Chapter 3

Eugene didn't come home that night, and I didn't call to ask him where he was. I already had my answer from Cassandra's social media. After leaving the hospital in the afternoon, they'd hurried back to Cassandra's home to tell her family about her pregnancy. In the photos she'd shared, her grandmother had held Eugene's hand while affectionately talking to him about something. His other hand, meanwhile, had rested gently on Cassandra's belly as he'd smiled warmly. Eugene had only ever gone home with me once throughout our five years together—after he'd accepted my proposal. Our homes were less than half an hour apart by car, but he'd never once taken the initiative to drop by. He'd told me it was because he didn't like being around elders—it made him feel ill at ease. Even that one time he'd gone home with me, he'd only been polite. There hadn't been any sign of the affection he'd shown the Johnsons. I turned off my phone, my gaze bitter. … The following day, I met up with a few friends to tell them the wedding was off. Back in the day, Eugene had made it clear that he didn't like weddings—he felt they were just worthless ceremonial procedures. He'd only begrudgingly agreed to a small wedding at my insistence, and only our closest friends and family were invited. Everyone in my life knew how I felt about Eugene, so my friends were astonished to hear the wedding was canceled. "Haven't you been head over heels for him for years? Can you actually bear to let him go now that you're almost about to get him?" Bitterness surged in me. Could I bear to let him go? Of course not. I'd pursued Eugene for 20 years before finally getting him to agree to marry me. How could it be easy for me to let go of this relationship? But in reality, our relationship had never been equal from day one. Right from the start, I was always the one running after him. He'd never stopped for me. It hadn't bothered me in the past. Since I could spend 20 years making Eugene agree to marry me, I could eventually make a spot for myself in his heart. It was just a matter of time. We would have plenty of that after getting married, and I could wait. I could wait until he truly opened his heart to me. However, everything had changed after Cassandra, Eugene's so-called savior, had appeared half a year earlier. That was when I'd discovered he wasn't cold and aloof to everyone. With Cassandra, he was always gentle and tender, yet he couldn't even be bothered to spare me a smile. At the time, I'd comforted myself, saying it was because Cassandra had saved his life. He was only acting like that to repay her. But I never would've expected him to agree to have a child with her after she was diagnosed with cancer! Worse still, he'd pretended to want to get my permission despite already secretly undergoing artificial insemination with her. The moment I'd found out the truth was the moment it had truly hit me that my relationship with Eugene had come to an end. No matter how hard it was to give up on a 20-year-long relationship, I still had to harden my heart and cut my losses. I didn't tell my friends the true reason for calling off the wedding. I just said that I would be joining Professor Watts' lab soon and that I would only be able to speak to anyone outside of the lab after a long time. Wanting to show my friends that I was genuinely sorry, I stayed with them until the wee hours of the night before heading home. Eugene happened to arrive at the same time. He frowned when he smelled the alcohol on me and backed away, covering his nose with one hand. The scorn in his tone was unmissable when he spoke. "Stay away from me. Don't get your stench on me." I smiled self-deprecatingly. He was probably worried that Cassandra would be affected if he were to get the smell of alcohol on him. After all, she was pregnant. He was being so blatant about it—I supposed he'd never even thought about keeping it from me. Well, since he didn't seem to want to come clean about the whole thing, I wouldn't bring it up. I didn't respond to his scorn. Instead, I headed inside to shower. When I came out of the bathroom, Eugene was typing away on his phone with a smile on his face. I merely glanced at him before heading to the bedroom to sleep. However, he stopped me. "I have something to discuss with you." I stopped. The last time I'd heard that was a month ago, when he'd first brought up wanting to have a child with Cassandra. We'd argued for a whole month after that. What else was there to discuss now that she was expecting?