The door closed behind him. Cole left.

I stood there blankly for two seconds. It took a long moment before I finally came back to my senses. Then, I found my lawyer’s number and dialed it.

“Hello. I’d like you to draft a divorce agreement for me as soon as possible. We don’t have any shared property. There are only some debts that need to be divided. The sooner the better. Thank you.”

After hanging up, the rain outside the window seemed to grow heavier. Along with it, my breathing grew hotter and faster. Maybe it was because I had gotten soaked in the rain outside the supermarket, or maybe it was the aftershock of my emotions rising and crashing all at once.

Dragging my heavy steps, I returned to the bedroom. When I checked my temperature, it read 38.5 degrees Celsius, which meant I was having a fever.

I searched the house for a long time and finally found a single expired fever pill. However, I couldn’t care about that anymore. I swallowed it with cold water and prayed that when I woke up after some sleep, the fever would be gone, but things turned out far worse than I imagined.

In the middle of the night, I woke up from the pain spreading through my entire body. It felt like a volcano was burning inside me. This couldn’t continue, but my mind was burning and hazy. Almost instinctively, I reached for my phone and tried to call Cole for help.

“Beep. Beep. Beep.”

Only when the tone rang for the third time did my sluggish brain realize something. Cole should be on a flight to Iceland right now. How could he answer the phone?

I let out a dry laugh, which only made my throat hurt even more. I laughed at myself for being so delirious from the fever that I had actually expected him to help me. Then, I thought of a coworker. Even though I hated bothering other people, with my current condition, I had no choice but to swallow my pride.

Alas, the voice that came through the receiver was a mechanical prompt.

“Sorry. Your phone service has been suspended due to an outstanding balance. Please top up your account as soon as possible to restore service.”

Suspended?

I tried to top up the account and opened the payment page, but where could the money come from? Our account balance showed 41 cents. It wasn’t even enough to buy the cheapest phone plan.

The phone service and internet were tied together. If the phone service was cut off, it meant the internet was gone too. I couldn’t even send a message asking for help, so I had to save myself.

Luckily, the map app still worked. Squinting through my fever haze, I struggled to search for the nearest 24-hour hospital. The closest one was five kilometers away. If I had a car, it wouldn’t be that far.

With that thought, I forced myself to the garage and turned on the light to find it empty. Only then did it slowly occur to me that Cole had sent the car off for modifications yesterday. At the time, I had suggested renting a car temporarily. After all, we lived in the suburbs, and getting around wasn’t convenient.

Cole had immediately shaken his head. “There’s a bus stop and a subway station right outside. Why waste money like that? I’m just changing the exhaust pipe. The shop works fast. I’ll drive it back tomorrow. What could happen? Stop worrying about nothing.”

Yet, there was no car now.

I stood there, shivering all over, barely able to stay on my feet. If the fever kept rising like this, I might die here alone in the house.

No. I had to get to the hospital.

Using the last of my strength, I pulled out the thickest down jacket from the closet. I layered on two pairs of pants, pulled my socks up high, and wrapped a scarf messily around my neck and mouth, trying to trap the little warmth there was. I couldn’t lift an umbrella, so I put on a raincoat instead.

When I pushed the door open, Sunnytown at 3:30 a.m. felt like a giant wet refrigerator. The cold seeped straight into my bones. Every step I took felt like I was walking on clouds, dizzy and unsteady. I kept my head down and walked, too afraid to stop, when suddenly, several pairs of dirty shoes stopped in front of me, blocking my path.

Slowly, I lifted my head. Three men stood there. They were soaked from the rain, and the heavy stench of alcohol and tobacco clung to them. They grinned at me with excited, lewd smiles. In that instant, I knew something was wrong.

I turned and tried to run, but one of them grabbed me and yanked back the hood of my raincoat.

“You’re dressed so thick… What good stuff are you hiding under there?”

A hoarse scream tore from my throat. “No… Get away from me!”

However, two of them had grabbed me and dragged me toward the darker woods nearby.

Cold rain poured down the back of my neck, but I was past the point of shivering. I struggled with everything I had, yet my sick body was no match for the strength of three grown men.

My raincoat was twisted out of shape as they grabbed at me. The sour, filthy heat from their bodies surrounded me.

