At yet another family gathering, Kirsten Weber's male assistant, Jordan Steele, is sitting in the seat that should be mine.

I ask Kirsten, "He's sitting in the host's seat. Don't you have anything to say about that?"

Kirsten shoots back impatiently, "Since you showed up late, don't blame someone else for taking your seat. There's an empty seat next to it. You can take it if you want. If you don't want it, then get out."

I am about to speak when her inner thoughts suddenly flood into my mind.

She is saying inwardly, "Honey, get angry already. Tell me you need me. Tell me you have to sit beside me. Prove that you love me. That's the only way I'll feel secure."

This time, I do not give Kirsten what her heart desires.

Instead, I lower my head and slowly remove my wedding ring.

Calmly, I say, "Since you won't even save the seat for the man of the house, I suppose you don't need me anymore. Let's get a divorce, Kirsten."

The ring clattered as it hit the table.

Kirsten Weber's face turned pale. Even her parents, Sam Weber and Juliet Moore, seemed to be completely taken aback.

Six years.

Every single day of my life in the past six years had been exactly like this.

Each time Kirsten jeered at me or made fun of me, I didn't need her to purposely coax me back. I just needed to listen to her true feelings and eagerly rush back to her to make up with her.

Over time, they eventually got used to it. They even joked and said that someone as stubborn and difficult as Kirsten needed a husband who would never leave her, no matter how much he was berated.

So, when I took off my ring, Juliet hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Mitch Coleman! What's gotten into you? Are you in a bad mood today? You're never usually this petty."

Sam also had a stern look on his face. "This is a family dinner. You should know better than to use divorce as a joke at the table. Hurry up and put the ring back on."

I chuckled. "So, you also know that it's a family dinner. So, since when had Mr. Jordan Steele been part of the family?"

Sam and Juliet were at a loss for words.

Kirsten got up abruptly with a deep frown on her face. "Are you done making a fuss, Mitch Coleman! You want a divorce? Fine! Then get out of my sight right now! This family does not welcome selfish people like you!"

Yet, beneath her sharp words lay her true, hidden feelings.

[Why do you want a divorce from me, honey? Don't you want me anymore? Didn't you promise me that you would love me forever?

[It's just an April Fool's joke, isn't it? You'll immediately come running into my arms as long as I get mad at you like this, right?]

I had been putting up with her conflicting emotions like this for ten whole years. After all, when I first met Kirsten, she had been suffering from severe autism and many other emotional disorders.

She couldn't express her inner feelings well and habitually used the most cutting and sarcastic words to attack other people instead.

Fortunately for me, I was one of the people who could actually hear her inner voice. And every time she told me to get out of her sight, her inner voice would plead pitifully with me, asking me not to leave.

[Don't go, please. I need you…]

I had felt sorry for her then, and eventually, we got close and fell in love. After having dated for four years, we were then married for another six.

She eventually opened her heart to others because of me, and could function like a normal person without needing to rely on medication anymore.

However, she treated everyone else with kindness for the past six years, except for me. She would reserve the coldest and harshest words only for me.

It wasn't that I hadn't felt upset about it before. However, Juliet would come up to me and tell me, "Kirsten is mentally ill. She's not like other normal people. Give her some time and space. Besides, you know that she doesn't really mean what she says. Her heart belongs to you and only you!"

I believed her because I could hear Kirsten's inner voice.

That was until Jordan appeared out of the blue.

She claimed that she didn't know anything about being romantic, but she booked the entire amusement park for him on his birthday. There was a wristwatch that I'd been eyeing for ages, but she bought it and put it on Jordan's wrist instead.

She would even turn up to family events and dinners like this with Jordan in tow.

Her inner voice always told me that she loved me, and she only wanted me to be jealous of other men to prove my love for her and also to ease her insecurity.

However, the spot meant for me had now been pushed into the corner, and I finally woke up and came to my senses.

As it turned out, I'd been lying to myself all along.

She was only gentle toward the people she actually loved.

I remained calm as I stared at Kirsten's nearly-trembling lips.

"Okay. I'll leave right now."

I then ignored Sam's and Juliet's attempts to stop me and turned around, walking toward the entrance. Just as I was about to leave, however, someone gripped my wrist tightly and yanked me back in.

[Are you really mad at me, honey? I'm scared. Do you really not want me anymore? I'll die if you leave me! You can't leave me like this!]

Kirsten's inner voice echoed in my head at once. I looked back at her in shock and saw the redness around her eyes. For a moment, I felt my resolve crumbling.

However, a second later, Kirsten's cold voice sounded.

"You want to leave? Fine! Take off the shoes you're wearing and return them to me! I was the one who bought them for you!"

I froze at the command and looked at the worn, faded leather shoes on my feet.

These were the shoes that Kirsten had bought for me for our wedding. When she bought them for me, she simply put them in the living room without telling me about them. However, I heard her inner voice calling out to me.

[Honey! See the shoes? See them? Quick, come and ask me if I purposely bought them for you! I actually got someone to custom-make it to order! Aren't I the best? I really want you to be the happiest groom in the world!]

Over the past six years, I could never bear to part with these shoes and treated them like my utmost treasure. It wasn't just because it was a gift from Kirsten. It was also because the shoes represented her love for me.

But now…

I mechanically crouched over and slowly took the shoes off.

"Okay. You can have it back."

Kirsten's face turned darker. Her eyes grew even redder, as if she was suppressing her emotions.

Juliet hurried up to stop me.

