In the fourth year of her marriage, Nina Hartley realized she had become a laughingstock in others' eyes.
She had spent twenty-four years pining after Ethan Blackwell, and four years as Mrs. Blackwell.
When he said he wanted to sponsor a child, she nodded in agreement—never imagining that this child would turn out to be the son of Ethan's first love.
She retreated step after step, believing she could warm his heart, until she stood in disheveled humiliation outside a glass window, watching the man who had always been cold and distant toward her bend down to smooth the wrinkles from his first love's clothes.
On her shattered phone screen, his message still glowed: *In a meeting. Very busy. Do not disturb.*
Nina finally understood—the man wasn't heartless; his heart simply belonged elsewhere.
Everyone was certain Nina would never divorce, and Ethan believed this too.
Until Nina actually signed the divorce papers, and Ethan was left stunned.
Ethan saw Nina again at a press conference in the scientific research community.
By then, Nina had just claimed the highest academic title in domestic robotics and was speaking as the keynote presenter, with an exceptionally handsome young man standing beside her.
The two of them gazed at each other across the crowd, wearing smiles that no one else could decipher.
The once calm and rational man completely lost control, kneeling on the ground to search for the wedding ring she had discarded, trembling as he slipped it back onto her finger. "You said you would love me forever. You said you couldn't live without me..."
