I was diagnosed with kidney disease.

My wife, Serene Warner, an heiress from high society, broke down in tears from worry. She did everything she could to find a donor for me.

However, just as the doctor handed her the consent form, she hesitated.

"Keith's treatment can't be delayed any longer. This donor kidney is compatible with him too. Can you find another matching kidney?" she asked.

With a troubled look on his face, the doctor replied, "Ms. Warner, that would be rather hard. Perhaps…"

Before he could finish, her daughter spoke up and decided my fate. "Of course, the kidney is going to Keith. Dad is old and a nag. He doesn't even look like me. I don't want it to go to him."

Serene gently smacked Tina on the back of her head, but what she said next was just as chilling.

"Joseph, Keith studied abroad. He'll contribute a lot to the Warners and this society…"

Without saying a word, I looked down at my wedding ring. My heart had grown numb long ago.

That was because I had already gone through this.

In my last life, this was when I shouted at her, despite having always been a gentle soul.

"What about all the sacrifices I made to take care of you two in the past eight years? I'm clearly ahead of him in the list. It should be mine! Why him?"

But without question, a poor teacher like me stood no chance against the rich and powerful.

In the end, out of guilt, Serene stayed by my side day and night. She reminisced with me about the past, but not even she realized that the memories she spoke of did not belong to us.

I slowly faded away.

This time, I would not fight her. I would not trouble her anymore.

"Alright."

Last Meal

As soon as I finished speaking, Serene started crying.

I did not look at her. Instead, I turned to look at the bright rays of sunlight outside the window.

"I wish to live in freedom in my last days."

She choked on her sobs and held my hand. "Alright. I'll do whatever you want. Let's go home."

I nodded in agreement.

However, the freedom I wanted meant going somewhere without her and her daughter.

Still, I had no desire to explain.

We returned to the mansion.

For eight years of our marriage, I had lived there. Yet I had never once felt that it was home.

It was way too cold.

Serene instructed the servants to buy all of her and Tina's favorite foods. Then, she handed me an apron.

"Joseph, I ordered your favorites," she said. "In the meantime, cook for us a few more times. I want to remember the taste."

I accepted the apron with a bitter smile.

In all these years, she had never once asked me what I truly liked. She always thought that I liked whatever she and Tina liked.

Forget it. I would cook them one more meal as a farewell.

I truly loved them, after all.

It took me almost two hours of dragging my exhausted and frail body around before I was done cooking.

By the end, I was practically on the verge of collapse.

"Let's eat."

As soon as we picked up our cutlery, Serene's phone rang. She glanced at it but did not answer it.

Tina scowled and grabbed it instead.

"Why aren't you answering Keith's call? He'll get mad. I'll do it if you won't!"

After answering the call, her voice instantly turned soft and sweet, filled with so much joy that even the man on the other end must have heard it.

"Did you miss me, Keith?"

While I knew this would happen, I still could not help but feel a bitter pang in my heart at the sight of her expression.

She used to smile at me that way too. I had raised her for eight whole years.

Keith Sawyer had only appeared six months ago, yet everything I once had no longer belonged to me.

Not long after, Serene accepted the phone with a smile.

I did not listen to what they were saying, but I already knew that would be the end of our dinner.

The Group Chat

As expected, Serene turned to me with an apologetic gaze after ending the call.

"Joseph, Keith isn't feeling well. I'm going to visit him with Tina. Start without us. We'll be back soon."

Before this, I would have been too cowardly to say anything as she left.

This time, however, I did not want to compromise anymore.

I looked down at the food, picked up my cutlery, and said coldly, "We're eating."

Serene and Tina froze. Then Tina swept her plate to the floor.

"I'm going! I don't want to eat your food! I want to eat crabs and lobsters with Keith!"

I kept my head lowered.

"I said, you can go after you eat!"

Serene's face grew stormy as well. "We can eat whenever we want. Right now, we're going to visit him. He's all alone in the hospital without a single family member by his side. I can't let him suffer like that.

"Fine. You want a meal together, right? You can cook a new meal after we return later. We'll eat then."

I told her to wait. Then I walked to my room, took out a few documents, and placed them in front of her.

"Let's get divorced."

Serene paused just as she reached the mansion doorway.

She turned and stared at me in disbelief. "Really? It's just a meal."

"It's not just a meal. If you don't sign, neither of you is leaving this house today."

Tina tugged at her arm. "Mom, sign it already. We'll get dinner for Keith. He must be starving."

After shooting me a glare, Serene grabbed the papers and signed them without even reading a word.

"I won't be at the city hall once the 30-day cooldown period is over anyway, so this agreement is all for nothing. Go ahead with your tantrum."

Then, without giving me another glance, she left.

What she did not know was that she had also signed a Power of Attorney. She would not need to appear at city hall.

