My husband would only drink an expensive goji berry tea, but every day he brought me a cup of tea from Blue Pop. Everyone around us called him a doting husband, saying he was willing to “go extra miles for love.”

One day, I found out he brought a cup of Sparkbucks's coffee for his first love, Seraphina.

I spurt out a joke: maybe I was too lowly to be able to appreciate the taste of anything so high-end.

To my surprise, Alric frowned and took it heart.

He snapped as he glared and said sarcastically, “Fina needs the caffeine to stay sharp at work. You're just a freeloading housewife—you wouldn't know what to do with a premium coffee anyway.”

Even our son Adam laughed and parroted his dad to mock, “Mommy's a greedy piggy! She always wants a bite of everything!”

My gaze drifted, watching the three of them across the table like a perfect little family.

Something snapped, I had enough. I told Alric I wanted a divorce.

Seraphina’s eyes welled up as she pushed the Sparkbucks coffee toward me.

“Lyra, I'm so sorry. Really, I didn’t know things would blow up like this over a cup of coffee. Here… you can have mine.”

Alric lost it. He grabbed the Blue Pop tea he’d brought for me and threw it into the trash.

“All this drama just because I didn’t buy you a Sparkbucks? Why are you so petty? If you don’t want the Blue Pop I bought you, then don’t drink it! Petty people like you don’t deserve anything more than plain water!”

At that, I set down the mop I was holding, untied my apron and leave the house.

“You’re right! I can’t handle fancy coffee after all! So, just agree to the divorce. Then, you can buy coffee for 'whoever' you want.”

——

“Lyra, are you seriously losing it over this?”

Alric gave me a look of complete disbelief. “It’s just a cup of Sparkbucks! You’re really divorcing me over that?”

“And don't get me started! I’ve been the one supporting you all these years. Even if we divorce, there’s no way you’re getting custody of our son.”

He rubbed his temples like he was the one who had been hurt, like I had broken his heart.

“Fina was just visiting. So I gave her a bit more attention, what’s wrong with that?”

“Besides, what happened back then wasn’t entirely her fault. You ruined her career, drove her out of the country… hasn’t she suffered enough? Can’t you just let it go?”

Back then, I married Alric because I was pregnant. His first love, Seraphina, who had always had feelings for him, was working as an OB-GYN. She volunteered to oversee my pregnancy, claiming she just wanted to help.

I thought she had finally let go of him. I didn’t want to put Alric in a difficult position, so I agreed.

When I was seven months pregnant, Seraphina came to me looking somber.

She pointed at the ultrasound and said, “I’m so sorry, Lyra. You’re not carrying twins. One of them… one of them isn’t even a real baby. It’s a uterine fibroid—it has no limbs. And it’s already bigger than the fetus. If we want to save you and the other baby, we need to induce labor immediately.”

I nearly blacked out. I took the ultrasound results to several hospitals. Every single one gave the same answer.

Grief-stricken and terrified, I finally agreed to the surgery.

Yet, during the C-section, they take out two babies—both fully formed, with hands and feet.

I tried to hold them, but they were barely breathing. They were rushed to the NICU right away.

I was supposed to have a son and a daughter. However, Seraphina’s mistake, my daughter died shortly after birth.

Meanwhile, Adam, my son… he was born with a congenital heart defect. To this day, he lives in constant pain. He can’t even run like normal kids without risking collapse.

I dragged my weak, post-op body to confront Seraphina.

At that, she knelt before me, eyes red, sobbing as she begged for forgiveness.

“I’m sorry, Lyra. I mixed up the ultrasound files. The scan I saw—it wasn’t yours. It belonged to another patient. I was worried… I didn’t double-check… I just thought we had to act fast…”

I thought Alric would be furious too. That he’d be on my side. Yet, he just lit a cigarette and smoked it in silence.

When he finally spoke, he said, “What’s done is done. We’ve already lost one child. If this turns into a scandal, Fina will lose her job. She worked so hard to become head of obstetrics—I can’t let her career go up in flames.”

My chest felt like it had been punched straight through. When I caught the faint smirk playing on Seraphina’s lips—the triumphant one—I finally snapped.

I lunged at her.

But my body, still fragile from giving birth, was no match for hers. She was toned from years of disciplined training.

She leaned in and whispered right by my ear, “You thought having his child would make him marry you? Dream on.”

Before I could react, she punched my C-section incision. Pain instantly engulfed me. The world went black.

When I woke up, the doctor told me they had to remove my uterus.

Alric explained the stitches hadn’t held properly and the impact had caused massive internal bleeding. There was no other choice, he said.

Only then did I understand what Seraphina had meant when she whispered in my ear. She hadn’t just wanted my children dead. She wanted to take away any chance I had of being a mother again.

I looked at Alric and asked what would his choice be if he were to choose, me or Seraphina?

Alric hesitated, just for a split second, before saying, “Of course I'll chose you.”

After that incident, I filed a lawsuit against Seraphina—demanding both an apology and compensation. Alric stood by my side the entire time.

Seraphina lost her prestigious job. To escape the fallout, she fled the country.

It was justice. Or so I thought.

Now, Alric had the audacity to say that I was the one who ruined her life? That I had driven her away?

What a joke!

Adam's words from earlier still lingered in my mind, colder than anything Alric had ever said to me. But I knew he was just a child. He mimicked what he saw and heard.

I held his hand gently and crouched down, trying not to let my temper show. “Sweetheart, why don’t you go read in the study for a bit, okay?”

But Adam yanked his hand away “No! You just want to bully Aunt Fina again! I won’t let you! She’s the good one—you’re the bad one!”

My body froze. I’d spent eight years raising him, loving him through everything. And this was what I got?

My hand trembled as I tried to take his again. “Baby… did someone tell you that Mommy is bullying Aunt Fina?”