"Mitch, you've been with Kirsten for ten years. It's not like you don't know that she never means what she says. How could she possibly bear to let you go home barefooted? This is just her way of trying to make you stay."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Kirsten bent down, grabbed the shoes, and threw them into the fireplace.

"You've worn them for six years, and you're returning them to me now? They're filthy."

Her tone was nonchalant, but her words fell like a sledgehammer to my heart.

I stared at the flames consuming my shoes and suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe.

So, as it turned out, the shoes I'd kept so precious to my heart over the past six years meant nothing to her and could be thrown into the fire and destroyed just like that.

Kirsten's inner voice spoke up again when she noticed my reddening eyes.

[You're upset, aren't you, honey? You still care about me, don't you? Just admit that you were wrong, and say that you only meant it as a joke earlier, and I'll immediately fill your entire rack with more shoes than you can ever wear! I'll buy one pair in every style for you!]

I listened numbly to her inner voice and felt nothing stirring in my heart anymore.

She could buy as many pairs as she wanted for me after this, but nothing could ever compare to the first pair. My feelings for her had already burned out, just like the last of the embers in the fireplace, with only ashes left behind.

I left barefoot in the end.

Nobody came out after me. Only Jordan's gloating sneer could be heard as I left.

"Are you really not going out after him? He seems pretty upset."

"What's the point?" Kirsten replied. "Let him go. He'll definitely come crawling back to me in half an hour to apologize."

She didn't know that I was leaving for real.

I was one of the candidates selected for an external transfer to the company's overseas branch, and my flight was booked for tomorrow.

By the time I got back to our house, the soles of my feet were completely covered in tiny cuts and scrapes.

I numbly cleaned and disinfected them with alcohol and subconsciously looked around. Our home had unknowingly been filled with Jordan's things.

"This is a rabbit plushie that Jordan gave me. Put it on the couch. I want to see it every day.

"This is the necklace that Jordan gave me. Does it look nice on me?

"This is the reed diffuser that Jordan told me to put here. He said that it makes the place smell like him."

Every time I went berserk over another addition like that, the smile on Kirsten's lips would only widen and deepen even more as she watched me get jealous. It seemed as though the more I suffered, the more it proved that I loved her.

Yet, her response to me was always the same.

"Mitch, you know that Jordan is only my secretary and coworker. Stop being so petty."

As time passed, her continuous torture eventually trained me to do exactly as she wished. I stopped being petty about things and even willingly stepped aside to give up my position as her husband now.

After bandaging up my feet, I began packing up my things. I didn't have many belongings left, and I took them all with me.

Just as I was about to leave, Kirsten came back. She reeked of alcohol and had to be half-carried in by Jordan.

When she caught sight of me, she instinctively wanted to let go of him. However, her eyes narrowed when she saw my suitcase behind me. She was screaming inside her head.

[Why are you packing your things, honey? Do you really not want me anymore? I'm sorry, I was wrong! I shouldn't have brought Jordan with me to dinner! I just wanted to see you get jealous! Please don't leave me! I don't want you to leave!]

Her face paled as her feelings poured out through her inner voice. However, the words that rolled from her tongue were sharp and cutting.

"You'd better think twice about this, Mitch Coleman. Once you're gone, I'm going to have a line of suitors waiting to marry me. But would any woman still ever want to marry a useless piece of trash like you?"

The way she talked down to me completely destroyed the last bit of hope in my eyes. I just smiled and said, "Okay. Then go and find yourself another man."

Kirsten clenched her fists. Suddenly, she slid her arms around Jordan's waist and declared, "Then, I'm just going to marry Jordan instead!

"He's kind and gentle and more capable than you! Most importantly, he's nothing like you in bed! You can't even last a minute. It's been six years, and you've never, ever managed to satisfy me even once!"

Her provocative tone made my breath catch in my throat.

Everyone knew that my body was an extremely sensitive subject.

Six years ago, Kirsten had suffered a sudden nephritis attack and urgently needed a kidney transplant. I was a match, and I went under the knife without hesitation, donating one of my kidneys to her.

After the surgery, I was often weak and listless and frequently ran out of energy halfway through the day.

The incision site on my body was constantly painful and inflamed, causing me to suffer from many high fever attacks afterward.

I thought that Kirsten would be the first one to be the most understanding about my situation. I never imagined that she would turn out to be the first one to use it as a weapon against me.

My eyes turned red. "That's enough, Kirsten Weber!"

She saw the tears in my eyes, and a flash of surprise appeared in hers. She instinctively wanted to step forward and approach me.

However, Jordan put his arm around her shoulders and said matter-of-factly, "What's the big deal? It's not like Kirsten's lying. It has been six years, and you have been useless for all of them.

"If Kirsten were any other woman, she would have already gotten rid of you a long time ago, but she put up with you for six whole years! She never said that she was done with you, but you were the one who brought up divorce and even tried moving out.

"If anything, you're the selfish one. You're not the least bit understanding about her and all the troubles and suffering she's gone through!"

Kirsten paused in her steps. The fluster in her eyes was quickly replaced with a cold look. She agreed wholeheartedly with Jordan and thought I was selfish and refused to be more understanding about her.

"It seems like I've been too good to you over the years," she said, her eyes darting toward my suitcase.

Before I could react, she had already forcefully grabbed the suitcase and ripped the zipper open with brute force.

All my items in the suitcase fell out, and she stepped on them. She also picked up something specifically from the bottom of the pile. It was a crystal amulet from my mother, the only thing of hers I had left to remember her by.

Kirsten glared condescendingly at me. "Do I need to remind you, Mitch Coleman, that I was the one who got this amulet back for three million dollars back then?"

My face paled at once.