The phone rang and rang, but he didn't answer.
I hung up.
A few seconds later, a message from Lorraine appeared.
[Hehe~ Guess what we're doing?]
Below her words was a video. Even from the thumbnail alone, the air reeked of intimacy.
My hands shook as I tapped it open.
Lorraine was sprawled on the bed, her clothes disheveled, her flushed face gleaming with sweat.
Then she sat up suddenly, wrapping her arms around Renald's waist from behind, pressing her fevered body against his strong back.
"Renald... don't go... I feel so hot... that wine... it's too strong..."
"If you leave... something bad will happen to me... please…"
Renald froze in his tracks. He turned to look at Lorraine, her eyes hazy and pleading under the dim light.
After a long moment of hesitation, he clenched his jaw, then hung up on my call.
Turning back, he gently helped her onto the bed.
"I'll stay with you until morning."
The video went dark after that. The only sounds left were a low, guttural groan and Lorraine's soft, satisfied laughter.
I felt as if I'd plunged into an ice-cold abyss. My fingers trembled as I clutched my phone, dialing his number again and again.
All through the night, I made over four hundred calls. But he didn't answer a single one.
When dawn finally broke, a message appeared on my screen. [I handled an emergency last night.]
A hollow laugh escaped me.
So this was his "emergency"—spending the night by another woman's bed.
...
The day I was discharged happened to be my birthday.
Renald came in person to pick me up. He even booked a private hall at an upscale restaurant for a small birthday celebration.
The venue was beautifully decorated, and he stayed by my side the entire evening.
After the cake was cut, he fastened a custom-made gold necklace around my neck, drawing murmurs of admiration from the guests.
To everyone else, I must have looked like the luckiest woman alive.
But to me, that necklace felt as heavy as a shackle pressing down on my chest.
Halfway through the banquet, I felt suffocated and excused myself to the restroom.
The moment I turned into the hallway, someone blocked my path.
"Well, if it isn't Mrs. Montgomery—the happiest woman tonight."
Lorraine leaned lazily against the wall, arms crossed, mockery twisting her lips.
I didn't want to engage. I turned to leave, but she stepped forward, blocking me again.