Chapter 8

For the next three days, Jonah didn't come home. Kayla packed up everything she owned and shipped it back to her mother's house. After hesitating for a long while, she finally called her mother, Martha Ollie. "Hey, Mom. I'll be coming home in a few days." "Oh? Are you on break? Is Jonah coming with you?" Martha sounded happy. "Kayla, how's the baby planning going? You need to eat well and take care of your body—that's how you get a healthy baby. And you make sure Jonah stays off the booze and cigarettes, too. No late nights either. "You know Mrs. Zeller, who lives downstairs? She brags about her granddaughter every single day. She says the girl's beautiful. Hmph! My daughter's gorgeous, and my son-in-law's handsome. Just wait till you two have a baby—yours will be ten times cuter." Martha always had a lot to say whenever they talked. Today, as she heard Martha's happy chatter and thoughtful reminders, Kayla's eyes filled with tears. Martha must've heard the hitch in her breath, because her tone suddenly changed. "Kayla? What's wrong? Are you crying? What happened?" Kayla wiped her tears and said the truth out loud for the first time. "Mom... I'm getting a divorce." The other end of the line went silent. After a long pause, Martha finally replied, "Then come home, sweetheart. I just bought a new bedding set. I think you'll like the pattern." "Okay." Kayla couldn't hold back anymore. She mumbled something about having work to do and hung up the call. After slumping onto the couch, her eyes landed on the wedding photo of her and Jonah hanging on the wall. Her eyes shimmered with tears—not of sadness, but of a quiet, bitter kind of hurt. Even without Jonah, there was still someone in this world who loved Kayla unconditionally. Just then, a WhatsApp notification snapped Kayla out of her thoughts. She checked her phone to see that it was a message sent by Lily. It was a picture of Jonah and Lily in Zhanese wedding costumes. Lily wore a shimmering gold dress, her head leaning softly against Jonah's shoulder. He wore a matching embroidered robe and looked every bit the polished, handsome groom. Kayla looked up at the framed wedding photo again. All she could feel was that the eight years she had poured into this relationship had been one big, cruel joke. Back when they got married, she had suggested doing a Zhanese wedding shoot, but Jonah refused. He said it was too complicated and that the embroidered robes didn't suit him. But now? He not only wore them—he proudly posed for photos in them. It turned out that it was never about the clothes, but about who he was willing to do it for. Then, another message popped up. Lily said, "Kayla, Jonah and I are getting married tomorrow. We really wanted to invite you, but my mom's not emotionally in a good place and didn't want to see you. Maybe after everything's over, we can grab dinner together?" It was the most pathetic mix of bragging and provocation Kayla had ever seen. She sneered and simply replied, "Congrats." Then, she blocked Lily. Right after, she called a demolition company she'd worked with on previous projects. Everything in this apartment—every detail, every piece of furniture—had been her love, effort, and dreams. And now that she was leaving, there was no point in keeping them there. ... The following day, Jonah and Lily's wedding took place. The guest list was entirely composed of Lily's relatives and friends. Jonah, the groom, couldn't help scanning the crowd. He kept looking for Kayla. From the beginning of the ceremony to the final toast, he kept glancing at the entrance. But Kayla never came. After taking Sally back to the hospital that night, Jonah headed home. Lily insisted on going with him, saying she wanted to thank Kayla in person. Jonah didn't see the harm in it. He felt he had nothing to hide. But the moment he unlocked the front door, he froze in place. The apartment was stripped bare. The warm, beautifully designed space that Kayla had poured her heart into was gone. The walls were bare concrete, the floors cold and grey. Aside from a few large boxes in the middle of the living room—filled with Jonah's personal belongings—there was nothing left of the life he and Kayla had built together. The place they once called home was empty. Under Lily's stunned gaze, Jonah walked over to the boxes, his hand trembling as he picked up the envelope resting on top. He opened it and found two documents inside. They were the divorce agreement already signed by Kayla, and her medical records from the ectopic pregnancy surgery. Jonah flipped through the medical records, page by page. "Patient arrived at ER in shock." "Unable to reach family, patient signed surgical consent on her own." "Surgery lasted three hours." He knew what every word on the page said, but each one felt like a punch to the gut. Jonah read them over and over again, and in the end, it was like the file burned his fingers. He placed the thick folder back where it originally was. "This isn't real. It's not. Kayla's lying—she's just messing with me."