Chapter 172

"Thank you," I said emotionlessly, but she reached out and covered my mouth with her hand. Her eyes were full of tenderness as she said quietly, "I've said this before, you're my husband. Do you need to behave so politely toward your own wife?" I didn't say anything else but retreated a few steps and nodded at her. After the meal, Abigail uncharacteristically started to clean the table by herself. She would have never done any of this at home before. She instructed me to rest well and even thoughtfully poured a cup of hot tea for me. I held the cup of tea in my hands and found it difficult to gather my thoughts for a while. When she was about to leave the house, she even remembered to turn to me with a smile as she waved. "Dear, I'm going out for work. You can just stay at home, if you want to eat anything you can ask Harriet to prepare it for you." With that, she turned and left. As I watched Abigail's retreating figure, I got lost in my thoughts for a long time. I felt