Chapter 3

I didn't reply to Julian, but after I got back from freshening up, I saw he had sent several more messages.

[As far as I know, you also have shares in the company.]

[Managing Director of a top private equity firm deliberately terminates sponsorship for an orphan, causing them to drop out of school.]

[What do you think of this headline? How much negative impact do you think it would bring to the company?]

The blatant threat in Julian's words made me sick.

I closed his chat window and unpinned him.

The HR department reminded me that I had accumulated several years of unused annual leave.

I went to the company to submit my leave request, but the final approval required Julian's signature.

Outside his office door, I heard the suppressed and intermittent moans of two people.

I recalled the gossiping stares from colleagues on my way here, and the secretary's dissuading glances in the elevator.

So, everyone was well aware that our marriage existed in name only.

My raised hand ultimately didn't knock on that door. Just as I was about to turn and leave, Julian's voice came through the speaker:

"Evelyn, come in."

Only then did I remember Julian had a security camera installed outside his office door.

He had seen all of my hesitation just now.

Pushing the door open and stepping inside, the scene before me was not what I had imagined.Julian sat on the sofa, a tattoo artist before him, meticulously altering the design on his chest.

And Chloe, her eyes red-rimmed, was also in the same studio, getting her own tattoo.

Seeing me enter, a flicker of provocation flashed in her eyes.

"Evelyn, long time no see."

I ignored her, walking straight towards Julian.

The tattoo on Julian's chest had once been an artistic combination of our initials, "E&J."

The promise he had once whispered to me, now a tangible symbol of Julian and Chloe's love. I lowered my gaze.

"Director Croft, I'm requesting a leave of absence."

"If you could just sign this."

Julian freed a hand to sign the paper for me, his shirt slipping, shamelessly revealing the fresh hickeys and love bites scattered across his skin for all to see.

After he’d proposed a sexless marriage, I’d foolishly thought he was joking.

I’d even specifically sought advice from friends on the matter, but faced with my various attempts to reignite our passion, Julian would just gently, almost indifferently, push me away.

My friends tried to console me, saying it was quite normal for one's libido to decrease after thirty.

But now, it was painfully clear: he hadn't lost interest in intimacy; he had simply lost interest in me.

Julian instructed me while signing, his voice cool.

"There's a charity dinner tomorrow, we've been invited as a couple."

Before I had walked in here, I had just instructed my lawyer to draft the divorce papers.As expected, everything was a hassle before the agreement was signed.

Fortunately, a charity gala shouldn't be too complicated.

I nodded, took the vacation request form, and prepared to leave.

Julian, however, handed me his car keys:

"I have a business dinner tonight, I'll just take their car."

"Evelyn, drive my car home."

In the parking garage, Julian's car was particularly eye-catching.

He'd had the car wrapped, and on it was Chloe's favorite Marvel characters.

Pulling open the car door, the "Chloe's Seat" sticker on the passenger-side dashboard had been there for a long time, its edges yellowed and curling.

As I drove out of the parking garage, the attendant looked at me, his expression awkward.

He showed me yesterday's security footage:

"Madam, it's not that we don't allow this sort of thing."

"It's just that you're both prominent people, and for you to do this kind of thing... well, it's rather unbecoming."

"Someone even reported it to us yesterday."

In the dim footage, the car was rocking rhythmically.

The sounds spilling out made the lights in the underground garage flicker.

I once bent over backwards to please him, but it turned out a single glance from the new girl was all it took to ignite his passion.

After apologizing and returning to the car, I only then realized that my fingernails had dug several bloody crescents into my palm.