"Your husband can't satisfy you, can he?" Adam asked as he drew his face closer. His eyes had nothing, not even desires, but coldness as they gazed at me. "Well, of course, he can't. Otherwise, you won't look so starving for it."

Under his mocking smile, my heart trembled as if it wanted to escape from its rib cage. Instantly, I shrugged off my desires, forcing myself to wake up from his hypnotic gaze and push him from above me.

Then, I fixed myself and drew away from him.

What happened to me just now? I almost had sex with him!

I was trembling hard as I gathered my strength to push him out of my house — no, out of our house. However, Adam quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. Then, he held me tightly in his arms and dragged me closer to his chest.

Immediately, my face heated up. "Adam, why are you here? What do you want me to do?" I asked as I glared at him.

Adam gave me a deep look as he leveled his gaze with mine. His deep eyes were getting closer and closer, fascinatingly hypnotizing me again. When his breath tattooed my bare face, I forgot to struggle again.

However, just when I thought his lips were about to claim mine again, he turned his head gently and sneered. "You think I'll kiss you?" he taunted, full of ridicule.

My eyes then twitched at him. I was about to say something when the doorknob's latch suddenly clicked.

With that, my heart trembled violently, and my body froze with fear. I didn't even need to check because I knew it was Bob. And if he found out I was with Adam, he would have other evidence to use to threaten me and the latter.

But, no! I would not let that happen!

Hastily, I pulled Adam and pushed him into the guest room. However, before I could even do that, he grabbed my hand and stopped me from doing what I had initially planned.

"What? Am I that disgraceful that you want to hide me here?" he asked. His eyes were deep, like a brewing storm amidst the vast ocean.

Speechless, I looked unbelievably at him as anger replaced the fear I had felt earlier. 'How stupid could this man be?!'

"Come with me!" I hysterically said in a low voice when I heard the door had finally unlocked.

However, Adam stood still.

"Please!" I begged.

Instantly, Adam's expression changed, and his eyes became dimmer.

Using all my strength, I pushed him into the guest room, and just as I closed the door, Bob entered!

My heart remained in chaos even after ensuring Adam was out of sight. I mean, who wouldn't feel anxious if your husband came back and you were hiding a man?

"What are you standing there?" Bob asked, full of suspicion behind me.

I gulped and turned around to see him. Then, I immediately shook my head. "N-Nothing..."

After I said the word, Bob frowned and walked towards me.

Nervous, I cursed under my breath, forced myself to calm down, and thought of a new topic. "Do you know what your mother did?"

Bob stopped and arched his brow at me. "What did she do?"

I sneered and fixed my posture. "She went to my workplace and made a commotion, saying I can't bear a child for your family." Then, I paused and looked at him with my squinted eyes. "I've taken nothing but harsh words from her, but should I tell her what kind of man her son is?"

I was brimming with anger, and I felt like I could spit a novel-long of curses at him, but before I could even react, Bob's hand suddenly hit my cheeks. With his unexpected blow, my face shifted sideways, and I urgently held my reddened cheek.

I was brimming with anger, and I felt like I could spit a novel-long of curses at him, but before I could even react, Bob's hand suddenly hit my cheeks. With his unexpected blow, my face shifted sideways, and I urgently held my reddened cheek.

"And why are you telling me this? Do you think I'll scold my mom and side with you? Dream on, Sophia! Who do you think you are?" His eyes were as intense as fire. "I don't care about whatever my mother would do to you. If she humiliated you, then suffer. You deserve a lot more than that anyway."

I clenched my fist as I mirrored his gaze. I was hoping to see even faint hints of sorry in his eyes, but it disappointed me that there weren't. Unfazed, he stepped closer toward me and warned, "If you dare let my mother know anything, I hope you're ready for the consequences."

And with that, I was rendered speechless. I wanted to chase him with a knife and ruthlessly stab him until I felt satisfied because why not? He kept making my life miserable, so why not end everything at once? If we died now, the pain would only last briefly.

But then, Adam was here.

He was here, so all I could do now was endure my husband's treatment and act tough regardless.

I waited a moment to ensure that Bob was already asleep before I opened the guest room's door and let Adam come out.

As soon as he did, a moment of silence ensued for what seemed to be a long time until Adam broke it with a serious question.

"So, you left me before to marry such a person?"

