

“…Is that really okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? That’s the only thing she’s good for. You—your hands are meant for research, for writing papers, for winning awards. Not for standing in a kitchen.”

My throat burned.

Like something inside was being scorched over and over.

I looked up at the mirror.

At the hollow, exhausted woman staring back at me.

And suddenly, it all made sense.

In the eyes of that brilliant physicist—his wife was nothing more than someone for chores.

Someone to serve.

He lifted his mistress to the top, and turned his wife into a housekeeper.

What a perfect arrangement.

“Maris… he lost quite a bit of blood. When are you coming?”

I wiped my tears and spoke slowly into the phone.

“I won’t be going to the hospital.”

“If there’s ever a public hearing about his scandal with Ms. Hale, feel free to invite me.”

I hung up.

It didn’t make me feel any better.

I walked into the bedroom, barely aware of my own steps.

Everything felt distant.

Then I laughed under my breath.

He probably forgot a long time ago—back then, I was one of the top students in the country. The only one who rivaled him.

He’d already been fast-tracked into the Argent National Research Institute.

But for me, he tore up his offer. Wanted to follow me instead.

“You’re insane,” I’d said, my face burning. “How could you throw your future away like that?”

He shook his head, stubborn, eyes red.

“Wherever you go, I go. Without you, nothing matters.”

He even showed up at my parents’ house with that taped-together offer letter, dropped to his knees, and begged.

“Mr. and Mrs. Vance, please trust me. Maris is my life.”

“Even if I die, I won’t betray her.”

When he meant something, you could see it in his eyes.

And I believed him.

When he said forever, I thought he meant it.

Later, I gave up everything.

Quit my studies.

Turned myself into someone who existed only for him.

While he climbed higher and higher, I faded into the background, worn down by the routine of life.

In the end, all I got was one word.

Useless.

Life really did love its twists.

Just like tonight.

I went to the lab to tell him I was pregnant.

I thought it would be a surprise.

Instead—it became a nightmare.