A close friend once joked that a perfect husband like Liam was bound to have an affair in the fifth year of marriage.

Liam sneered, knocking over a glass of red wine on the dining table.

"Elara and I have been together for thirteen years. Our relationship doesn't need your cynical theories."

For the next four years, he doted on me even more.

Until his intern, Chloe, confessed her love to him with red-rimmed eyes.

In front of everyone, Liam tore her love letter to shreds.

He swore to maintain a strict professional boundary with her, cutting off all contact outside of work.

After that, my faith in him grew even stronger.

But on our fifth wedding anniversary, I received an anonymous email.

Inside was a video.

It was Liam and Chloe, locked in a passionate embrace.

The email also included a photo of a hotel room key card.

For three hours, I sat motionless in the living room. I didn't call Liam, who was out late.

Instead, I had my lawyer draw up divorce papers and placed them on the coffee table.

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1

At midnight, Liam rushed back, his tall frame wrapped in a black coat.

When he saw my phone on the table, the video paused on screen, the color drained from his face.

"The proof is right here," I said coldly. "Sign the divorce papers."

He didn't explain. Instead, he snatched the phone to delete the video.

"It's an AI face-swap! Chloe framed me! I had too much to drink at a dinner party, and she took me to a hotel. She must have taken photos and used some app to doctor this!"

"She's doing this to destroy us because I rejected her!"

But the scent on him wouldn't lie.

It should have been his familiar cedarwood cologne, but now it was tainted with another woman's perfume.

Seeing I didn't move, anger flared in Liam's eyes.

"Elara, we've been together for thirteen years, married for five. You'd rather believe an outsider than me?"

I remained silent, and he suddenly let out a bitter laugh.

"Fine. I'll have her clear this up right now."

Liam pulled out his phone, dialed a number, and roared:

"Chloe, if you dare harass Elara again, I'll kill you!"

He stormed out onto the balcony and returned a few minutes later, hanging up.

When he came back, Liam looked exhausted, his voice laced with pleading.

"Baby, I'll handle this. Just give me some time. Please, don't talk about divorce."

I nodded. "Fine. I'll give you time."

He let out a sigh of relief and reached for me.

I stood up, sidestepping his embrace. "I'm tired. I'm sleeping in the guest room."

He froze, his face turning ashen as he watched me go.

That night, I didn't sleep a wink.

At three in the morning, I got up for a drink of water and heard a noise coming from the study.

The door was ajar. Through the crack, I saw my husband—the man I knew as proud, elegant, and always self-possessed.

He was holding his phone, his gaze fixed on the same "AI face-swap" video he'd just sworn was fake.

His eyes were bloodshot, and a low, strangled sound escaped his throat.

Finally, a single name tumbled from his panting lips.

"Chloe."

In that moment, I felt a part of my soul wither and die.

Liam hadn't cheated in the fifth year of our marriage.

His heart had strayed long ago, and his body had finally followed.

The next day, I insisted on the divorce, but Liam adamantly refused to sign.

He started coming home on time every day, bringing a bouquet of yellow roses, my favorite.

As if that could erase everything.

But within two days, Chloe began a passive-aggressive campaign on her Instagram.

A photo of her wrist wrapped in gauze, captioned: "If my existence makes things hard for you, I'm willing to disappear."

A photo of her on an IV drip in the hospital, captioned: "Don't worry about me, Liam. This is all my fault."

A selfie in front of a university building, captioned: "A youth I can't relive, a person I can't forget."

I forwarded the screenshots directly to Liam.

He called Chloe and yelled into the phone:

"Chloe, I'm warning you, stay away from Elara! Or you're fired!"

A hurt, sobbing voice answered from the other end: "But Liam, I've loved you for eight years. I can't live without you..."

Liam hung up, his expression grim.

The next day, a company-wide email from Aethelred announced an official reprimand for Chloe.

She lost her eligibility for company awards and was transferred off her main project.

I knew this was Liam's doing.

He was trying to prove his loyalty to me.

But that afternoon, Chloe burst into my office in tears.

"Elara! Are you satisfied now? Not only are you trapping Liam in this marriage, but now you want to ruin my future too!"

She lunged at me, and I slapped her hard across the face. "You deliberately broke up a home, and you have the nerve to play the victim?"

Liam rushed in, pulling me into his arms and glaring coldly at Chloe.

Emboldened, she charged straight at him.

She brushed a fleeting kiss against Liam's lips.

My mind went blank.

Then, I heard her say:

"Liam, I'm one of MIT's top graduates. So many men are chasing me. Don't tell me you feel nothing for me at all!"

I moved to slap her again, but Liam stopped my hand.

After a few stunned seconds, he finally spoke, his voice thick with emotion.

"You can't compare to her."

"Elara has been with me through thick and thin for thirteen years. I will not betray her."

Then he snatched a pen holder from my desk and hurled it at her.

Chloe didn't dodge. She whimpered as blood trickled from a cut on her forehead.

"That's what you get for messing with Elara."

He spat the words out coldly, then wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me out of the office.

The moment the door closed behind us, he instantly dropped his arm.

He turned his back to me and lit a cigarette.

"Elara, go on home. I have to work late tonight."

The words caught in my throat.

Finally, I managed to force out a single word, "Okay."

That night in bed, Liam was rough and desperate, his eyes squeezed shut the entire time.