My words were constrained.

As much as I wanted to let out the suffocating emotions building inside me, I could not explain myself to Adam. I could not tell him the whole truth, for I knew it wouldn't do him any good.

"You should leave now!" I said as I pushed him out of the house, afraid that if he stayed longer, I wouldn't be able to control my mouth from saying things I shouldn't talk about.

And so, I lowered my head, avoiding his intense stare. Then, with both hands, I pushed him out of the door, but it did not stop him from holding my chin and forcing me to look at him.

"Sophia!"

Slowly, he wiped the tears that I didn't know fell from my eyes. With that, I felt his delicate hands against my skin. Surrealist then hit me as I never knew I would receive such a genuine gesture from him again.

"Sophia, as long as you tell me that you still want to be with me, I'll deal with everything," he said in a low voice and soft expression. I had never seen him react that way, so I could not figure out if he was genuine or not.

Be with him?

I scoffed at the thought and looked at his hands that were holding my chin and touching my lips. Before he could do anything further to me, I pushed him away again.

After a brief moment of shock, Adam laughed as though he had lost everything at once and walked away helplessly without looking back at me.

The moment he turned away, I felt a pang in my chest. I felt as though my soul went along with him when he left. My tears cascaded, and I could not control them, so the only thing I did was cover my mouth, wishing no one would hear me.

Then, I went to my mother's house with my mind floating. My heart seemed so tight, and I was catching my breath to calm myself. I went home, thinking my mother was the only person I could run to at times like this, for she was the only person I believed could console me. But, unlucky me, fate seemed not on my side recently.

The door was slightly open when I got to my mother's house. I purposefully slowed down and entered after feeling a surge of wariness.

With the small gap in the door, I saw my mother beside my brother and heard their conversation.

"What should we do now that your sister finds out?"

"Mom, don't worry! What can that loser do?" My brother said, laughing, and added, "I can't wait for her to divorce my brother-in-law so we can be together in the future!"

"But you sister…"

Their words were enough for my ears to suddenly shut, along with my mind. My whole body trembled like it was burning; I felt like I was being killed, being stabbed multiple times by a sharp knife. And the worst part was that my family was the person behind every inch of pain in my system.

Hearing my mother's response, I figured she already knew about Eric and Bob, and I was the only one kept in the darkness for a long time.

My mind could not function very well anymore. I just found myself almost leaving the house, but the squeaking sound of the door reached my brother's ears.

"Hey, what's that? Someone's outside?"

Finally, hearing him again made my feet glued to the floor. Before I could leave, Eric grabbed my arms to make me face him.

The disdain in his eyes greeted me. "How can you be so shameless?" He shouted, which I could not utterly believe. How could he be the one to shout out at me and look at me as if I was the one who committed a crime?

My mother, unfortunately, had only seen that portion of the argument when I was unaware that my palms had already landed on my brother's face.

"Why did you slap your brother!?" My mother shouted angrily, slapped me in the face, and consoled my brother. She dared not to look at me, ask what happened, or acknowledge my presence. Instead, she concernedly looked at Eric and worriedly held his face.

Shocked than I cared to admit, I couldn't take my eyes off the two people I thought would be by my side during the hard times.

Soon after the blow I received, my vision of them slowly turned blurry as my tears continuously streamed down. I thought I would find comfort going here, but I only found more chaos.

Now, I realized that everyone seemed to be making fun of me, laughing at me as if I was a clown made for entertainment – for their satisfaction.

From crying, I laughed hysterically upon realizing my position in everyone's life. I laughed without hesitation, like a madman.

"Sophia! Why did you hit your brother?! He didn't do anything, and here you are acting violently. Now, look, the corners of his mouth are bleeding! Why can't you be a sister to him?"

A smirk rose on my lips. "Then, what about me?" I asked with bitterness, my lips upward but my eyes in sadness.

But then, my mother did not respond to that. Instead, she said, "Shut up! You should know how to lend your ears if you want people to listen to you."

"Can you even hear yourself?" I asked in disbelief, wiping the snot that mixed with my tears.

Then, I left soon after saying those words and wandered outside with nowhere in particular in my mind to go. Surprisingly, my feet seemed to have a mind of their own, and before I could even realize it, I was already in front of Adam's house.

