Chapter 2
In the following days, Marcus didn’t return.
Emma didn’t ask where he’d gone. Instead, she packed up her belongings.
The jewelry and bags he’d given her after marriage, the suits and shoes she’d bought him, their photos together, unused cosmetics and miscellaneous items…
She didn’t keep a single item, throwing everything away.
As she watched their carefully decorated home gradually grow empty, she felt a mixture of melancholy and, more prominently, relief.
After discarding the last box, she turned to see Marcus had returned.
He stared at the trash bin for a moment, surprise crossing his face.
“Why did you throw all these things away?”
“I had no use for them anymore, so I cleared them out. Why are you back?”
Emma casually invented an excuse, changing the subject.
Marcus didn’t press further, checking his watch.
“I came to pick you up. There’s a family dinner today.”
Emma paused, remembering the Shaw’s biannual dinner at the family mansion.
In past years, she had never missed one, but this time, she declined.
“I’m not feeling well lately, so I’ll skip the family dinner.”
“What’s wrong? Should we go to the hospital?”
His tone softened, making Emma momentarily uncomfortable. She shook her head gently. “Nothing. I just want to rest and avoid crowded places.”
“Then stay home—”
Before Marcus could finish, Vivian opened the car door and rushed over.
“Emma, please come to the family dinner with me! It’ll be so boring alone without you. Right, Marcus?”
Seeing her cute blinking expression, Marcus’s heart instantly melted.
He withdrew his unfinished words, nodding as he opened the rear car door for them.
“Since it’s a family dinner, you can just sit and rest there if you’re unwell. No need to stand on ceremony. Vivian’s been cooped up in the hospital for days and could use some company. It’ll be good for you to chat with her.”
Watching his attitude change in an instant, Emma felt as if her heart had been stabbed with a needle.
She knew that whatever Vivian requested, Marcus would unconditionally agree to.
So she said nothing more and bent down to enter the car.
After the car started, Vivian sat beside her, chattering non-stop.
“Emma, how are you feeling since the bone marrow donation? Has your body recovered yet? You have no idea how rough I’ve had it in the hospital with all these rejection symptoms. My head’s been spinning constantly, and I’ve been having these awful nightmares. Thank God Marcus stayed with me through it all or I’d have lost my mind. He hasn’t been able to take care of you because of me—please don’t be mad at him, okay?”
Emma looked up, catching the probing look in Vivian’s eyes, and responded flatly.
“Why would I be? You’re siblings. It’s not a big deal.”
Relieved, Vivian took Emma’s hand and began casually chatting as she used to.
“I knew you wouldn’t mind! Look at this necklace Marcus gave me today, isn’t it beautiful? I just mentioned it once, and he remembered. He spent a fortune bidding on it at auction! And see these plushies? He won them for me yesterday at the arcade. Marcus’s car is too somber, so these make perfect decorations. Cute, right?”
Looking at the dazzling diamond necklace around Vivian’s neck and the plushies crowding the seats, Emma’s chest ached with a dull pain.
Marcus had always preferred black, white, and gray, embracing minimalism. But because these things were Vivian’s favorites, he never objected, letting her decorate his car as she pleased.
Emma remembered once placing a cute Doraemon figurine in his car, but the very next day, he had thrown it out.
“Emma,” he had said, “I don’t like these things. Don’t take such liberties in the future.”
Wow. The difference between love and indifference? Night and freaking day.
She remained silent, and Vivian, assuming she was tired, stopped pressing her and instead engaged Marcus in endless conversation.
From the weather to mutual friends, from childhood embarrassments to tonight’s menu.
No matter what she said, Marcus always responded, a smile constantly playing on his lips.
Emma listened quietly, recalling how when she shared daily life with him, he would do things carelessly with merely “mm,” “okay,” or “fine”.
Yet with Vivian, he was always so engaged, responding to every sentence.
Though they shared the same space, his gaze would drift unconsciously to the rearview mirror, instinctively looking at her.
His love was so intense and obvious—why hadn’t she noticed all these years?
Emma couldn’t understand, her heart pricked with a sharp, dense pain.
She looked at the nail marks in her palm, then out the window, repeatedly telling herself:
It’s okay, just endure a little longer. Once the one-month divorce cooling-off period ends, it will all be over.
