When my Brigadier General husband took the $100,000 holiday bonus the military issued him and gave it all to a female massage therapist. I completely lost control. I smashed everything in the house that could be smashed and screamed at him with the most vicious words I could find: "Get the hell out of my house! And don't you dare bring some filthy disease back to me!" Hearing this, Liam Vance simply and calmly crushed his cigarette into the ashtray and let out a mocking laugh: "Right. You're so high and mighty." "I wonder who it was that stripped naked and rolled into bed with me at 18, and then went to high school carrying a belly." The true heart I had once surrendered to him had now become a bullet tearing through my chest. Liam Vance would never know. The exact moment he said those words, I gave up on this marriage. And I gave up on our second child. ... The living room was dead silent. The military spouses who had come over to mediate covered their mouths in shock. The deepest wounds can only be inflicted by the people closest to you. I still remember being eighteen. We were just kids. We couldn't scrape together the money for an abortion clinic, so we had no choice but to buy pills off the street and mix them into a mug of hot tea. In that cramped, tiny bathroom, wave after wave of agonizing, tearing pain ripped through my abdomen. Eighteen-year-old Liam held me tight, his back drenched in cold sweat, his tears dropping into my hair. "I'm sorry, Chloe. I'm a piece of shit. This is all my fault..." And now, that most vulnerable, humiliating past was being dug up by thirty-year-old Liam and weaponized to attack me as "cheap." All for that massage therapist. The color drained completely from my face. I could barely stand, unable to force a single word out of my mouth. Liam rubbed his temples in frustration. The fellow officers and their wives beside him hastily tried to smooth things over for him: "Chloe, we swear it's not the General's fault this time. That girl, Serena, literally ran up to the base gates to block his car." "Yeah, she fell to her knees crying hysterically, saying she was dying. The General just had a moment of soft-heartedness." "It's the holidays! Couples shouldn't hold grudges overnight. Just talk it out and it'll be fine!" A long time ago, I used to think the same thing. I thought Liam just pitied Serena. She was a massage therapist from a poor, rural town with barely a high school education. I never imagined he would develop real feelings for her. Until he pulled strings to connect her with the top cardiology specialists at the VA hospital, paying for her treatments year after year. Because she casually mentioned she "hadn't seen much of the world," he brought her as his plus-one to the base's annual formal gala. When she said she was never pampered as a child, he took her to Disney World, awkwardly trying to make up for her so-called "childhood trauma." They kissed when the Ferris wheel reached its highest point. A tourist snapped a photo and posted it on a local Facebook group, which is how I belatedly found out. The man who was always "swamped with deployments," who never had time to eat a single dinner with me, had long since become someone else's rock. We had our first earth-shattering fight. Liam said Serena was the one who threw herself at him. He said he just saw her crying and didn't have the heart to push her away immediately. The fight ended with him writing a letter of apology and promising never to contact her privately again. But I never expected that what followed would be an endless cycle of suspicion, cold wars, and brief reconciliations. Sometimes it was because of a strange perfume scent on his uniform. Sometimes it was because of ambiguous text messages he received late at night. He became increasingly impatient, increasingly silent. And I became increasingly unhinged, acting more and more like a bitter, paranoid housewife. Today, I was completely exhausted. Liam had given Serena too much. Money, attention, favoritism. So, he might as well take the title of "Mrs. Vance" and give that to her, too. I forced a pale smile at the group. "We won't be a couple for much longer." Chapter 2 Liam stared at me in disbelief. "You're asking for a divorce over a hundred grand?" "Chloe, throwing a tantrum has its limits!" Even to this day, after trampling on my dignity time and time again for that woman. He actually still believed our marriage was unbreakable. How laughable. As the standoff continued, Liam's phone rang. It was a custom vibration pattern. I immediately knew who it was, and the blood rushed straight to my head. How many late nights, the moment that ringtone sounded, would he leave in a hurry, leaving me alone to face an empty, freezing house? After a few brief words on the phone, he grabbed his jacket and headed for the door. "Where are you going now? You are not leaving!" I simply couldn't believe it. Before we had even settled things here, he was going to find her again. "We'll talk when I get back." "If you walk out that door today, we are getting a divorce immediately!" "General! Say something!" one of the wives pleaded. "Chloe is emotionally unstable right now, you should stay and be with her..." Everyone could see I was on the verge of a total breakdown. He was the only one who turned a blind eye. He didn't care at all. Liam's impatient voice cut through the air. "I've explained everything that needs explaining. Give her a few days to cool off, she'll figure it out herself." "We've been married over a decade. We aren't going to split up over something this trivial." I listened to the heavy slam of the front door, offering a