Afterward, he murmured in his sleep: "Chloe..."

My whole body went rigid, and I slipped out of his arms.

I looked at the man whose handsome face I had adored for a decade.

I remembered him standing up for me when I was bullied, breaking the ribs of the thugs who cornered me.

I remembered him risking his life to save me on a snowy mountain.

I remembered how I once mentioned a stomachache, and he'd canceled an international conference, flying halfway across the world just to make me soup.

All the good things, all his devotion, were still vivid in my memory.

But now, he hadn't even realized that his own heart no longer belonged to me.

I stared at the ceiling until dawn.

Then, I sent an email to Dr. Sterling, the head of the Odyssey Project.

[Dr. Sterling, I accept your invitation. I am willing to join the Odyssey Project team in one month.]

After that day, an unspoken truce settled between us, and our daily interactions dwindled to almost nothing.

Until the company's annual charity gala.

Liam and I went on stage together to give a speech.

Everyone in the audience praised us as a match made in heaven.

Suddenly, a young man rushed onto the stage and threw a punch at Liam.

"Liam Blackwood! You hypocrite! If you don't love Chloe, why did you give her hope!"

All heads turned.

It was clear the man was one of Chloe's devoted admirers.

He sneered, his eyes full of contempt.

"Remember that lab fire? She saved you! Half her leg was burned, and she still has the scar!"

Chloe lifted the hem of her skirt, revealing a jagged scar on her calf.

Beside me, Liam's breathing hitched.

"That project that won you an international award? She was the one who stayed up for a month, behind your back, to get you the final data."

"Those so-called partnership opportunities? She was the one attending endless dinners, schmoozing partners on your behalf."

"Liam Blackwood, your success today isn't because of you and your wife. It's because of Chloe!"

The entire hall was in an uproar.

I calmly broke the silence.

"But everything she did was of her own accord. Liam never asked for any of it."

"If Chloe is using this to blackmail him, then she's nothing but a homewrecker trying to force her way into our family!"

The man, unconvinced, was about to speak again, but Chloe pulled him back, crying:

"Stop it! Elara's right. I shouldn't have fallen for Liam!"

"I did it all willingly. When you truly love someone, you don't expect anything in return."

The man looked at her, his own eyes welling with tears. "Chloe, you're too noble. It's not worth it for a man like him."

Only then did Liam slowly speak, his grip on my arm tightening.

"Elara is right. And she is my only wife. Always has been, always will be."

"Please leave. Don't stand here spouting nonsense."

His grip was strong, his voice firm.

But I could feel his arm trembling.

And as his eyes darted toward Chloe, I saw a flicker of confusion he couldn't hide.

My heart ached, as if pricked by a needle.

Even though I had already decided to leave, it still hurt.

Just then, the massive LED screen above our heads made a strange creaking noise. Then, along with its heavy frame, it came crashing down on us.

Screams erupted from the crowd.

I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut.

With all his might, Liam shoved me violently away.

Then, like an arrow, he lunged toward Chloe.

Bang!

The frame shattered on the floor beside me, and shards of metal cut into my skin.

Through the searing pain and my blurry vision, I saw them in the distance.

Liam was shielding Chloe with his own body as the heavy metal frame slammed into his back.

Chloe was crying, unhurt but still in shock.

Nearby, I heard a paramedic shouting:

"Sir, the intern just scraped her knee! Your wife is the one bleeding out! If we don't get to her now, she's going to die!"

Before I lost consciousness, I saw Liam sweep a crying Chloe into his arms and rush past me, disappearing from sight.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital bed.

Young nurses were gossiping in hushed tones outside my door.

"Did you hear? Mr. Blackwood fractured his back saving that intern, Chloe!"

"I know, right? He's not even healed, and he's already over there changing Chloe's bandages and feeding her soup. His own wife gets nothing!"

"Tsk, he and Chloe must be the real deal. They have real chemistry."

A long time later, Liam finally came to my room.

He was holding half a bowl of soup, offering to feed me.

I swatted it from his hand, sending it crashing to the floor. "I don't want someone else's leftovers."

Hearing this, his face filled with guilt.

"Elara, I'm sorry. Chloe saved my life once. I was just repaying the favor. It was the decent thing to do."

"But I promise, nothing like this will ever happen again."

I scoffed.

So her life was a life, but mine wasn't?

I didn't argue. Instead, I threw a document at him. "Sign this."

He signed his name without even looking at it.

I smiled.

If he had flipped open a single page, he would have seen it was a postnuptial agreement, one with severe financial penalties for infidelity.

After signing, Liam said he wanted to make it up to me and suggested a ski trip to Aspen to help me relax.

But as soon as we got to the airport, his phone rang.

It was Chloe.

On the other end, she was crying so hard she could barely breathe, saying she was scared to be alone in the hospital.

Liam hung up, avoiding my gaze.

"Elara, there's an urgent project at the company. I have to go back. You go on ahead. I'll join you as soon as I can."

I waited from morning till dusk, but Liam never showed.

Chloe, however, updated her Instagram.

In the photo, her hand was intertwined with a man's. On the man's wrist was the fifth-anniversary watch I had custom-made for Liam.

The caption: [After eight years of waiting, the sun is finally shining on my world.]

I liked the post. Just then, Liam called. I didn't answer.

Night fell, and a light rain began to fall.

I suddenly felt exhausted. I wanted to go home. My real home.