During the New Year's Eve dinner, my pineapple juice was secretly swapped for alcohol. But I had taken cephalosporin earlier on.

The doctors used a lot of effort to save me, but my wife, Jennifer Robinson, shielded the person who was responsible behind her.

"This matter ends here. Be generous and forgive him. He didn't do it on purpose."

I didn't plan on letting this man off so easily. He had an ambiguous relationship with my wife.

But Jennifer interrupted me with a frown. "That's enough! He's only a fresh graduate. What's the point of making a fuss? Do you have to ruin the rest of his life to feel satisfied?"

I looked at how my wife was protecting him and my heart sank.

"Then you two can spend the rest of your lives together."

During the New Year's Eve dinner, my pineapple juice was secretly swapped for alcohol. But I had taken cephalosporin earlier on.

The doctors used a lot of effort to save me, but my wife, Jennifer Robinson, shielded the person who was responsible behind her.

"This matter ends here. Be generous and forgive him. He didn't do it on purpose."

I didn't plan on letting this man off so easily. He had an ambiguous relationship with my wife.

But Jennifer interrupted me with a frown. "That's enough! He's only a fresh graduate. What's the point of making a fuss? Do you have to ruin the rest of his life to feel satisfied?"

I looked at how my wife was protecting him and my heart sank.

"Then you two can spend the rest of your lives together."

"What do you mean by that? Lee, can't you not be so narrow-minded? As the employer, what's wrong with me caring for my employees? Why did you have to overthink our relationship? You've ruined our New Year's Eve dinner!"

My words seemed to have exposed what Jennifer was thinking. This caused her to raise her voice guiltily.

I sneered and asked, "Oh? It seems that you've put a lot of effort into taking care of him. You care about him even more than you care about your husband. When I collapsed during dinner, you're the one who took a step back, right?"

Jennifer was taken aback by my words. Her voice then softened. It was obvious that she was trying her best to suppress the anger inside.

"Lee, I know you're upset. I'll definitely punish Henry for what he's done and make you feel at ease. But as for calling the police, that's absolutely unnecessary. He's only a fresh graduate..."

"How are you going to punish him?" After experiencing a life-and-death situation, I seemed to have come to my senses. I then massaged my temples and interrupted Jennifer.

After a short pause, Jennifer mumbled, "I'll deduct three days' wages."

"I almost got killed and all you're going to do is to deduct three days' wages?" I couldn't believe what I heard and almost laughed out loud.

"That's enough! He didn't do it on purpose. He's a fresh graduate, how much money can he possibly have? He still needs to pay the rent and other living expenses. My punishment is already very serious! How do you expect him to make it through next month?"

Jennifer's face was darker than ever. All she wanted was for me to stop making a fuss, but I had no interest in talking to her anymore. I took out my phone and was about to call the police.

'A fresh graduate? I'm afraid as long as he's an adult, he'll need to be responsible for his actions.'

When I was about to make the call, Jennifer snatched my phone from me and cursed angrily, "Do you have to ruin someone else's future? He's still young, what does he know?"

"I just want to tell the police what really happened. He knew what he'd done."

I frowned and was about to take back my phone. The atmosphere in the ward became tense. Neither me or Jennifer was backing down.

Knock knock knock!

At that moment, someone knocked on the door of the ward. When the door was opened, we saw that it was Henry standing at the door with a fruit basket.

He had tears in his eyes and seemed a little nervous and scared as he walked into the ward. When he looked at me in the eyes, he bowed. "I'm so sorry, Lee. This is all my fault. I'm truly sorry."

"Henry, quick, have a seat."

Seeing that it was Henry, Jennifer quickly asked him to take a seat.

She took the fruit basket from him and patted his shoulder. "There's no need to waste money on fruit baskets. Lee is fine. Why are you crying? Don't be scared."

"I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble, Jennifer."

As soon as Henry said those words, his eyes turned red. It was as if he was startled. This caused Jennifer's heart to ache even more.

When tears welled up in Henry's eyes, he raised his head to look at me. There was a proud look in his eyes.

