Annabelle Linton smiled faintly. She reached out, lit a slim ladies’ cigarette, and held it between her fingers. She elegantly blew a smoke ring and gave a lazy smile.

"For you, I learned to compromise. I learned to give up my last shred of dignity, time and time again. I learned to get used to everything I hated. I even tried to kill myself...

Clinging to an obsession that I should have let go of... I suppose the greatest regrets in life are giving up too easily and holding on for all the wrong reasons...

But fine, whatever. As long as you were happy, that’s all that mattered. Someone once put it well: ’Love me or not, I’ll do whatever you want.’ To love too much is to be destined for pain, and the one who is loved is always fearless. You held my heart in your hands, free to wound it as you saw fit.

When you had problems at work or with people, you could take it all out on me. And I don’t blame you. After all, who was the one so shamelessly begging for your attention?

Sometimes, I really envy you. I envy that you have someone who loves you as much as I did. And I envy how you could be so utterly reckless with that love.

Have you ever seen me wearing an apron, working in a filthy little diner?

Have you seen my hands, raw and broken from washing dishes? Have you witnessed the humiliation of customers flying into a rage over a dollar or two of incorrect change, while the owners looked ready to smash a stack of plates in my face?

And after all that, after working myself to the bone, I couldn’t even get paid what I was owed.

They could just say I was an illegal worker, and they could throw me out or even hand me over to the police.

The world is a harsh place. So harsh that aside from thoughts of you, my life felt completely gray. You were never good to me, but you were always the one solace for my soul... or so I thought..."

At this thought, Annabelle Linton paused for two seconds. But only for two seconds. Then she smiled again.

How rare. She had been smiling all day.

But her smile was framed by crisscrossing tear stains. As the effects of the drug began to take hold, the color slowly drained from her face, and her eyes turned as cold as ice. "This isn’t your fault. You can’t be blamed for it, can you?

But that doesn’t stop me from hating you.

You were the one who doused a heart burning with passion until it was ice-cold. You were the one who wounded me so deeply that I lost the ability to love, lost all my natural instincts.

But Leona Grant, a heart can only take so much torment before it hurts. I’ve had enough of living in constant fear, of walking on eggshells around you every single day.

You have no obligation to return my love or to accept it. Besides, you’ve told me to get lost more times than I can count. Today, I’ll grant your wish. I’ll get lost for good and never appear before you again. How does that sound?"

She took another light drag from her cigarette, then reached out and stubbed it out. She pushed the papers on the table toward him. "Sign them. Let’s end this sham of a marriage. Let yourself go, and let me go. From this day forward, whether you live a life of luxury or wander the earth just trying to survive, it will have nothing to do with me. Okay?"

The sorrow hit him without warning, giving him no time to process.

Scenes from their past replayed before his eyes, one after another, like frames of a film.

All the beauty, warmth, sweetness, happiness, and hope seemed to be slipping through his fingers like sand.

The tighter he tried to grip it, the faster it slipped away.

It was only in this moment that he truly understood: the damage he had done to Annabelle Linton was irreparable.

Her current indifference was entirely his doing.

Leona Grant panicked. "Impossible!"

He strode over to Annabelle Linton and pulled her into a fierce embrace, his arms trembling. His eyes instantly reddened. "I won’t get a divorce! Annabelle Linton, stop talking! I will never agree to a divorce! I don’t want to be apart from you!"

Hearing this, Annabelle Linton nodded slightly and said softly, "Alright, then. We won’t get a divorce..."

Leona Grant froze. Then, in the next instant—

"SPIT—"

Annabelle Linton shoved him away, a mouthful of fresh blood spraying from her lips.