On my fourth year anniversary, my wife, Rachel Brady, hands over a divorce agreement to me.

"My mom is afflicted with a severe disease, and she's dying soon. Her final wish is to watch us get a divorce.

"I promise that this is just a fake divorce. Once my mom has passed away, we'll get remarried again."

As I watch Rachel sob sadly in front of me, I agree to her proposition out of sympathy.

But as soon as we get divorced, Rachel quickly posts a photo of her and her first love, Max Cohen, in wedding attire on her social media account.

Even my ex-mother-in-law, who's said to live on borrowed time, is included in the same photo while looking hearty and hale.

"Say, Aaron, when did you get divorced from Rachel?"

My best friend, Titus Pearson, frowned as he asked me concernedly, "How could you not have told me about such a huge matter?"

I was puzzled, thinking that it was absurd of him to even say that. After all, Rachel Brady and I were only faking our divorce, and we weren't planning to let anyone else know about it.

So, how did Titus even find out about it?

I looked at him in shock, asking, "Where did you hear about it?"

Titus widened his eyes and spoke in a slightly higher pitch. His voice was tinged with disbelief. "Rachel's already posted her new marriage certificate with someone else on her social media! And you're still asking me where I heard it from?"

He continued babbling on, but all I heard was ringing in my ears as my mind suddenly went blank. I was completely stunned.

I couldn't stop repeating what Titus told me about Rachel showing off her new marriage certificate online in my head. Everything else he said was just a blur to me.

How could that be?

I instantly felt uneasy and even heard myself trembling as I asked him another question.

"Y-You're kidding, right?"

My relationship with Rachel had always been good and amicable. She had looked so upset and sorrowful when she suggested that we fake our divorce, and I could still remember every expression she made at me then. So, how could she possibly have gotten married to someone else now instead?

Yet, Titus' reply was like a sledgehammer to my head, shattering every last bit of hope I was still clinging to.

"I'm not kidding! I'm serious about everything I said!"

I panicked at once and hurriedly fished out my phone from my pocket. My fingers wouldn't stop trembling as I hurriedly dialed Rachel's number.

However, the only thing I heard on the line was the cold, robotic female voice saying, "The number you called is busy right now. Please try again later."

I then pulled up my chat window with her and realized that she hadn't been replying to my messages for a long time now.

I didn't know when it started, but the chat window now only showed the messages I sent to her without any replies. I'd still been chatting with her, sharing photos of my daily life, keeping her updated, and telling her how much I loved her—but now, they were just a laughable, pathetic eyesore.

Still, I refused to give in and tapped into my social media account to find her there. That was when I realized that I had been removed as her follower and thus blocked from seeing her posted content.

Titus sent me a screenshot of her Instagram post. I couldn't stop my hands from shaking as I took a long time to finally get it to show onscreen.

The man in the photos was Rachel's first love, Max Cohen. I still remembered seeing him at our wedding.

At that time, he had been wearing a very fine, tailor-made suit, and he stood next to Rachel looking like he was the groom instead of me.

I once asked Rachel if she still had feelings for him, but she denied it immediately and even swore that she was telling the truth.

But now, I could see the happy smile on her face as she stood next to him in the photo. The peck she was planting on his cheek felt like a sharp knife that stabbed me right in the heart.

I could no longer stop my tears from gushing down my face.

"Say something, Rachel Brady!

"You'd never lie to me, would you? They're the ones who are lying, aren't they?

"You didn't marry someone else, did you?"

The text messages I sent out still weren't replied to, like they'd been consumed by a black hole.

I completely lost it and rushed to the hospital in low spirits. However, I then learned that Rachel's mother, Shirley Jacobs, had never even been hospitalized in the first place.

When Rachel told me that Shirley was sick, she kept choking on her words and sobbing each time. She even lost a lot of weight over the next few days, and I felt so sorry to see her like that.

So, was everything just an elaborate lie she planned from the start after all?

If she really wanted to divorce me, she could have just told me straight away. After all, I wasn't the clingy kind who'd never let her go!