I furrowed my brows and was about to tell him to stop acting, but the next second, he knelt by my bed and bowed.

He cried as he said, "I'm so sorry, Lee. I didn't know you had taken cephalosporin. I switched your drink to alcohol to lighten the atmosphere. I really didn't mean to hurt you."

"Henry, what are you doing? Get up!"

Jennifer was dumbfounded. She walked forward and was about to pull Henry off the ground.

When she turned around and saw me with an indifferent expression on my face, she shouted angrily, "Do you still not believe him even now? Lee, why have I never noticed that you were so heartless?

"Forgive him right now and stop making things difficult for him! Get up, Henry. I don't want to see you like this either."

Henry's face was filled with tears. He remained on his knees and begged for my forgiveness. I only felt a headache coming on and couldn't be bothered to watch his act.

Seeing that I was still not moved at all, Jennifer came over and slapped me in the face. "Lee, you are shameless!"

Slap!

Everything happened so fast and I felt a sharp pain in my right cheek.

Jennifer's actions caused me to lose all feelings for her.

I met and fell in love with Jennifer in college. We both studied finance. Our university was ranked among the top in the country.

Most of the students in this department came from families with "connections" and "backgrounds," but Jennifer was different.

She relied entirely on her own efforts to get in, and she planned to build her future from scratch.

That determination of hers immediately attracted me. It was no surprise that we ended up together.

I was the one who pursued her, and I learned a lot from her along the way.

My family didn’t value Jennifer.

In fact, when I was about to graduate, they had already chosen a marriage alliance partner for me, assuming I was just playing around with her and would eventually return to fulfill their expectations.

But people were always rebellious. That youthful defiance I had back then was something I could no longer muster.

I broke ties with my family and chose to stay with Jennifer.

Looking back now, we had been married for three years and been together for five. Over those three years, Jennifer’s career, with my support, had been smooth sailing.

She once protected me as fiercely as she protected Henry today.

I remember how she stood up for me against disrespectful business partners who kept forcing me to drink, angrily scolding them in front of everyone.

Later, she would stay up late taking care of me. I truly believed I could spend the rest of my life with Jennifer.

Life got better, but the love between us began to fade.

Ever since Henry joined the company as an intern assistant, Jennifer’s attitude towards me took a sharp turn.

I heard she even personally requested Henry to be transferred to her team.

Since then, she had been frequently working overtime and traveling, always taking Henry with her.

She claimed it was to "develop his skills," but I didn’t know what kind of "skills" were being developed.

As a result, rumors started circulating in the company over the past few months, suggesting that Henry had actually been "favored" by Jennifer.

While I was lost in thought, another slap landed squarely on my face without hesitation.

I raised my eyes slowly to look at Jennifer, only to see her gritting her teeth and speaking each word slowly.

“Lee, accept Henry’s apology immediately, or I won’t leave you alone.”

“Jennifer, stop hitting him! Please don’t fight because of me!”

Henry, seeing the situation, waited until she finished hitting me before finally speaking to stop her. Then, with a resolute expression, he stood up decisively.

“Lee, since you still refuse to forgive me, I’ll just turn myself in. I’m willing to atone for this with the rest of my life!”

Without waiting for our reaction, he bolted out of the ward.

“Henry! What are you doing? Don’t do anything stupid!”

Jennifer rushed after him in a panic, but not before throwing me a final harsh warning.

“If anything happens to him, Lee, I won’t forgive you!”

The door slammed shut behind her, leaving the room quiet at last. I let out a long sigh, feeling nothing but exhaustion.

There was no way Henry was actually going to turn himself in. Everything he did today was just to provoke conflict between Jennifer and me. This obvious scheme could only fool someone like Jennifer.

Sure enough, not long after, Jennifer posted on her social media. The photo was a scenic shot taken just outside the hospital, and the caption read, “I’ll protect you for a lifetime.”

She didn’t block anyone from seeing it, blatantly posting it for everyone to see.

After she chased after him, she didn’t come back to check on me again. Not that it was necessary—my life was no longer in danger, so there was no reason for her to return.

