CHAPTER 10: His Fierce Protection

  This period of recovery felt both unjust and miserable.

  Natalie often visited to keep me company, bringing soup each time, but the emotional scars left by this marriage were not so easily healed. Even if the wounds closed, the scars would remain.

  Daniel called several times, but I didn't answer. Just seeing his name light up on my phone screen made my still-healing wounds ache anew.

  I couldn't bear to think about everything he had done to me; each memory was like a knife cutting into my heart. It was torturous to dwell on it.

  When he couldn't reach me, he showed up at my door.

  The moment I opened the door and saw him, I tried to shut it without a word, but he blocked it with his hand.

  "Kate, we need to finalize the divorce. Dragging this out is doing neither of us any good," he said.

  He was wrong—he was the one who couldn't wait, not me. After all, his mistress was pregnant.