Alric's face darkened. “There you go again. Always paranoid. When will you take a hard look at yourself instead of blaming everyone else?”

Adam let out a scornful little laugh. “Thanks to Aunt Fina, I get to be an only child! I don’t want a little brother or sister! Mommy just wants to pop out more babies like a pig!”

Seraphina gently pulled him to her side and said, in a sweet, pitying voice, “Sweetie, your mommy just wanted a few more kids, that’s all. But you can’t call her a pig for that.”

Alric suddenly spoke again, “One son is enough. I never wanted other kids stealing the love that belongs to him. You clung to that uterus and that lost child because you thought pumping out more kids would secure your place as Mrs. Fenmoor.”

Alric stared coldly.

In that moment, I finally realized: Alric had never once truly seen me. Never tried to understand me.

So, I looked him straight in the eye and said quietly, “Alric, you really think you’ve got it all figured out. But I never cared about being Mrs. Fenmoor.”

“And I was never stupid enough to think having more babies would keep a man who didn’t want to stay.”

Seraphina stepped beside him, putting on her usual performance.

“I’m so sorry, Lyra. It’s all my fault… I never should’ve come back. I should’ve just died abroad.”

She turned to Alric, tears glistening her eyes. “If Velmyra hadn’t gone to war, I would’ve stayed away. I know I’m a burden. I know I made mistakes… but I only ever wanted to help. I stayed up all night trying to figure out the safest surgery plan for your wife.”

“I didn’t know my assistant would switch the ultrasound results… I never meant for this to happen…”

She wept like she had been the one cut open and left barren.

Alric, filled with pity, pulled her into his arms. “I know. We grew up together. You’ve always cared about others. You didn’t know your assistant would mess up. It’s not your fault.”

I let out a sarcastic scoff and threw down the divorce papers I’d printed days ago.

“Sign it. Save the sob story for when I'm not around. I’m not interested.”

Alric froze. The moment his eyes landed on the papers, his face darkened—twice over.

“When did you even print this? Don’t tell me you had these ready the second Fina came back? You really couldn’t tolerate her for even a second?”

I glanced at the two of them who were still holding each other like nothing had happened.

I smiled bitterly. “No. It’s not me who couldn’t tolerate her. It’s you two who couldn’t tolerate me. Who am I to reject anyone when I was already being pushed out?”

I swept my gaze around the room, looking at every piece of furniture. “This house—everything in it is decorated to her taste. Why didn’t you just let her move in as the lady of the house?”

Smack!

The sound of Alric’s slap cracked through the room.

My face whipped to the side, stinging. His raised hand trembled in the air as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just done.

I saw him looked stunned, more at himself than at me. In the next second, he pulled me into his arms in a panic.

“I’m sorry—I didn’t mean it! I just—You said awful things, I lost my temper. You know I’d never hurt you on purpose.” He reached up, gently cupping my cheek, his voice soft, “Does it hurt?”

I held my swollen cheek and pushed him away firmly. “We're getting a divorce. That’s final.”

Then I turned and walked out the door.

Alric started to follow, but Seraphina quickly grabbed his arm. “Let her cool off. She’s just jealous right now. You chasing after her will only make things worse.”

Of course, Alric obeyed her.

I let out a quiet, bitter laugh. Of course he stayed. He truly didn’t understand, it seems.

When a woman finally calmed down, truly calmed down… it wasn’t forgiveness that came next. It was clarity.

And once clarity set in, my decision to leave only became more certain.

I wandered the streets for nearly half an hour before, I hailed a cab and returned home.

But I never made it inside.

Through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, I saw it: the perfect picture of domestic bliss. Alric, Seraphina and my son were sitting at the candlelit dining table, laughing like a real family.

They looked like a magazine ad for the perfect life.

To be fair, Alric did seem like the ideal husband to outsiders.

Ever since I married him, I never had to work a day. I could shop from home, indulge when I pleased. My parents and little brother moved into a mansion. They drove luxury cars with his name on the papers.

But there’s a wise saying: "marrying well is like swallowing a needle—the pain is silent and sharp and only the one who swallows it knows the sting."

In front of my mother-in-law, I would always act in such meticulous manner to look obedient and polite. At home, I was constantly on my feet, caring for our sickly child, barely getting a moment’s rest.

Those luxury clothes and handbags Alric bought me? I never even had a chance to wear them.

Just then, my mom picked up a phone call in the middle of dinner. Her eyes shot toward the window and when she saw me, she bolted outside.

She slapped me. Hard. My cheek flared with pain.

“Are you out of your mind?” she screamed. “You’re really divorcing a man like Alric? He’s a saint! I swear to God I’ll beat some sense into you!”

“It’s just a coffee! Just a damn cup of coffee! You want to divorce him over that?”

“He’s the one who makes the money, supports this whole family, takes care of your father and me! How can you be so ungrateful?”

My father came out right behind her, red-faced and fuming.

“Even if he bought that woman a house, a coffee—what’s it got to do with you? If you can’t hold on to your man, that’s your failure!”

“You should be grateful he’s still staying with you! You’re lucky to have him!”

Then my seventeen-year-old brother sneered. “Honestly, sis, you’re kind of a frumpy housewife now. If I were Alric, I couldn’t stand you either.”

There I stood, in my apron, the one I wore every day while cooking, cleaning, mothering—and yet my own family, the people I gave everything for, turned on me without hesitation.

They called me a burden. A disappointment. A woman who couldn't keep her man.

My heart went still in my chest.

“Alric called me just now. He's worried about you, asking if you’d come home!” My mother raised her hand again and slapped me one more time.

“You go meet your husband and apologize to him right this instance! Or don’t bother calling me 'mother' ever again!”