I had to find Rachel. I needed answers from her.

It was only then that I realized I never knew where Shirley's address was, aside from the time she stayed with me in my house. With no other option, I found myself rushing over to Rachel's workplace to find her.

However, her colleagues told me that she had taken the week off for her wedding preparations.

Back when I married her, I was the only person busying myself with purchasing our home together, renovating it, and even picking out her wedding dress and planning out the decor for our wedding.

Rachel said that she was too busy at work and couldn't afford to take any time off to plan the wedding details.

Now that I thought of it, it hadn't been because she was too busy to take time off work. She just didn't think that I was important enough in her life and that it just wasn't worth her taking time off to plan the wedding with me after all!

Some things were just like that—the more I couldn't come to a conclusion myself, the more I needed to get to the bottom of things.

I decided to take some time off from my own work and began searching for Rachel high and low like I'd gone mad. However, no matter how much I tried searching for her, I simply wasn't able to find her.

In the end, Titus was the one who told me that Rachel had set the date for her wedding.

Finally, I was able to see her for the first time ever since we faked getting divorced—at her wedding to someone else.

I stood there, watching with wide eyes how Max carried her down from the car as she wore a huge, dazzling smile on her face. Yet, her smile was just piercing to my eyes.

Shirley, whom Rachel had also told me was on her deathbed, was now happily following the entourage, looking like a million dollars. The wide smile on her face was such a stark contrast compared to the dissatisfied frown she wore when Rachel married me last time.

"Rachel Brady!"

My voice was hoarse and shaky because of my suppressed anger and frustration.

Since I called out to her so suddenly, she immediately froze on the spot and slowly turned around to face me.

The smile on her face immediately dropped as soon as she caught sight of me. Instead, a look of panic and awkward embarrassment graced her face.

When Shirley saw what was happening, she immediately jogged up to me and tried to shove me away while yelling to the rest of the entourage, "Go on! Ignore him! Proceed with the wedding!"

I avoided Shirley's arms and glared directly at Rachel, my eyes rimmed red as I asked in a louder voice, "What on earth is going on? Didn't you just tell me that the divorce was a fake one?

"Didn't you tell me that your mom was on her deathbed, and you just wanted her to leave the world in peace?"

I kept making my way forward as I spoke, getting closer and closer to Rachel. Every step I took felt like another strike against my heart. In the end, I couldn't hold it back anymore, and the floodgates opened as tears streamed down my face.

Rachel was wearing a beautiful, pure-white wedding gown, and she looked as beautiful as when I first saw her on campus. However, she looked like a completely different person I didn't know anymore.

Time passed really too quickly. However, what hurt me the most was that she was no longer the same person whom I loved with all my heart anymore.

Titus came with me and shielded me from the curious crowd, opening up a path for me to walk up to Rachel.

"Aaron, let's just discuss things after the wedding today, okay?"

Rachel sounded anxious as her eyes darted everywhere. "Things aren't what you think they are. I can explain."

I looked at her with fury and bitterness in my heart. I then chuckled coldly and said, "You're just worried that I'd crash and ruin your wedding, aren't you, Rachel? Is this another one of your lies again?"

We stood staring at each other like that in a stalemate situation, and the other people didn't dare to come up to us at all. The tension in the air rose.

Just then, Max walked up to us and slung an arm over Rachel's shoulders, looking down at me arrogantly like he was the final victor of the day. He said, "Before you start questioning Rachel, Aaron Matthews, why don't you reflect on yourself first?

"You were both married for four years, and yet, you never even managed to get her pregnant. But did you know? The son we had together is already four years old this year!"

"What?"

I felt as though I'd just been struck by lightning at that statement. I froze to the spot, feeling my mind go completely blank.

Titus, who had always had a short fuse, blew at once. He lunged at Max and roared, "You bastards! Cheaters! You cheated on Aaron four years ago and even had a son with another man, Rachel Brady!

"And yet, you had been pretending like nothing happened for the past few years! How could you even have married Aaron after that? What the hell is wrong with you? What were you even thinking, you bastards?"