Hopefully, I would be able to survive until the day I could embark on a new path all on my own.

I stared at the table laden with untouched food.

Sitting back down, I slowly ate in silence. Somehow, it was the best meal of my life.

When we got married eight years ago, Serene told me to quit my teaching job so I could focus on taking care of her at home.

Like a servant, I had to prepare lavish meals for her every single day.

She had been pregnant then, and even a few bites would make her nauseous. I had to patiently coax her and feed her bite by bite.

After the whole ordeal, each meal would take at least one hour.

I could only eat the cold leftovers after she was full and had left the room.

Then, Tina was born. I shifted from taking care of Serene to taking care of Tina, but my life remained the same.

Before my mother passed away, she often told me, "You must first learn to love yourself before you can love others."

Looking back now, she was absolutely right.

I had already lost sight of myself, which was why I ended up losing my lover and child as well.

After the meal, I heard a buzzing coming from the couch.

When I walked over, I realized the buzzing came from Serene's tablet. It had been buzzing nonstop with notifications from her messaging app.

In the past, I would never touch any of her devices. According to her, all her messages contained company secrets, since she was in charge of a major company.

This time, for some odd reason, I tapped into the app.

The messages came from a group chat. The participants were her friends from high society.

Elaine had written, 'That freeloader actually had the nerve to ask for a divorce? Now I've seen everything. Just divorce him, then. He's going to die anyway. You don't want to be stuck mourning him after he dies, do you?'

Serene replied, 'You don't get it. The company will be going public soon. If I divorce him now, my reputation will take a hit.

'I've already asked around. After he dies, our marriage will be automatically annulled. Then I'll hire someone to write a piece about how devoted I was to him. That'll bring some good publicity to the company.'

Keith's Taunting

Aw, you won't be complaining every day about life with a leech anymore. We'll have to find some new entertainment. Oh, right. You asked me about changing Tina's last name to Sawyer, didn't you? I asked around. It can be done as soon as he's dead,' Fanny messaged.

With trembling hands, I scrolled upward through the chat.

There, I found multiple photos and videos Serene had secretly taken of me taking care of Tina, cooking, and even kneeling down to tie her shoes.

The chat was filled with mocking laughter, and Serene had clearly laughed along with them.

I could no longer stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks.

Before we were married, I was a college professor with a bright future.

But I could not help falling in love with Serene.

When she graduated, she suddenly agreed to date me. In fact, we got married right away.

On our wedding night, she burst out crying as she told me about her pregnancy. The baby's father was her first love, who had died while saving her from drowning.

Her father forced her to get an abortion, which was why she agreed to marry me.

I loved her, so I agreed to treat the baby like it was mine.

However, even though I waited on Serene and Tina hand and foot, Tina's family name was Warner.

Keith had only appeared in their lives for six months, yet she already wanted Tina to have the Sawyer family name.

I was a complete laughingstock.

Indeed, Keith was an outstanding, young, and handsome man. More importantly, he looked very much like her first love.

From the moment he appeared in our lives, I had been doomed to lose.

That afternoon, Mary, our servant, helped me erase all traces of myself from the mansion.

It was only then that I realized that we had not taken a single family photo all this time.

Pity shone in Mary's gaze.

In the past, Serene's parents had looked down on me, so they refused to let her hire a servant. Since I had so much free time at home, what right did I have to hire someone else to wait on me?

I did not even have the right to sit with them during meals.

Later on, due to my kidney disease, they reluctantly hired Mary to take care of Serene and Tina.

Mary had not been here for long, but she saw and heard how they treated me.

"Sir, if you don't mind, I actually have an old place that's still vacant. You can move in there. I won't make you pay rent. Don't worry. I won't tell Ms. Warner either."

As I had accepted a job teaching in a rural region, I would be leaving in a few days. The money saved could be used to buy clothes for my future students.

Thus, I accepted the offer. Mary would take me to my temporary home the first thing the next morning.

Before I knew it, it was ten o'clock at night. As I got up to get ready for bed, I heard the front door unlock.

Then I watched as Keith walked in with Tina asleep in his arms. Serene followed behind them.

"Joseph, Keith spent the whole evening entertaining Tina. As it's late, he won't be returning to the hospital. Get a guest room ready for him. I'll be putting Tina to bed."

She then went upstairs with Tina, leaving me alone in the living room with Keith.

Acting like he was the master of the house, he sat down next to me and barked out, "I want dark colors for my bedsheet. Also, light an incense for me. Oh, right. Get me a glass of warm milk before I turn in for the night."

I got up to leave, ignoring him.

With a snort of laughter, he stopped me.

"Who knew? A freeloader like you has a backbone. No wonder Serene said you asked for a divorce. I didn't believe her at first. You can divorce her, but don't even think about getting a single penny from her!"

The smug, scheming look on his face made me lose all desire to respond. There was no need anyway.