I gripped the resignation document in my hand and didn’t make things hard for Assistant Sky anymore.

While taking the elevator up to the 33rd floor, I slipped the divorce papers into the resignation document.

After knocking and entering Isaac’s office, when he saw it was me, Isaac’s tightly knitted brows loosened.

A smile rested at the corner of his lips. “Kendall, I knew you still loved me. Earlier today, I spoke a little loudly. I’m sorry.”

“If you don’t trust me, I can write you a guarantee letter.”

My expression paused slightly, and I calmly and steadily handed the file in my hand to him. “I’ve already printed the guarantee letter. Sign it.”

Isaac took it and was about to check it carefully when his phone suddenly rang repeatedly.

A flash of panic crossed his face, and he gave me a guilty glance.

I pretended not to hear. “Sign it. After you sign, I still have other tasks.”

Hearing this, Isaac directly signed his name and handed it back to me.

I picked up the documents and walked out of the office, not asking even one more question the entire time.

The resignation process was finished very quickly. After I completed the handover of the rest of the tasks, I left this company where I had worked for almost five years without even a bit of hesitation.

I took a taxi to City Hall and also went to apply for the divorce certificate.

Staff worker: “Ms. Ramirez, we have a thirty-day divorce cooling-off period here. During this time, if either side wants to change their mind, it can be refused.”

On the ride back home, the sky suddenly started pouring with heavy rain.

Even though I rode a taxi back, I was still soaked like a wet chicken.

The moment I pushed open the door, I noticed the new pair of slippers in the shoe cabinet was missing.

That was the couple of styles I had bought with Isaac half a month earlier, not yet officially opened.

At this moment, that pair of slippers was being worn by another woman.

Isaac sat on the couch with his back facing me, and in front of him, Valerie stood, drying his hair.

Noticing me, Valerie Gibson challengingly raised her chin toward me, like a proud old chicken.

With silent lip movements, she mouthed to me: How did the chicken that couldn’t produce eggs come back?

I squeezed my fist hard, forcing myself to stay calm.

Hearing the sound, Isaac quickly stood and came to welcome me. “Kendall, you were caught in the rain. Why didn’t you call me to come get you?”

His voice carried blame and concern.

My eyes fixed directly on Valerie.

Only then did Isaac explain to me, “Valerie just happened to meet me on the street. The rain outside is very heavy, so I figured since we are neighbors, I would simply let her stay for one night.”

After finishing, he cautiously asked me, “Kendall, you don’t mind, right?”

Before I had the chance to speak, Valerie quickly said, “I believe sister isn’t such a narrow-minded person, so I’ll thank sister first for letting me stay.”

“I’d like the south-facing room. I heard the lighting there is the best.”

I refused immediately. “No. That is my room.”

Valerie’s eyes turned red, looking like a wronged young wife. “Isaac, I… I just haven’t lived in such a nice house before, so I wanted to sleep there once.”

“If my sister really cares, then I’ll go sleep in the cold, damp guest room.”

Isaac decided right away. “Kendall, you’ve already used that room for five or six years. Why not let Valerie stay there for one night first?”

“It’s only one night. It won’t make a difference.”

I refused again. “No. If I say no, then it’s no.”

“Otherwise, you can send her home. Isn’t she a neighbor? It’s only about a ten-minute walk.”

Clearly, I recalled that Valerie had once posted her property certificate on Facebook; it was the building right next door.

Without guessing, I knew Isaac was the one who gave it to her.

In eight years together, Isaac had only bought me daily essentials and never given me anything valuable.

Valerie suddenly moved closer and seized my hand, her nails pressing deeply into my flesh. The pain made me instinctively yank my hand back.

She took advantage of the movement to fall to the floor, tears shining in her eyes. “Sister, I don’t know what I did to make you dislike me so much.”

“I only wanted to hold my sister’s hand and live peacefully with you. I didn’t expect…”

“The bedroom will go to Valerie. Tonight, you just make do and sleep inside the guest room.”

Isaac made a direct decision. Worried that I might keep bothering him, he warned me, “Kendall, don’t forget, this house is mine.”

“You already don’t have a home in Oakland. You’d better stop showing those small tempers. If you keep causing scenes, how will that look?”

My chest felt as though it had been sliced open by a sharp knife, blood seeping, the pain unbearable.

Sure enough, the longer a person stayed beside you, the more they understood how to hurt your heart.

After sitting blankly inside the guest room for thirty minutes, I finally remembered that I had gotten caught in the rain and needed to shower to chase away the cold.

When heading upstairs to grab clothes, I heard the unclear and suggestive breathing of the two people coming through the crack in the door.

Valerie lay beneath him and spoke shyly, “Brother Isaac, you’re so good to me. I just mentioned wanting to come to your place for some fun, and you actually brought me in front of that long-faced woman.”

Isaac gently pressed a kiss onto the sweat on her forehead. “She has no family or friends in Oakland. If she leaves me, she has nowhere else to go.”

“She’s only a miserable and burdensome parasite. How could she ever match your scent, baby?”

The two of them stayed sticky-sweet, starting another round of their fight.

I stood by the doorway with cold limbs, the sharp pain making my throat unable to make any sound.