Rachel and I began dating while we were both in college. After graduating, I gave up everything at home and moved to her hometown so that I could keep her company.

When we first started dating, Rachel had been very dutiful and treated me really well. She would do all the basic chores at home, making sure the place was clean and the meals were on the table. She was also very gentle with me.

However, as time passed, things began to change.

She got colder and colder toward me and even said that we no longer had to bother with romantic gestures because we were basically family anyway.

Now that I thought of it, I realized that she had simply just given all of her love to someone else instead, and whatever she had left for me was just perfunctory.

"Is that true, Rachel? Is everything Max just said true?"

I felt chills down my spine. All of the questions I had for her and the urges I had to interrogate her suddenly died down at that moment.

Rachel lowered her head and said hesitantly, "Yeah."

I felt my heart sink into my stomach. "Alright. I understand."

Then, I turned to Titus and said, "Titus, let's go."

Since things had already turned out like this, the only thing left that I could do for myself was to preserve what little dignity I had left.

However, Rachel abandoned Max and ran out after me before grabbing me by my arm. She said urgently, "Aaron, I have my difficulties too. Don't get mad at me. I promise I'll explain everything to you after the wedding."

"What's there to explain anymore?" Titus exclaimed, pushing her off and pulling me away instead.

He wouldn't stop cussing her out as we made our way back.

I knew that he was just saying that to comfort me, but I just didn't want to listen to anything anymore for now.

I drove him back to his apartment building and interrupted him mid-curse. I was calm as I said, "Go back home first, Titus. I'll come looking for you after I've packed up my things."

"You sure you don't need me around?" he asked, looking at me with concern.

I smiled at him so he wouldn't worry about me. "I'll be fine. Don't worry."

I knew how to end things on a good note. I could give in gracefully if needed.

Also, since now our fake divorce was actually real, there were some things that I wasn't going to let go. I was going to take back everything that belonged to me.

For example, the house we were living in now had been fully paid for in cash by me before getting married. So, even during the divorce, it would be considered my own private property and not a joint one.

I decided to sell the house and bring the money home for my parents instead.

The day I took the property agent on a tour of the house, though, Rachel suddenly came back without warning.

When she saw another woman in the house, she began interrogating me without even asking me who she was.

"Aaron Matthews! Our divorce was fake! How could you bring home another woman almost immediately?"

I couldn't be bothered to answer her and just told the property agent that we should perhaps postpone the viewing to another day instead. Then, I politely saw her out of the door.

Still, Rachel refused to let up and stopped the agent from leaving.

"You're explaining this to me right now! Or else, nobody is allowed to leave this house!"

Last time, when I was still in love with her, everything she did was good in my eyes. I even thought that her weaknesses were nothing but cute little quirks.

But now, things had changed. With the filter turned off in my brain, I realized that Rachel was actually a very annoying person after all.

"We're already divorced. You have no right to interfere in my affairs anymore," I said, pushing her aside before apologizing to the agent again and sending her off.

When I got back, Rachel was still standing in the hallway, looking furiously at me like she was demanding answers from me.

"Aaron Matthews! We agreed that it was only going to be a fake divorce!"

I looked at her like she was an idiot. "Have you forgotten that you've already married someone else?"

"I have my difficulties. Also, my marriage to Max was also fake! And the child was an accident! I really didn't know how things turned out like this!

"I don't know how Mom learned about his existence, and she told me that she was dying soon, and she wanted to see her grandson in her last days."

Rachel kept trying to explain to me in frustration, sounding like she was the righteous one all along and even blaming me for not being understanding enough.

However, all of her excuses mean nothing to me anymore. I didn't want to continue listening to her anymore either.

In addition to that, Shirley clearly looked as fit as a fiddle during the wedding. She certainly didn't look like she was anywhere near knocking on death's door.

"Rachel Brady, since our fake divorce is now real, that means we need to settle our assets and properties properly. I've already hired a lawyer for that.

"As for this house, since I was the one who paid for it, I'm planning to sell it off. Don't come back here anymore."