"How can you hurt an innocent person like this?" Jean yelled angrily, "Juliet, get out and apologize to her right now!"

My wrist was hurting from being grabbed so hard.

I looked at this man who used to have eyes only for me and my heart grew colder and colder. 

I slapped Jean across the face.

"You want me to apologize?"

I looked at Jean's stunned face.

"In your dreams!"

I unbuckled Jean's seatbelt, pointed to the car door and said, "Get out!"

I watched Jean look at me with an unreadable expression and he left with an angry glare, "You will regret this!"

Then, Jean slammed the door and left.

Through the car window, I could still see Jean catching up with Gwen, grabbing her hand forcefully. 

I watched Gwen struggle a few times and finally she collapsed into Jean's arms, crying uncontrollably. 

It was so heart-breaking to see that scene, until tears could not help flowing.

The pain made my hands tremble so much that I could barely hold the steering wheel.  

I was shaking so badly that when I drove past the two people embracing each other, 

I clearly saw that prostitute woman giving me a defiant look, silently declaring to me, “This battle, I won.”

Jean and I were in a cold war. All of Jean's friends came to mediate, trying to persuade me.

"Juliet, Jean just feels sorry for that girl; it's not love at all. Don't overthink it."

Our mutual friends all said, "You two have come a long way together. Last time Jean was drunk, he was still calling your name.”

“Jean said that seeing Gwen always reminds him of you from the past; he just wants to make up for the hardships you went through back then."

I listened to my friends talking about our past.

I remembered how we started from nothing.

I remembered how we fought with stray dogs for food as children.

I remembered that day when our parents went on a trip and both died in that accident, leaving us alone.  

Our older relatives took all our property, turning us from orphans into homeless children.

It was Jean who hugged me tightly and said, "Juliet, I will definitely give you a home."

Back then, "home" was a distant concept.

Between the many lights, there wasn't one that belonged to us. 

Every brick and tile in the city was so expensive, but Jean let me live in the most luxurious apartment in the city, filling the house with memories of the two of us. 

Even the corners and edges were padded with soft protective strips because he was afraid I would bump into them.

Jean always said, "Juliet, in my heart, you will always be a child."

"I want you, Juliet Mason, to be the happiest princess in the world."

"My little princess."

That was why my friends said to me, "Which man doesn't mess around? Jean is already considered good; he doesn't gamble, doesn't frequent prostitutes and doesn't keep mistresses. He's completely devoted to you, Juliet. Stop making a fuss."

I understood.

These were Jean’s messengers, his way of giving me a step down. If I played along, we could pretend nothing happened, just like after every fight before and start over again.

But suddenly, I didn't want to anymore. 

I was just stubborn, so stubborn that when I saw Gwen's latest WhatsApp Story update, it was a picture of her and her child sitting on a Ferris wheel, smiling brightly, with the caption,

[The child said, "Even if Dad isn't my biological father, as long as there's love, we're a family."]

In the corner of the photo, there was a pair of hands with clearly defined knuckles.

I couldn't possibly not recognize them.

I had seen those hands for almost thirty years and that ring, which Jean and I personally designed and had custom-made, was our wedding ring.

My heart ached so much that it was almost numb, almost to the point where I thought I couldn't feel anything anymore, when Gwen sent me a video.

In the video, Gwen's son, Gavin Ellison, was clinging to Jean, playfully asking him, "Uncle Jean, can you be my dad?"

"Can I call you Dad, please?" He shook Jean's arm and said, "I think you're the best uncle in the world, my superhero."

"I really like you and I really want a dad like you."

"Please be my dad, okay?"

Gwen smiled and called out to him, "Stop being silly."

Jean then said to Gwen, "Why is he being silly?"

Jean bent down, maintaining eye contact with Gavin, his eyes incredibly gentle.

"Do you like me so much?"

The child nodded.

"Do you want me to be your dad?"

Gavin nodded even more vigorously.

Jean said, "Okay, then call me Dad. I'll be your dad, okay?"

The child's joyful voice echoed in the video and Gwen sent me a voice message. "Juliet, what do you have to compete with me? You should just give up."

I listened to Gwen's voice repeatedly fading in and out and looked at my best friend sitting next to me, her face full of worry.

"Juliet, are you really not going to tell Jean about the child?" My best friend asked, "As long as you say you also have a child, that you and he have a child together, I believe Jean will come back."

"But I don't want to."

I placed my hand on my lower abdomen.

Life was growing there.

It was my and Jean's child, the continuation of our love that we had hoped for for so many years. 

But then, I suddenly didn't want to be a mother anymore. 

I didn't want my child to grow up with the same incomplete childhood shadows as me. 

I told my best friend, "From the moment Jean chose Gwen, from the moment he nodded and agreed to be someone else's father, he no longer deserves to be the father of my child."

On the day I had scheduled the abortion surgery with the doctor, I saw Jean, who was accompanying Gwen's son to the hospital. 

Jean saw me at a glance, instinctively let go of Gwen's son's hand and called out to me, "Juliet, why are you here?"

He saw the examination report in my hand and was about to come forward.

"Are you sick?" he asked worrily, "What's wrong? Why didn't you tell me?"

I hadn't even spoken yet. Gwen immediately pushed her son, so Gavin cried and grabbed Jean's hand.

"Dad, my stomach hurts," Gwen's son pulled hard on Jean, preventing him from coming over, "It hurts so much."

I saw a flicker of hesitation in Jean's eyes and finally he picked up Gavin and struggled to look at me.

"Juliet, there are priorities, you should understand."

Jean was about to leave.

I only felt ridiculous.

My best friend, holding the payment slip, saw this scene and, in a fit of anger, rushed up and started cursing, "You bastard, how dare you show your face here!"

"Okay," my best friend stepped forward and tried to grab Jean, "You have time to be with a bastard but no time to be with your wife, right?!"

My best friend grabbed Jean and shouted, "Don't go! Don't you know what happened to Juliet…"

"I'm not a bastard!"

Gavin struggled out of Jean's arms and was about to rush towards my best friend, who couldn't dodge in time, but I pulled her away forcefully. 

I was hit in the lower abdomen by Gavin's hard head and pain spread throughout my body. 

My back hit the wall and I fell to the ground, trembling all over from the pain.

He still wouldn't give up and stomped on my stomach.

"Bitch, it's all your fault, you bitch! You seduced my dad. You're a slut!"

A crowd of people gathered around.

They all started attacking me, accusing me of being a mistress, calling me shameless and disgraceful.

Jean stood outside the crowd, looking down at me, as if waiting for me to admit my mistake.

As if waiting for a certain attitude from me, but I was so weak that I couldn't even speak.

"Jean..."

"Je…"

I had difficulty pronouncing the words, wanting him to call a doctor, but Gavin cried even harder, rolling on the ground and shouting that his stomach hurt. 

I saw a struggle flash in Jean's eyes and finally he still held Gavin and told me before leaving, "Juliet, you really need to reflect on yourself."

After checking on him, Jean still did not care about me. 

But not long after, my pale, weak face kept flashing in his mind. 

Anxiously, he walked out of the doctor's office and heard someone say, "That woman was so pitiful. She lost her baby in the accident and was covered in blood!"

"It's terrifying just looking at it!"

Jean's heart jumped. He remembered my face and a huge fear covered him.

He suddenly pushed away Gavin, who was clinging to him and rushed down the corridor like a madman. But when he saw a pool of blood on the ground, he froze completely.