“Help!”

In the end, I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. I knew it was useless, but I was terrified.

They burst into rough, hoarse laughter, as if my fear were part of the entertainment. Then, they shoved me backward until my back slammed into the cold, wet trunk of a tree. A heavy body pressed down on me, and breath thick with alcohol was in my face. While one hand clamped over my mouth, the other started tearing at my clothes, reaching inside…

The world shrank to the twisted faces in front of me and the disgusting laughter ringing in my ears.

“Bang!”

A gunshot cracked through the forest.

“Bang! Bang!”

Two more followed. My hand trembled violently as I gripped the gun.

I wasn’t Cole. I hated taking risks, so I had always made it a habit to carry a gun whenever I went out. Two of the shots missed, punching holes through the wide jacket of the man in front of me, and the last one hit his leg.

“Get out, or I’ll make sure all of you die here!”

My vicious tone scared them. The three men scrambled away, stumbling and crawling into the darkness of the woods.

I leaned against the tree, my eyes locked on the direction they had fled. Only after the forest fell completely silent did I finally move. With trembling hands, I picked up the clothes that had been torn off and scattered on the ground. I didn’t care how dirty they were. I wrapped them around myself as best as I could, pulled my raincoat back on, and kept walking.

I had no idea how long it took, but I eventually reached the hospital. Staggering inside, I collapsed toward the front desk.

“Please… help me.”

The nurse on duty looked like she had seen plenty of people like me before. Her expression remained indifferent as she slid a form across the counter.

“The initial fee for emergency treatment is 200 dollars. How would you like to pay?”

Instinctively, I reached for my wallet. It was gone. The three men must have taken it during the struggle.

My fingers tightened slowly as I asked, “I just need a box of cold medicine, the kind that reduces fever.”

The nurse looked at me but didn’t move. Instead, she asked, “Basic paracetamol is one dollar. Cash or card?”

One dollar? I couldn’t even come up with one dollar. All I had left on me was the 41 cents Cole hadn’t spent.

The nurse waited quietly for a few seconds, her eyes sweeping over my miserable state. It seemed like she understood something.

She tilted her chin toward the hallway and said, “See the door with the blue light over there? That’s a licensed blood donation center. It’s open twenty-four hours. Ma’am, you can sell your blood for some money.”

She paused, her gaze settling back on my face, as if measuring my reaction.

“Not only will it be enough to buy that box of medicine, but it might even help you chip away at whatever debt you’ve got on your credit card.”

I didn’t want to sell my blood, but I wanted to survive. So, I had no choice.

The needle pierced my skin, and I watched as my blood rushed through the clear plastic tube into the collection bag. The first bag filled quickly, and the machine let out a soft beep.

I parted my lips and forced out a weak voice. “That’s enough. Stop. I’m only selling this much. I feel terrible…”

No one responded. Instead, the nurse pushed me back down and replaced the full bag with another empty one.

“Relax, ma’am. Your indicators look great. You can donate more. We’ll compensate you properly. It’ll be 500 dollars.”

The second bag began filling just as quickly. Darkness crept along the edges of my vision, and the sounds around me grew distant and muffled. It felt like I might die right there.

When the second bag was finally full, the nurse’s voice drifted toward me from far away.

“All right. The money has been transferred to your account.”

With that money, I was finally able to get treatment.

The day I was discharged and returned home, Cole had just ended his trip to Iceland. He pushed the door open excitedly, carrying a large department store shopping bag. Inside was the cooking pot I had asked him to buy.

Cole didn’t even notice how sickly I looked. Like he was presenting a treasure, he held the pot up in front of me.

“Baby, look! Here’s the pot you wanted! Let’s not fight anymore, okay? Funny thing, when I got off the plane, I saw there were a few hundred extra dollars in my account. Maybe my overtime pay came early. So, I immediately went out and bought this pot for you to make up for everything!”

I stared at Cole’s face. There wasn’t a trace of gloom on it. If anything, he looked like he was waiting for praise.

My stomach churned with nausea. I raised my hand and threw the hospital receipts straight at his face.

“Cole, do you know why there were a few hundred extra dollars in your account? That was the money I got from selling my blood.”