Chapter 3Seven-Year Itch: Divorce Denied

"Did he come after you?"

I looked at her, my mind drifting back to that day.

After leaving the hospital wing, I went back to the cashier, paid my bill, and left.

In the taxi, an emotional advice show was playing on the radio. The host was discussing a familiar topic.

【What kind of couple can survive the seven-year itch?】

I had once asked Alexis about that. I told him how so many couples fall out of love before the seven-year mark, and I asked him what would happen if he didn't love me anymore.

He had turned to the crowded plaza we were in and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Alexis Medlock will love Anna Reed forever! For the rest of his life! What seven-year itch? I'm going to be with Anna forever!"

He was so reckless, so unconcerned with the strange looks he was getting. In that moment, I truly believed we would be together for a lifetime, that the seven-year itch was something that happened to other people.

But I got home that day, and Alexis never called.

Instead, his apprentice did.

"Anna," she said, her voice dripping with faux innocence. "I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding. Alexis was just helping me out because he felt sorry for me. The company really is that busy. He wasn't lying to you."

He hadn't lied. But he hadn't cared either.

The old Alexis would never have abandoned me to take care of someone else. The old Alexis remembered every little thing about me. If he accidentally made me angry, he would rush out and buy me my favorite stuffed animal to make it up to me. When I was sick, his eyes would well up with tears and he’d whisper, "Why isn't it me who's sick?" He even tried to catch my colds by cuddling with me, earning a stern lecture from our doctor.

His tenderness was reserved only for me. When a cousin's daughter was in the hospital, and they asked him to watch her for one night, he refused. "I can give you money," he’d said, "but I can't stay. I have to take care of Anna."

Back then, he never found me annoying. He never treated me with the cold indifference he did now.

But the Alexis of today... he didn't even want to talk to me.

He didn't want to see me.