Compared with Isaac’s betrayal, what I could not accept even more was his line, “a miserable and burdensome parasite.”

From start to finish, it was clear I had never received his preference. Whether in love or in marriage, I had always relied on myself.

Anything Isaac bought for me, I would give back a present of the same worth to him.

Late at night, smoke choked me awake.

The instant I opened my eyes, thick smoke rolled everywhere, and the fire had already spread close to me.

I had no time to think. I pushed open the window, planning to jump out. The guest room was on the ground floor; nothing would happen.

But when I noticed the fully locked metal bars on the window, my entire body stopped in place.

These bars clearly were not there when I left earlier this morning!

“Kendall, does being stuck feel nice?” Valerie’s voice came from the doorway.

I grabbed the blanket and rushed into the washroom to soak it with water, threw it over my body, and kicked the weak door open.

Valerie was shocked by my move and shouted.

I did not even look sideways as I shoved Valerie away and walked straight out.

Just after stepping outside, I collapsed from having no strength.

In a daze, I saw Isaac standing in front of the doctor, coldly scolding, “Hurry and give Valerie a full-body exam. If anything happens to her, all of you will answer for it!”

The doctor paused. “But that woman is already three months pregnant, and she breathed in too much smoke and dust. If she is not treated quickly, she may end up with a lifelong coughing illness…”

Isaac said coldly, “Don’t bother about her. Hurry and look at Valerie first. Didn’t you notice Valerie’s skin has already been burned?”

I slipped back into unconsciousness again.

When I woke up, waves of numbness and pain spread through my arm.

Isaac pushed the door open and walked in, his face gentle. “How is it? Do you feel better?”

Thinking about the scene before I passed out, I opened my lips, but in the end, I said nothing.

Isaac set down the meal box. “I’ll help feed you.”

Just as his words ended, his phone rang again with that exclusive custom ringtone.

He gave me a guilty look, then lied to me, “Kendall, a client is asking for me. I might not be able to stay with you.”

“You be good, eat your food, take your medicine, and cooperate with the doctor’s checkup. After I finish my work, I’ll come see you.”

Isaac rushed away quickly, even forgetting to shut the hospital room door.

At that moment, two young nurses walked past. Seeing Isaac’s face, they immediately spoke out.

“Did you see? It is that man from a moment ago. Just because the woman in the SVIP private room on the sixth floor gets a small burn on her skin and is scared of pain and marks and feels upset, he goes to look for human skin for a transplant.”

“So loving. I hear that in two days he also holds a big fireworks show for that girl…”

The nurses’ talking voices slowly faded away, but my heart could not settle.

I gradually looked at the arm covered in a bandage, a thought about to break out from the bottom of my heart.

I called the doctor and asked for the bandage to be taken off.

At the moment I saw the dark red skin, my heart completely went cold.

Together with the small bit of remaining feeling for Isaac, it all disappeared without any sign.

Three years of deep love, five years of marriage, in the end, could not compare with fifteen days together.

After being hospitalized for an entire day, Isaac didn’t come to visit me, and he also did not send any message.

However, I heard from nurses walking by that Isaac was keeping Valerie company. To make her smile, he even went to catch hundreds of fireflies and placed them in her room.

Before, when I saw fireflies in storybooks, I had really wanted them and had often asked Isaac to take me to watch them.

Yet he always used many reasons to avoid it, even telling me, “That is only fake things made up in storybooks, meant to trick simple young girls like you.”

But now, hundreds of fireflies, caught whenever he decided to.

By this time, what else do I not understand? It was never that he was unable to do it; it was only that he did not love me enough.

Valerie’s Facebook was updated right on time.

In the picture, she sat sideways on the hospital bed, and on her belly, there was a head leaning to listen.

Caption: [My dear one is now raised to the child’s father. Before knowing it, he gets one more role.]

Child.

These words pulled at the deepest place in my heart.

In the past, I had also planned to have a child with Isaac after our wedding. But he had strongly backed me, “My sweet baby, do anything you like. No need to be tied down by this role.”

Later, I asked him, “If I never have children in my whole life, will you be upset? Or look for another woman to have a baby for you?”

Back then, Isaac promised seriously, his eyes very sure. “Of course not. In this lifetime, only you are my real love. You like to focus on your career, then I will be your strong support.”

But when I truly became pregnant, Isaac turned completely uncaring, even ignoring whether I was alive or dead.

The following day, I got the notice that the updated documents were finished.

After pushing the call button, I told the doctor. “Please help me abort this child.”

The doctor looked a bit unwilling. “Does the child’s father know about this?”

I remembered the picture on Facebook where Isaac leaned down near Valerie’s stomach, and my stomach turned violently.

Holding back the discomfort, I hardly said, “He doesn’t have to know.”

When I walked out of the abortion room, I happened to meet Isaac guiding Valerie toward the bathroom.

When he noticed me, a brief look of worry appeared in Isaac’s eyes.

“Kendall, why are you here?”

His eyes were just about to move past me when a sudden cry came from the bathroom.

It was Valerie’s voice.

Isaac almost immediately rushed inside without turning back, lifting Valerie in his arms as he moved past me.

From start to finish, he did not even give me one more look.

Eight years of love, it was time for the curtain to fall.