Her mind, her influence and how well she knew me, all of it made it easy for her to destroy me completely.
In the end, I was expelled, fired and stripped of my degree.
Hallie was the one who sent me to the mental hospital.
I spoke calmly, but Cooper’s eyes were already red.
He started crying and asked, “And then?”
After that, Hallie got pregnant. It didn’t matter if the baby was mine or not.
What really mattered was that she needed someone respectable to be the father of the child she carried.
Because of that, Hallie took me back.
She held my hand and said, “Byron, I did make mistakes, but you shouldn’t have acted so rashly.”
“Your Dad and Mom have aged overnight because of you and now people whisper and gossip about them whenever they go out.”
“You’re not young anymore; please, stop being so stubborn.”
Then, she placed my hand on her lower stomach.
Half begging, half warning. “Think about this baby. Think about your parents.”
Tears rolled down into my palm.
That time, I gave in. After everything that happened, my heart was deeply hurt and all my strength was gone.
Each day, I wandered like a walking corpse, spending my time in that flower-filled house, lost in thought.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Hallie came home to keep me company, taking her unborn child with me to early education classes.
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays were different; those were the days she spent with Harrison, enjoying their sweet and passionate romance.
Even with her stomach issues, she still followed Harrison to every trendy and new restaurant.
Milk tea, coffee, barbecue and ice cream.
Whatever Harrison liked, Hallie accepted without a second thought.
This same woman once thought wasting even ten minutes of her life was shameful.
Yet with Harrison, she was willing to sit through one boring romance movie after another.
This woman, who always put her career first, was still willing to do every silly and childish thing with Harrison.
To protect him, she even let him be listed as a co-author on a paper outside his field.
To please him, she joked with her coworkers and skipped her own lectures.
She crushed my pride.
The rules and boundaries of the industry were also stepped on by her.
What made me finally explode was the marriage proposal Hallie had prepared for Harrison.
That year, she became famous after discovering an asteroid.