Chapter 2: A Desolate and Humiliating Marriage  

It was test results from an OBGYN clinic. She scrunched up her brows and saw the name on it. She went back to the apartment and kept the results away, but curiosity was eating at her. Had he been sick recently? As his wife, she had a right to know.

So she quickly tore the envelope open.

Pregnancy test results. Positive. The name of the patient was not hers.

She rushed downstairs, knowing he was in his office. She had never ventured downstairs, knowing that she hated when someone had entered her office without notice.

That time, it was different. She knew the password because he never remembered anything else and kept the same password for everything.

When the door opened, she saw a sight unsightly.

It all fell into place when she walked in on him thrusting into another woman's body, the loud moans leaving the air nauseous. She clutched her stomach as she stumbled back. She had let him use her body the same way he did another, and she felt bile rising in her throat. The little groan she produced made no difference.

They turned to her. There was no surprise. There was relief in Bai Ye Qing's eyes. Like he was relieved that he didn't have to act any longer.

It was disgusting.

"Do you want a picture?" she heard the other woman comment. She fled. She wouldn't let him touch her from that moment onwards. That didn't mean he didn't take it from her however and whenever he deemed her ready to fulfill her wifely duties.

She couldn't go back to her maternal home. None of them cared. They had sold her off so that their company could do better. They hadn't once called and asked her how she was after she got married. When they did, it was usually because they needed something from her.

A desolate and humiliating marriage.

She remained alone.

- - - - -

Qian Meng stood outside the door for a long time. She had not come down to his office since discovering him with his lover.

She wasn't pacing or lifting her hand to knock on the door before dropping her hand in painful indecision. She stared at the flaws in the wood. Blood pounded in her ears and she could feel her face flush and her palms sweat. But she remained very still.

'He won't do anything to you,' she told herself. His demeanor towards her had changed and she had often been scared of him.

She had no idea why he wanted to see her, but apart from taking from her and making her sign on papers after threatening to divorce her. They didn't speak about much else and she was sure that it would be a long time before Bai Ye Qing spoke to her again. She had gotten used to the long weeks of silence in the giant space she had decorated with her own two hands. She didn't feel welcome there anymore.

She hadn't expected to wake up to a note asking her to meet him in his office at a specific time. Nothing else was written on it.

Her life was not supposed to be this way.

Suddenly, she heard it: Bai Ye Qing's voice from behind the door. A single word was uttered to invite her in.

He had known all along that she was standing outside the door but he had not bothered to call her in earlier. Somehow, over the years, he had learned everything about her. He knew exactly which keys to strike to invoke a reaction in her. He saw every move she would make before she made it. Wasn't that how he duped her for so many years?

He knew how things would turn out but he had selfishly ruined her life to get what he wanted.

Everyone wanted to be happy. She had thought neither of them was happy, but now she knew that she had been the only one suffering.

Her fingers brushed along the metal of the round knob lightly, just barely feeling the cold against her skin. She gripped it in her hand, tight and full of confidence, nothing like she was currently feeling. She turned the knob and pushed the door open.

As she stepped in, her eyes instantly met his.

Bai Ye Qing was sitting behind the desk, leaning his elbows on the woo, his fingers twined in front of him. He looked at Qian Meng calmly, his expression completely unreadable.

"Close the door." His voice was quiet but steady. Filled with authority.

The door shut behind her with a click. They were alone and no one would have heard their conversation either way. He still made her lock it because he liked her better when he had her trapped.

The silence stretched between the two of them and she dropped her eyes from his face, staring down at the floor. She waited.

She glanced up when she heard him shift in his chair. He hadn't taken his eyes off her.

"I received a call from Yun Corporation," he said at last, his voice cutting the silence. "Your father passed away three days ago."

She could feel her mouth drop in shock. Of everything she had expected him to say, she had never expected that. She felt pain.

The tears welled up in her eyes and she desperately tried to quell them. She couldn't cry in front of him, even if for her father. Not in front of him. Not for the man who had done everything in his power to undermine her and make sure she lived a life devoid of affection and happiness.

A sob escaped her throat, and she clasped her hand over her mouth to stop it.