Divorce Freed Me, Condemned Him

Chapter 5

Boom. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Ice-cold dread crawled up from the soles of my feet, snaking along my spine until every inch of my skin was prickling with chills.

I stared at the man in front of me, stunned and disbelieving. "So that's why you iced me out of nowhere six months ago? You think I cheated on you?"

Liam ground his teeth so hard I could almost hear the squeak of enamel. "It's not a suspicion. It's the truth."

I froze, rooted to the spot. A dull, throbbing ache bloomed in my chest, so intense I could barely catch my breath.

Six months earlier, I'd gotten pregnant with Liam's child.

It hadn't been planned, and with my whole life consumed by work back then, I had actually brought up the idea of terminating the pregnancy to him.

But I'd changed my mind at the last minute. How could I snuff out a little life that was already growing inside me?

Turns out, I lost the baby anyway, when I was en route to resuscitate an emergency patient.

The whole time I was in the hospital recovering, Liam didn't so much as send me a single text, let alone come see me.

I'd assumed he was furious with me, that he blamed me for what happened.

So I swallowed every last bit of my own grief and hurt, swallowed my pride, and went to him, hat in hand, to apologize and beg to make things right between us.

But after that, he only got colder.

He started staying away from home, always using work as an excuse. He even forgot our wedding anniversary. Forgot my birthday.

I never blamed him for any of it. I only blamed myself for failing to protect our baby.

But now I knew the truth. All that time, Liam had believed I'd betrayed him.

My eyes burned red as I fixed a hard, unblinking stare on the man in front of me, every word ground out through clenched teeth. "Every single day, I either go to work or come home to cook for you. What the hell gives you the right to accuse me of cheating?"

Liam laughed, sharp and bitter, so angry he could barely contain himself. He pulled up a video on his phone and held it out in front of me. "Fine. Then explain this."

I squinted at the screen.

The footage showed me and Owen walking side by side into a hotel late at night, and only coming out together when the sun was already up.

Liam's voice was raw, thick with unbridled hatred.

"Emma, you told me that day you had an important surgery to perform. What kind of surgery do you do in a hotel, huh?"

A cold wind gusted down the hallway, piercing straight through my chest until my heart felt like it was frozen solid.

I looked right into his eyes, and all I felt was bitter disappointment, sharp and ridiculous at the same time. "If you were so convinced, why didn't you come to me to verify it back then?"

At that, Diaia, who had been hovering off to the side, piped up quickly to smooth things over, her voice sickly sweet. "Emma, this is all my fault. I told Liam not to confront you directly about it. After all, you definitely wouldn't have owned up to it anyway..."

I cut her off sharply, with zero patience left for her fake innocent act. "Diaia, this is between Liam and me. Stay out of it."

Diaia choked on her words, her eyes welling up as she looked plaintively at Liam.

Naturally, he stepped right in front of her to shield her, then sneered at me. "You wanted proof, right? Well, here it is—concrete and irrefutable. What have you got to say for yourself now?"

I stared at this man I'd been married to for three years, a man who didn't trust me even an ounce, and a cold, seeping disappointment settled heavy in my chest.

Tears started spilling down my cheeks before I even realized I was crying.

I swiped at them roughly, humiliated, then hurriedly tapped through my phone to pull up a news article and thrust it at him. "We performed that emergency surgery right there in the hotel! It even made the news! Our department office still has the thank-you banner the patient's family sent us. Do you want to go see it?"

That news story had gone viral back then.

I'd even been excited to show it to Liam the second I saw it.

But he'd just said, "I'm already exhausted from work. I don't care about some stupid news."

That one line had doused every last spark of excitement I'd had to share the news with him.

If Liam had cared even a little about me, about my job, he would have known the truth this whole time.

But back then, his heart had probably already left me for someone else anyway.

I watched his face twist in shock, but I didn't feel even a flicker of relief now that the misunderstanding was cleared up.

After a long moment, I dropped my gaze and laughed bitterly. "Liam, the only person who ever betrayed our marriage was you. It was always you."

With that, I stuffed my phone back in my pocket, turned on my heel, and walked straight out of the hospital room.

Liam was discharged two days later.

I threw myself headfirst into my work and didn't spare either of them another thought.

I ran into Liam again two weeks later, right outside the courthouse.

Only one week remained until our divorce cooling-off period ended.

We were both there for an anti-medical harassment lawsuit our hospital was pursuing against a group of disruptive people who'd been harassing staff over a patient outcome.

I'd come as a witness for the hospital, and Liam was the lawyer the hospital had hired to defend us.

In court, between the mountain of irrefutable evidence and Liam's skills as a top-tier lawyer, we won the case completely hands down; no one was surprised by the outcome.

After the hearing adjourned, I got ready to head home.

Liam hurried after me, calling out, "Emma, wait a second."

There was no way to avoid him, so I spoke in a strictly professional tone. "Anything else?"

At my formal form of address, the expression on his face froze for a beat.

After a long, awkward pause, he ground the words out from the back of his throat.

"About what happened before... I was in the wrong. I misjudged you. I'm sorry."

I furrowed my brows and said nothing. Too little, too late—this apology meant nothing for us now.

Clearing up that misunderstanding wouldn't fix the fact that our marriage was already broken beyond repair, and it wouldn't undo the fact that he'd already fallen for someone else.

I shook my head. "If that's all, I'll be going now."

Liam sighed. "I actually wanted to ask if you still have the recipe for that medicine you used to make me. My stomach's been acting up these past few days, and Diaia doesn't know how to make this kind of thing, so I figured I'd try to make it myself."

He'd lost a ton of weight in the two short weeks since he'd been discharged from the hospital.

It figured Diaia really had no clue how to look after someone.

My expression softened a little. I figured he'd be seriously ill soon enough, so I finally agreed. "Fine, I'll send you the recipe once I get home."

I turned to leave again right after I spoke.

But before I could take two steps, Liam called out to stop me again.

"Oh right, one more thing! The physical I took at your hospital a while back—the one you told me to go do—are the results in yet?"