"All these years, he hasn't touched me once! Do you think there's something wrong with him?"

"And he keeps saying he loves me. I can't believe a man would have no feelings for the woman he loves! Patrick is such a loser; he can't even tell a lie properly!"

"If anything, he should thank me for hiding his problem all these years…"

Every word Janet said felt like a stone being hurled at me, hitting me with such force that my head spun.

So, this was how Janet always saw me?

Treating my restraint as a personal deficiency, trampling all over my genuine feelings.

I used to believe that if I treated her well enough, she would eventually forget the past and truly become my wife.

So, I did everything I could to be good to her. I never expected that, in the end, I'd still be called a "worthless fool."

When I got her call today, I was so happy I could cry.

I thought I had finally melted Janet's heart, which had been frozen for years. As soon as I hung up, I begged my boss for time off, withdrew all the savings I had accumulated over the years, and bought a diamond ring.

Janet had always complained about this.

"Why are you always lazing around at home? Don't you know you could be out delivering orders and making some money?"

"I've been married to you for so many years, and I don't even have a diamond ring! Go to the aquarium and see if there's anyone without a diamond ring!"

"You're such a useless fool! Marrying you must be the worst luck I've had in eight lifetimes!"

But I had handed over my salary card to her seven years ago, and for all these years, I never had more than a hundred bucks to my name.

Where was I supposed to find the money to buy her a diamond ring?

Yet, I didn't dare to argue back or even utter a word.

Out of guilt, I could only drag my exhausted body off the sofa and go out to continue earning money.

I scrimped and saved every penny I could by picking up bottles, delivering food, and running errands for others until I finally saved enough to buy a diamond ring.

I came to her full of joy, only to see her snuggled sweetly in the arms of another man.

In that moment, my heart fell from the edge of a cliff into an abyss, an unbearable pain.

I should have realized long ago that Janet's heart wasn't frozen; it was just that her springtime wasn't meant to be with me.

In seven years of marriage, she had never looked at me the way she did at that man.