I sneered, unmoved by her subtle provocation.

After having my stomach pumped last night, I couldn’t eat anything, nor did I want to stay in the hospital any longer. So I arranged with the doctor to be discharged the next day.

When I got home after packing my things, I found Jennifer was there too.

"You're back?"

Jennifer was sitting on the sofa. The moment she saw me return, her smile disappeared, and her demeanor turned lukewarm. She didn’t even ask how I was doing physically.

Clearly, she hadn’t expected me to come back suddenly. She had probably been in a good mood, but the moment I opened the door, her face darkened.

For a married couple to reach this point, where we were just keeping up appearances, it really felt meaningless.

"Yeah," I replied casually, my tone equally indifferent. It was then that I noticed her posture on the sofa seemed a bit subconsciously tense.

I frowned slightly, and in the next moment, I heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom shower.

There was someone else in the house.

"Who's in the shower?"

Even though I already had a guess in mind, there was still a sliver of hope when I asked the question.

However, Jennifer's expression immediately turned unpleasant as she forced an explanation.

"It's Henry. His water's been shut off for a week, so after work, I brought him here to take a shower. Don't overthink it—it really is because of the water issue."

"Got it. I'm not overthinking."

My calm response seemed to confuse Jennifer. She scrutinized my face repeatedly, trying to detect any trace of anger, but when she found nothing, she finally relaxed.

"You actually managed to think it through. For once, you're not being dramatic. How rare."

‘Dramatic? So that's what she thought all my past behavior was?’

I didn’t respond and instead went straight to the bedroom. I pulled out a suitcase from the closet and began packing silently. During this time, Jennifer didn’t even glance in my direction.

As I packed, I realized how little I had accumulated in these years of marriage. I wasn’t someone who craved material things, but still, the realization was sobering.

I left behind everything Jennifer had given me, as well as anything we had shared over the years. I didn’t want any of it. I didn’t want the memories, either.

When I finished packing and stepped out of the room, Jennifer was drying Henry’s hair with a blow dryer. She was kneeling on the sofa, chatting and laughing with him. At that moment, they looked so much like a loving couple.

It felt like I was the unnecessary one in this household.

Jennifer’s back was to me, and the noise from the blow dryer drowned out my footsteps. She didn’t notice I was there, but Henry did.

The moment he saw me, he slowly lifted his gaze, a smug expression flickering across his face. He curled his lips slightly.

His look seemed to say, "See? You’re never going to win against me."

I kept a blank expression. I didn’t want to win, nor did I feel like I had lost. I simply stood there, quietly watching Jennifer patiently dry Henry’s hair with the utmost tenderness.

That tenderness... I couldn’t even remember the last time it had been directed at me.

So, it wasn’t work stress that made her snap at me when she came home. She had just been saving her gentleness for someone else.

The blow dryer shut off, and when Jennifer turned around and saw me, her expression froze. She quickly offered an explanation.

"I was just drying his hair. I didn’t want him to catch a cold and miss work tomorrow."

"Got it. You don’t have to explain everything to me," I replied casually, my tone indifferent.

Just that one sentence gave Henry the opportunity to chime in. His face carried a hint of timidness as he spoke.

"Lee, I don’t think I’m welcome here… Maybe I should leave."

As he said that, he made a show of getting up to leave. Jennifer quickly stopped him.

"You just took a shower. If you go out now, you’ll catch a cold."

"I’m not saying that you’re unwelcome here," I said. "The one who doesn’t belong here is me. You stay. I’ll leave."

I walked back to the room, grabbed my suitcase, and headed straight for the door.

Jennifer noticed and her expression darkened. She stepped in front of me to block my way.

"Lee, what are you doing? I was wondering why you were so calm when you came home. What kind of scheme is this now?"

I let out a small, almost imperceptible laugh. I was too tired to guess what kind of person I had become in Jennifer’s eyes after someone else’s meddling.

I looked at Jennifer with a calm gaze, my tone completely devoid of emotion.

"There is no scheme, Jennifer. Keep an eye on your email. I’ll be sending you the divorce papers."