silent, bitter laugh. On the living room wall, the massive framed portrait of him in his dress uniform and me in my wedding gown had fallen during the earlier chaos. The glass was shattered all over the floor. Tears fell silently. For so many years, I was habitually finding excuses for him, forgiving him time and time again, compromising time and time again. But Liam was no longer that green, teenage boy who would sneak out of his window just to buy me a hot bowl of soup. I was the only one still clinging to the pitiful, fading warmth of those memories, lying to myself. Today, even I couldn't keep up the lie. I drove straight to the hospital. The doctor told me that because of my previous medical abortion history, my uterine lining was in poor condition. Another abortion could lead to permanent infertility. I listened numbly, nodded, signed the paperwork, and lay down on the operating table. When the cold instruments entered my body, I didn't cry. I just stared at the blinding white glare of the surgical lights, drifting in a haze back to that suffocatingly hot afternoon when I was eighteen. The bathroom smelled heavily of bleach. Liam was holding me tight, his palms slick with sweat, his eyes full of tears. The pain back then was real. The heartbreak in his eyes was real, too. It's just a shame that the person he is heartbroken over now is someone else. After the procedure, the nurse helped me sit up and went over the post-op instructions. I leaned against the wall and slowly walked out, every step feeling like I was walking on cotton. The hospital corridor reeked of antiseptic. And right in my most vulnerable, weakened moment, I saw Liam. Chapter 3 He was supporting another woman, wearing the exact expression of gentle tenderness that I used to be so intimately familiar with. I watched them quietly, my heart a wasteland of dead silence. Serena was wearing a hospital gown, leaning bonelessly against Liam's arm. He seemed to be heading off to fill out some paperwork. He whispered a few comforting words to her, then turned and walked away. When Serena saw me, she froze for a second, then spoke up timidly: "Chloe? What are you doing here... Did you follow us?" "Liam just saw that I was all alone and took pity on me. He kindly brought me in for a checkup. Please don't be mad, okay?" She enunciated the words "all alone" with deliberate clarity. Waves of cramping pain washed over my lower abdomen. I was in no mood to play her games. Just as I turned to leave, Serena suddenly bit her lip and threw herself at me. "Chloe, that hundred thousand dollars might just be the price of a few designer bags to you, but to me, it's life-saving money! The doctor said if I don't get the surgery this time, it'll be too late. Please, I'm begging you, don't force me into a corner, okay? Once I'm better, I'll work like a dog to repay you!" Without warning, she dropped to her knees with a thud, gripping the hem of my pants in a death grip, tears instantly streaming down her face. "I'm begging you, please don't take away the money for my life, okay? I just want to live!" Her agonizing, pitiful cries echoed through the waiting area. The surrounding patients and families all turned to look, pointing and whispering at me. "What's going on here? Forcing a sick person to give up their treatment money?" "She looks dressed so nicely, how can she be so cold-hearted?" "Can't she see the poor girl is on her knees? Saving a life comes first..." I was breaking out in cold sweats from the pain. I tried forcefully to pull my leg free, but Serena used the momentum to collapse limply onto the floor, trembling all over. Liam pushed through the crowd and saw the scene. His face darkened instantly. He yanked Serena up off the floor, looking at me with eyes full of disappointment and irritation: "You followed me to the hospital? Do you really have to be this relentless? Are you actually haggling over the money she needs to survive?" "Chloe, as a military spouse, do you have any compassion left at all?!" When he was called away by Serena on our anniversary, he had accused me with the exact same words. "She has no family, no friends, she's so pitiful. Can't you have a little empathy?" "As an officer, I serve the people." "When did you become so cold?" I was sick to death of hearing these speeches. Whatever. Let him think what he wants. Perhaps days of arguing had exhausted my patience. Or perhaps anger had clouded his judgment. Liam frowned, stepped forward, and shoved my shoulder hard: "Speak! What exactly do you want?!" That shove made my already weak and unsteady footing completely fail. I stumbled backward and crashed heavily onto the floor. My tailbone slammed against the hard, freezing tile, and a tearing, explosive pain ripped through my lower abdomen. Gasps erupted from the crowd. I curled into a ball from the agony. Liam froze. He didn't understand how I, who usually had excellent physical stamina, could be knocked down so easily. Just like he didn't understand that during the few hours he had spent rushing around for Serena... The very last tie binding us together had quietly snapped. He instinctively bent down to help me up. I turned my body, avoiding his touch. "Liam." My voice was incredibly hoarse. "From now on, give her however much money you want. I don't care. I will never ask about it again." He stiffened entirely, rooted to the spot. I used my hands to push myself up off the floor and limped out the hospital doors. Standing in the freezing wind outside the hospital, I dialed my lawyer's number. The lawyer quickly analyzed the situation and told me the division of assets would be heavily in my favor. I listened, but