10
When I woke again in a sea of white.
Jake and Ethan were both there.
One standing at the foot of the bed, one sitting in a chair beside it.
Jake spoke first, his voice tight with a barely noticeable tremor:
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“Nicole, the doctor said… the blood clot in your brain disappeared long ago.”
“So you never had amnesia from the beginning, right? Why did you lie to us?”
I didn’t look at him, my gaze passing over him to fall on the perpetually silent Ethan.
“Lie to you?”
‘Jake, don’t you find that question ridiculous? Isn’t this exactly what you wanted from the beginning? For me to be confused enough not to tell you apart, so you could escape and be with your college freshman?”
mimicked his previously flippant tone, adding slowly: “After all, in your eyes, aren’t I just a toy you can throw
to each other whenever you’re bored, then grab back?”
Jake stood with his mouth open, as if someone was choking him, unable to say a word.
His face was paper-white, his eyes full of panic and guilt.
But I no longer wanted to look at his hypocritical expression.
Jake, let’s get divorced.”
Nicole, I absolutely refuse to divorce you!”
His voice trembled as he hurried forward to grab my hand.
coldly avoided him.
You refuse?”
laughed softly, a laugh filled with bone-chilling coldness.
Jake, what right do you have to refuse?”
When you pushed me to your brother, did you ask if I agreed?”
Expressionless, I raised my hand and, under their gaze, unhesitatingly pulled the IV needle from the back o my hand.
The movement was swift and decisive, without a moment’s hesitation.
Bright red blood immediately beaded from the puncture, flowing down my pale hand in rivulets, a shocking sight.
Yet I seemed to feel no pain at all.
I didn’t even frown.
“Nicole, your wound will get infected.”
“So what?” I looked at the blood continually oozing from the back of my hand. “Does it hurt? Yes, it does, but compared to the pain in my heart, what is this?”
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Jake tried to step forward but was forced back by my cold gaze.
I supported myself on the edge of the bed and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window of the hospital
room.
“Nicole! What are you trying to do!”
I ignored him.
I just stood in front of the window, my back to them, watching the bustling traffic below, tiny as ants.
So from this height, everything seemed so insignificant.
Including my love, my hatred, my marriage that had been treated as a joke.
“Jake, I’ll give you one last chance.”
“Agree to the divorce, and we part ways peacefully.”
“If you don’t agree…”
I turned around, looking at both of them, my eyes devoid of warmth.
‘I’ll let everyone know how the second son of the Wilson family treats his wife. Let the entire city see the
Wilson family’s scandal.”
Jake’s face instantly turned ashen.
He knew better than anyone that if this got out, not just him but the entire Wilson family would become a laughingstock.
And Ethan, who had been silent throughout, finally spoke.
‘I’ll have the lawyer arrange your divorce from Jake.”
Jake jerked his head up, looking at his brother in disbelief.
‘Brother…”
‘Jake, enough.”
Pain flashed across Ethan’s eyes.
“This ends here.”
At that moment, Jake understood.
My marriage to him was truly over.