Seeing his house made me come up with the decision to tell him everything finally, but the wind blew differently. No matter how much I try to make things right and try to seek comfort, I somehow always end up getting the complete opposite.

I pushed him away, only to hurt myself, and now that I wanted to tell him what happened three years ago, I saw him with someone else.

The freezing wind wasn't the one to blow me away from coldness but the fact that Adam was in the arms of another woman. The two looked intimate, warming each other in the cold night while I watched from the darkness, unwantedly indulging the bleak weather.

What I just witnessed made me clench my fist tightly. The pang in my chest rose again, along with the never-ending tears and the heavy atmosphere.

It hurt me so much to see him being genuinely fine after just coming to me earlier, as if he didn't ask me to be with him and swore that he would take care of everything. But then, I couldn't blame him. I shouldn't, right? After all, it was my fault for pushing him away.

Seeing him with someone made me want to hit my head so I would wake up to the reality that he was once mine. And now, not anymore. That was long ago, despite it feeling like yesterday.

Although dark, the woman beside him immediately noticed me and warily looked at me. Adam followed her eyes until they landed on me. "What are you doing here?" He asked as tenderness flew away from his beautiful pair of magnetic eyes.

The indifference in his treatment towards me made me shiver. "I… I have something to tell you."

Adam, however, only sneered at me. "I have nothing to do with you, Sophia. I am not some spare wheel you can use after losing interest in your husband."

Having heard that, I stuttered, unable to form the appropriate sentence to tell him, and before I could even beg for him to listen to me, he had already pulled the woman beside him, and they both left.

The cold wind blew once again, hitting my skin like daggers. I was left alone, with only my arms to console me. And so, I hugged myself and sat in the gutter, trying to muffle my voice, wishing it would rain so hard so it could wash away my suffering.

Lost, I didn't go home and decided to wander around for a few days. I didn't want to go to my mother's house anymore or to my husband's, but then Bob called and asked me to go home.

So with a dead soul, I came home and found him preparing a feast on a decorated table.

When Bob noticed me, I tried to put on a smile and asked him what was happening.

"Have you forgotten?" He asked in a sulking tone. If only this had happened before I found out the things between him and my brother, I would have been happy and guilty at the same time for thinking about Adam. But now, I don't know what to feel anymore.

I didn't respond. With that, Bob grabbed my arms and excitedly said, "Come here!"

Bob took out his phone and pulled me for a picture. "Smile!" He said and smiled hypocritically, and when he saw that I wasn't smiling, he furiously looked at me.

"Smile, and don't wait for me to hit you!"

Afraid that he would do what he just said, I smiled and posed with him in front of the camera.

After pressing the shutter, he posted the picture on Instagram and faced me. "Today is our wedding anniversary."

Still wordless, I watched him as he got the glass of wine and gave it to me. "Cheers!"

I took it and sipped a bit of wine to avoid getting another threat from him, watching his admonishing look.

Soon as I finished half of the glass, he burst into sudden laughter, with his intent stare shifting between me and the glass of wine.

A bucket of cold water poured onto me upon realizing what he just did. Quickly, I bent, forcing myself to vomit. I tried as hard as possible but failed when I felt my head spinning.

"What did you do?!" I looked at him with contempt, trying to gather every ounce of my strength to stand up. I couldn't believe I had managed to live with him for three years.

Amused, Bob pointed at me as if he was crazy. "Sorry, a customer of mine wanted you. You know I'm generous, so I'm handing you over tonight to him."

My eyes widened, but my vision got blurry. Still, I managed to reach for Bob and tried to fight back. But before I could even hit him, he had already kicked me down the ground.

Then, an obscene older man came in when I was already on the floor, hugging myself.

I struggled in fear, but my body was beyond my control. My mind was screaming to fight back, get up, and run as fast as possible, but my body could not decipher such instructions from my brain.

I didn't know what to do.

I could not get up, and my mind was hazy.

"No! No! Stop!" I shouted as loud as I could, asking for mercy, but the older man's lust had already won over him, and Bob seemed not to hear a thing.

"Sophia, you might not be aware of this, but I have fallen in love with you for a long time!" The older man said. He was already shirtless, and his bad breath and yellow teeth were so near my face that they made it harder for me to breathe.

I looked at Bob, still asking for help, but he turned his back on me and left. Jerk!

"You will be mine tonight," the old man menacingly laughed and went on top of me.