Chapter 3After My Husband Gave Her Status I Left

Compensate me?

A heavy stone settled in my chest. “With what?”

Daisy thought for a full five minutes before answering. “The family will give you thirty million dollars and arrange for your immigration. With that money, you can live any life you want. You just can’t ever come back here. For a relationship, thirty million… it’s a good deal.”

I stared into Manny’s eyes, searching for something, anything.

He remained silent. He just stood there and let his mistress treat me like one.

I took a slow, deep breath, forcing myself to be calm.

“Manny, I’m giving you one last chance,” I said, my voice dangerously low. “You tell me, right now, who the other woman is. Whose marriage certificate is fake?”

“If you don’t admit it, the three of us will be on the evening news tonight.”

“You can stop loving me. You can fall for someone else and ask for a divorce. But you will not treat me like an idiot.” My voice cracked. “I guess this is my punishment for loving you since we were kids.”

Manny’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of resentment in them. He was angry that I was forcing his hand. But under my gaze, the cold, hard stare of a woman with nothing left to lose, he finally broke.

“I’m sorry, Daisy,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “The certificate I gave you… it’s a fake. I’m so sorry.”

Slap!

Daisy, trembling with a fury that seemed to shake the very foundations of her world, struck him across the face.

“So that’s why you rushed off right after we registered our marriage,” I said, the pieces clicking into place with sickening clarity. “You went to her.”

“And our wedding night… did you spend the first half with me, then invent some company emergency so you could spend the second half with her?”

It was too much for Daisy. With a choked sob, she turned and ran from the room.

Manny didn’t even glance at me. He just ran after her.

He didn’t come home that night.

I was used to it. My work was in nighttime scientific research; I often worked late shifts. That, I now realized, was a major reason I’d never discovered his affair.

I used Manny’s laptop to draft a divorce agreement. Just as I finished, a new message popped up on his screen.

“Mr. Hayes, should we continue to schedule your wife for night shifts? Her latest health checkup results weren’t very good.”

My heart seized. The message was from my direct supervisor.

I clicked on the chat history. There weren’t many messages, but every single one was an instruction from Manny, telling my boss to keep me on the night shift.

Even three years ago, right after my miscarriage, when my body was weak and frail, he had insisted I be assigned the night shift, year-round, to analyze experimental data.

I sat there, numb, staring at the screen, reading the messages over and over until the words blurred.

Eventually, Manny returned, his face etched with exhaustion and worry. He checked a few rooms before our housekeeper, Maria, told him I was in the study.

The moment he opened the door and saw me, the laptop, my lifeless expression, panic flashed in his eyes. He rushed to my side and knelt on one knee, taking my cold hands in his.

His eyes were bloodshot. He’d clearly been up all night consoling Daisy.

“Maria said you haven’t eaten since yesterday. Let’s get you something to eat, okay?” he coaxed, his tone as gentle as it had always been, as if nothing had happened.

But now, it only made my stomach turn.

I yanked my hands away from his. “Let’s get a divorce,” I said, my voice as cold and flat as a frozen lake. “I can see how much you love her. You even have a son.”

“I love you,” he interrupted, his voice suddenly sharp. “Stop this nonsense. I’m not divorcing you.”

I couldn’t read him anymore. I looked at the man before me, and all I felt was contempt.

“You’re a coward, Manny.”

“A pathetic, spineless coward. I will never respect you.”

He suddenly laughed, a strange, defiant sound.

That afternoon, his mother came to talk me down. It was the same old story. All men cheat. It’s just a bit of fun. She even had the audacity to suggest that our marriage was unstable because I hadn’t given him a child.

I had always respected her. But today, I threw my cup of coffee in her face.

“You’re insane!” she shrieked.

Yes, I thought. I think I’m about to be.