Chapter 1
My professor husband, Antonio Kaufman, who had been firmly child–free for half his life, had an affair with his student. They even had a six–year–old son.
The day I planned to report him to the university, Anna
Romero showed up at my door with the child and knelt before
- me.
“I know you and Professor Kaufman were once in love,” she pleaded, “but he’s in his forties now. Who wouldn’t want to have a child?”
“I don’t care about status, and I can even let you raise the boy. Just please don’t break up our family.””
My husband stood in front of them. I looked at him, feeling nothing but an eerie calm.
“Cut ties with them, or I report you to the school. Your choice.”
Without hesitation, he tore up my complaint letter. I thought that meant he had made the right decision.
But after 52 nights I spent sleeping alone, he still hadn’t come home. Instead, I got the news–Anna was pregnant again.
By now, she had already graduated. Reporting him to the university no longer posed a threat.
Antonio didn’t even bother to hide his exhaustion or his growing disdain for me. “Either accept Anna and the child, or
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spend the rest of your life alone. Your choice.”
Devastated, I said, “Isn’t there a third option? I choose divorce.”
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Antonio stared at me in disbelief. After a long pause, he chuckled and asked, “Is this fun for you? Always using divorce to threaten me?”
I lowered my gaze. “No. This time, I mean it.”
Hearing my words, he sneered, pulled off the wedding ring he had worn for twenty years, and threw it to the floor.
Along with it, the years we had spent together were shattered into nothing.
I took a deep breath, then slowly removed my well–maintained gold ring, and placed it on the table.
When we got married, he had bought me gold jewelry. But over the years, I pawned my earrings and necklace to support his career.
The ring was the last bit of dignity left in our marriage.
Now, I was giving it back to him.
Antonio’s expression turned complicated.
He had probably expected me to lash out and to fight with him.
In the past, I might have done that.
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But after 52 cold, lonely nights, all my hopes had already burned to ashes.
“Grace, stop being so unreasonable. Anna has already compromised enough.”
“I know you don’t really want a divorce,” he said. “But I can’t just abandon her and our son. Carlo is only six. You grew up in a single–parent home. Do you really want him to go through the same thing?”
I stared at him. We had shared a bed for twenty years, yet at this moment, he felt like a stranger.
Even my most painful memories had become his bargaining chip.
My mother died giving birth to me, and my father blamed me for it.
My childhood life felt like nightmare. The idea of marriage and having children terrified me.
But Antonio was the one who made me believe otherwise. He told me he didn’t like children either and we were meant to
- be.
Back then, choosing not to have kids was unacceptable.
But he ran away with me to Dangarnon, an unfamiliar city, where we struggled through the hardest years of our lives together.
But no matter how careful we were, accidents still happened.
I once got pregnant. Somehow, word got out, and his parents found us.
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They promised that if I had the baby, they would take care of it themselves. In return, they would give us 200 thousand dollars, which was enough for us to live the life we wanted.
Just when I was about to give in and have the baby, Antonio held my hand and talked with me through the night.
“You don’t have to worry about what others think. Just make the choice that feels right for you. I’ll always stand by you.”
“But with today’s medical advancements, even if something goes wrong during childbirth, doctors can save me. Are you sure you don’t want a child at all?”
He nodded. Then, he drove me to the hospital for the abortion procedure.
After that, he got a vasectomy.
But vasectomies weren’t permanent, just like promises. They can be undone and taken back.
Looking back now, I was pregnant six years ago. And his child with Anna was also six. The timing was almost too perfect.
Speaking of it, after Anna gave birth, he even asked me to help take care of her.
I stared at Antonio, my gaze empty. Aside from a few more wrinkles, he still looked just as handsome as he had twenty years ago. But he was no longer the man who once loved only
- me.
“You say you don’t want the child to grow up without a father, but can you really bear to leave me without a husband?”
“You are the only one I have.”
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Chapter 1
He closed his eyes, as if struggling to make his choice.
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“For all these years, I respected your feelings. I never forced you to have children. Why can’t you be more understanding? We can bring Anna and Carlo to live with us.”
“I am not that desperate!
I cut him off, my voice shaking with anger.
“If you bring her here, then what does that make me? Am I still your wife? Or just a nanny taking care of them?
“You think you’re doing me a favor? Expecting me to watch my husband share a bed with another woman? How could you be so cruel?”
I collapsed onto the floor, sobbing. He reached out to help me up, but Carlo tugged at his shirt, stopping him.
Neither Carlo nor Anna said a word. But they had already
won.
Antonio left with them, saying only one thing before walking out the door, “Think it over.”
On the 53rd lonely night, I tore down the calendar I had been using to count the days.
Then, I picked up my phone and called a friend who studied law, “Can you help me draft a divorce agreement? This time, I mean it.”
