Chapter 2

It was getting close to midnight, yet, Giselle couldn't fall asleep. She buried her head into the pillow as her mind ran wild. Suddenly, an arm appeared next to her waist and started touching her all over. Feeling the hot breath on her neck, Giselle instinctively ducked, trying to escape Anthony's kisses. Giselle's resistance surprised Anthony. After all, for the past three years, Giselle had always been the one to initiate intimate moments between them. This was the first time he had made the first move, yet, he only faced her rejection. Curious, he couldn't help but ask, "Not in the mood?" "I'm on my period," Giselle answered, making up a random excuse. Anthony didn't think much about it. He just replied with a hum and covered her with the blankets properly. Before falling asleep, Anthony reviewed the day and suddenly remembered the house deed she had him sign. He began asking about it. "Where's the house deed? I want to see if there are any flaws or loopholes in it." Giselle's heart started thumping. She stared at him and asked, "Are you sure you want to look at it?" Anthony looked at her anxious expression and frowned before nodding lightly. A brief pause later, Giselle finally got up from bed and headed to the study to get the agreement. But just as she was about to pass him the documents, someone's phone started to ring loudly. Anthony answered the phone. "Tony! James is drunk and getting himself into trouble again! Please hurry over, I'm scared!" Recalling that Melanie's ex-husband loved getting into fights, Anthony's expression changed. He hurriedly grabbed a coat, put it on, and headed out. Giselle called out to him when she saw that he was leaving in a rush. "Has something happened to that friend of yours who's getting a divorce?" Anthony was about to answer simply, but he suddenly got worried that Giselle would start suspecting him. So, he decided to make it sound as serious as possible. "Yes. Her ex-husband got drunk and is now at her door with a knife. I need to go over and have a look. Her life might be in danger." Giselle didn't hold him back anymore after that. She just told him to be careful. After Anthony left, Giselle remained awake all throughout the night until daybreak. She wanted to look at the time on her phone but realized that Melanie had posted a new story on her Instagram ever since Giselle had secretly followed her. It was a short clip of the sun rising from beyond the mountains before setting again, bathing the earth with its golden glow. The next story suddenly cut to a different clip that played some screams and exclamations before the camera suddenly switched to the front, showing Anthony's blurry figure suddenly passing by. Finally, the last story showed the caption, "The darkness of yesterday has passed. Here's to a new beginning." Giselle stared at the caption on the final story, suddenly feeling her chest tightening. Then, a gradual pain started spreading from the middle of her chest. It seemed as if Melanie's divorce had been finalized. It wasn't surprising, though. Anthony was one of the best lawyers in town. And, since he'd been in love with Melanie for such a long time, he would have done anything in his power to help her win her divorce case. Since Melanie was now single again, Giselle figured that Anthony would soon want to divorce her so that he could be with Melanie. Giselle didn't even need to ask Anthony about it. She could already imagine it happening to her. A self-deprecating smile appeared on her lips. Her heart felt empty. The divorce was bound to happen. She was simply speeding up the process. Instead of waiting around to be kicked out in the end, at least she would be able to preserve some of her dignity if she left of her own accord. Wasn't that so? Giselle set her phone down. Then, she dug out all of the couple items she'd bought for them, threw them into a cardboard box, and moved the box downstairs. Anthony happened to come home just then and saw her struggling with the weight of the box. He hurriedly went up to help her. "Why are you getting rid of so many things?" Giselle looked down and replied, "We don't use them anyway, so it's best to throw them away. They're taking up a lot of space." Anthony nodded and picked the box up for her. Giselle watched as Anthony's back gradually left her. There was an unusual calmness in her eyes. Had Anthony even bothered opening the box, he would have realized that the things she was getting rid of were the exact things she'd loved and treasured for the longest time ever. And with how smart he was, he would definitely have deduced from her abnormal actions and behavior that she was planning to leave him very soon. There would still have been a chance to change the ending of the story. But, Anthony didn't do anything of the sort. He directly threw the box of items into the trash and turned back around without any further action.