Chapter 2

I left in a daze, my mind flooded with memories of how Jane and I first fell in love.

All that tenderness transformed into razor-sharp blades, carving out my heart and soul before I could even process her betrayal.

Upstairs, Jane watched my stumbling figure retreat and instinctively turned to chase after me.

Before she could, a warm hand grabbed hers.

"Jane, if you go back right now, won't Oscar figure everything out? Just stay here for the night."

"Get off me."

She shoved Theo away, an abrupt pang in her heart making her deeply uneasy.

"Mommy, I don't want to go back to meanie Dad so soon! Just one night! Please let me stay with Daddy Theo for just one night! Please, Mommy!"

Lucas threw his arms around her legs.

Theo scrambled up from the floor and, ignoring the pain, kissed her passionately.

That burning devotion made Jane momentarily see the younger version of me in him.

"Fine."

It was just one night. Nothing bad would happen.

…

My memories with Jane ultimately settled on the small town where we were raised.

Wildflowers bloomed across the hills, daisies standing tall and proud in the breeze.

I didn't want to spend the final moments of my life with Jane anymore. I wanted to go back home and be the teenage Oscar who still had a future ahead of him.

Snapping out of my reminiscing, I found myself standing in front of the church doors.

I didn't want to be tied to Jane even after death.

When he learned what I wanted, the priest who had officiated our wedding, Father Grant, shook his head in disapproval.

"Mr. Burke, Ms. Fraiser truly loves you. People still talk about your wedding to this day. Everyone knows that Mr. Burke is Ms. Fraiser's only weakness."

Every word he said was true.

Every year on my birthday, Jane would set off fireworks all night long and buy up every single flower in the city just to recreate a sea of blossoms from my hometown.

There was even a rumor in Alicante that when a business opening in town offered its first tribute to me, and I approved, their business would thrive.

Her love for me had always been loud, fierce, and entirely unreserved.

She wanted nothing more than to shower me with every good thing this world had to offer.

People used to say they'd believe cockroaches were extinct before they'd believe Jane stopped loving Oscar.

Yet this same woman had crawled into another man's bed.

"Mr. Burke, finding the love of your life is a blessing from God."

Father Grant's words faltered as he helped me pack my belongings to ship back to my hometown.

Some gifts Jane had given me were missing, and the supplementary credit card she gave me was gone.

I went to the bank to check the transaction history.

A year ago, the supplementary credit card she had given me but had rarely touched showed its very first charge from a year ago, right on my birthday.

Fifty dollars. The exact amount we paid for a quick sketch from a street artist in the park when we first started dating.

The second charge was two hundred dollars, spent at the steakhouse where we used to celebrate our anniversaries.

The third was eighty-five thousand dollars, the precise cost of the first custom designer gown I bought her.

…

Every single penny had been spent on another man—the same street sketch, the same steakhouse, and a custom designer suit...

Those numbers felt like physical hands choking the life out of me.

The dozen grand red roses she sent to my office on our wedding anniversary as a promise that her devotion would never fade had been replaced by a single, cheap bouquet she had thrown together for Theo.

A piece of Jane's heart had been handed over to him.

And as for the remaining, sickening majority? I didn't want it anymore.