felt no joy in my heart. Only a profound, heavy exhaustion. I returned to the base housing unit that we used to call "home." As the key turned and the door opened, I heard the soft, delicate laughter of another woman. He actually brought her home. The blood seemed to instantly rush to my head, only to freeze into solid ice the next second. I stood in the entryway, looking into the living room. Serena was wearing my fluffy slippers, holding the insulated thermos I used every day. Liam sat beside her, looking down at his phone, likely researching surgery details. They looked exactly like an old married couple enjoying a peaceful afternoon. Hearing the door, they both looked up simultaneously. Liam stood up, his expression completely normal: "You're back." Serena immediately put down the thermos, acting flustered: "Chloe... please, please don't misunderstand. Liam was just..." "Just what?" I cut her off, trembling with rage. "Liam Vance, what do you think this place is? A hotel? Or your little love nest? Am I invisible to you?!" "Chloe!" Liam frowned deeply. "Can you stop making everything sound so filthy? Serena is about to be admitted for surgery. Her condition is very bad right now; she could go into cardiac arrest at any time. Plus, those blood-sucking relatives of hers from her hometown tracked her down to cause trouble. It's not safe for her to stay out there alone." He walked over, trying to grab my arm. His tone carried a rare note of earnestness and apology. "I promise, this is the last time. Once her surgery is done and she's recovered, I will cut ties with her completely. We'll go back to living our life, okay?" Living our life? My stomach churned violently. How many times had he said those exact words? Every single "last time" was followed immediately by the next escalation. I exhaled a heavy breath of stale air, pulled the divorce papers from my bag, and slapped them onto the coffee table. "Liam, your promises are completely bankrupt to me." Chapter 4 The paper hit the wood with a sharp smack. Liam stared dead at the document. He practically growled the words. "Chloe!" "Are you serious? Over a hundred grand? Just because I temporarily took in someone who needs surgery and has nowhere else to go? Are over ten years of our relationship really worth this little to you?!" "Over ten years of our relationship?" I laughed. I laughed so hard tears almost came out. "Liam Vance, you have the nerve to bring up our relationship? Everyone knows you've been having an emotional affair for ages!" "I have not!" He denied it vehemently, the rims of his eyes turning red. "I just pity her! You didn't use to be like this. You used to be so kind. Why have you become so bitter, so petty?" "You're right. I am bitter, and I am petty." I nodded, my tone terrifyingly calm. "So, sign the papers. It's best for both of us." Liam violently snatched the divorce papers from the table and ripped them to shreds. As if he were infuriated beyond reason, or perhaps to prove something, to retaliate against something, he turned to Serena and forced a smile. "Serena, stop feeling inferior just because you don't have a degree." "Look at this 'highly educated' college graduate here. Didn't she follow me into a cheap motel when she was 18?" "On her knees for me in high school, then going to class carrying a belly, hiding in the girls' bathroom to take abortion pills because she was terrified the teachers would find out." "You might not have her education, but your character is a million times purer, cleaner, and more self-respecting than hers." A loud buzz erupted in my brain. My mind went completely blank. My entire body shook uncontrollably. Serena exaggeratedly covered her mouth, her eyes wide as she looked at me, a gleam of unconcealable triumph hidden in the depths of her gaze: "Oh my god... Chloe, you actually... Liam, why didn't you tell me sooner! That poor baby..." As she spoke, her eyes actually welled with tears. She looked at Liam, "Liam, we should... go pay our respects to that baby sometime? Set up a little memorial, as a way to..." "Shut up!" "You do not have the right to mention my child!" Serena looked at Liam with red eyes, waiting for him to defend her, but the defense never came. Everything from the past completely collapsed in this single moment. The man who toasted my parents at our wedding making promises, the man who stayed by my bedside without leaving for a second when I was sick, the man who smilingly handed over his entire salary for me to manage... All of them mutated into the unrecognizable man standing before me, attacking me with the most vicious words imaginable. Tears poured out like a flood. I could barely stay on my feet. Liam seemed to finally realize what a horrific thing he had just said. His face turned ugly. "Two years ago, when my mom was critically ill, you accompanied Serena out of state to 'relax' and find her a specialist. You ignored every single phone call." "Right before my mom passed, she told me not to blame you. She said you had your responsibilities." His eyes darted away, afraid to look at me. I gave a tragic smile, choking on my words. "You always say you were wrong, that you'll change, that you'll never break my heart again." "But Liam, the truth is, you're exactly the same as you were at 18. You never learned how to take responsibility." "You will forever be indebted to me." Those words carried too much weight. They hit him so hard his shoulders slumped slightly. He stared off into space, a rare occurrence. I wiped my tears away and smiled. "Thank God, this time I had my own money to pay for the abortion."
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