It was raining heavily that night. The sky collapsed in thousands of raindrops that pelted the bedroom window. Clara sat stiffly on the edge of the bed, her hands clutching her cell phone tightly. She stared at the screen, which still showed no reply from her husband.
It was already ten o'clock at night. Then eleven. Then past midnight.
Her phone kept ringing with the same ringtone. But there was no answer. Her message only had one check mark. It seemed that Sean wasn't coming home that night. He didn't give any news, not even the slightest explanation about the photo Moana had sent.
Clara waited. She kept waiting. Even when her hopes began to slip away one by one from her trust.
"I just want to hear your explanation directly from you, Sean..." she murmured softly.
Three years of marriage... and only silence returned to her.
At One in the morning.
Clara was almost asleep in a sitting position when the vibration of her phone startled her. She hurriedly picked it up with mixed feelings, between hope and fear.
A message came in.
Not from Sean. But from the same number as earlier that afternoon. Yes! It's Moana's number.
Clara swallowed hard. Her hands trembled as she opened the message.
"Your husband and I were making love in my apartment 😉 Do you want to see?"
Before Clara could prepare herself, a photo arrived. She opened it, and her world felt like it was crumbling for the second time.
The photo showed Sean and Moana embracing. They were on the bed, completely naked. Sean appeared to be asleep, while Moana deliberately stared at the camera with a triumphant grin.
Clara fell silent. Her face and body suddenly went numb. Her head felt like it was being squeezed tightly from within. Everything she had fought for all this time—loyalty, sacrifice, honor as a wife—was disgraced in one humiliating photo.
Clara's breathing became ragged. She collapsed onto the floor. Her cell phone slipped from her grasp.
Even though she was used to being betrayed. Sean often told her that the man frequently spent the night at Moana's apartment. But, for some reason, ever since receiving the pregnancy test photo from Moana earlier, Clara had become more sensitive. Her heart was more easily hurt.
"Why…" her voice broke. "…why did you do this, Sean?"
There was no answer. Only the reflection of her own face on the phone screen—a face that was wet, red, and broken.
Clara cried silently. It was a cry that felt deadly. Her whole body shook violently, not only because she was sad... but because of the deep humiliation she felt.
She hugged herself, as if trying to put the broken pieces back together.
"Oh God, I can't take this," she whispered softly.
Her tears wouldn't stop until her body had no strength left to cry. The pain in her chest spread intensely, as if something were stabbing her heart thousands of times.
Clara collapsed onto the floor. Her vision blurred. Her body went limp. Her soul and body were too shattered to stay strong.
Darkness enveloped her.
She fainted.
★
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The next morning.
The sunlight pierced through the window curtains, hitting Clara's pale face. She woke up with a terrible headache, her eyes swollen, her breathing labored.
On the table, her phone was filled with dozens of unread messages. She didn't have the courage to look at them again. She was afraid they were all from Moana. She was afraid to find out that her husband was still in the arms of another woman.
Clara forced herself to get up. No one knew she had fainted the night before. Sean didn't come looking for her. No one's arms were there to hold her.
Loneliness was the only thing that remained faithful.
With unsteady steps, Clara changed into whatever clothes she had and drove to a small clinic on the outskirts of Texas—where her best friend worked.
"Clara?"
Eveline, her best friend since high school, rushed over with a worried look on her face. She hugged Clara without hesitation.
"You look very tired. Sit down first, okay?"
Clara smiled faintly. "I had to see you. I... I need to talk."
They entered a warm counseling room. The scent of lavender filled the air, calming, but Clara's heart remained restless.
Eveline sat across from Clara. Her round glasses gave her a soft and wise appearance. "Tell me from the beginning."
Clara stared at her fingers, which were clenched together. She tried to form a sentence, but her voice trembled as soon as she spoke.
"My life... feels like it's stopped, Eve. I feel like... my marriage isn't going anywhere."
"Hm... hasn't it always been like this?" Eveline sighed softly. "Do you still fight often?"
Clara shook her head. "We never fight. He just… doesn't care."
Eveline's eyes hardened for a moment; she understood where this was going.
"Do you still…" Eveline paused, searching for the right words. "…have sex like husband and wife?"
Clara smiled bitterly. "We have sex often, but… there's no love. There's no heart in it."
Eveline wrote something down in her little notebook. "That's really painful, Clara."
Clara bowed her head. "I want to fix everything. I want him to see me. I want him to love me the way I love him... but until now, he remains distant. All I get is cold stares and hatred."
"Clara..." Eveline looked deeply into her best friend's eyes. "From the beginning, you knew that your marriage wasn't based on love."
Those words pierced Clara's heart like thorns.
"I know." Clara's reply was barely audible. "But I hoped he would change."
"And that is a very noble hope," Eveline said softly. "But you have suffered too much."
Clara fell silent. Her lips trembled.
"If you keep holding on, you could lose yourself," Eveline continued. "You have to consider other options, Clara. Talk to your parents. There's nothing wrong with backing out when you're in an unhealthy relationship."
Clara bit her lip so hard it almost bled.
"Back down? End the marriage I fought so hard for? Let Moana win?" Her heart refused.
"I... I still love him," Clara's voice broke.
Eveline sighed softly. She felt both pity and anger that her friend was being hurt so relentlessly.
"Love shouldn't hurt you like this, Clara."
Clara's tears fell again, silently, gently, but still painfully.
Eveline held her friend's hand. "If you choose to stay, then you have to prepare your heart to be hurt even more."
Clara nodded weakly, not because she accepted the advice, but because she didn't have the energy to argue.
She knew only one thing: she would not leave. She would not give up.
Clara's love might seem foolish. To many people, it might seem like madness. But to Clara... it was the only reason she kept breathing.
Silence.
For a moment, Clara looked like she was thinking seriously. She replayed old memories that kept swirling around in her head.
However, suddenly, there was another, more practical side to her.
"I am Sean's legal wife. No matter what, I will never let Moana have him and enjoy everything!"
"So ...!? What if Moana suddenly came into Sean's extended family and brought a baby who was Sean's child and also the heir to that wealthy family?!" Eveline brought her face close to Clara's.