Chapter 1

It was our seventh wedding anniversary.

My mother-in-law was cooking in the kitchen, and my daughter was playing in the living room.

I was charging my drunk husband’s phone when the screen suddenly lit up.

It was a SnapChat message. The contact name was "Little Ember":

"Bro, can you still make it tonight? I bought new sheets, the burgundy kind you like."

I swiped open the screen.

He had a saved folder in SnapChat called 【Ember’s Wish】.

I tapped on it.

Ninety-nine photos.

Ninety-nine different women.

Ninety-nine opened condom wrappers, neatly spread out on his white bedsheets.

I stood rooted to the spot, trembling all over.

In the living room, my husband drunkenly hugged our daughter, calling out, "Daddy loves you the most."

I smiled at my mother-in-law and said, "Mrs. Davis, I'm going out to buy some soy sauce."

It took me forty-seven seconds to get from our front door to downstairs.

In those forty-seven seconds, I replayed every single frame of my seven-year marriage in my mind.

His name was Mark, and I met him on a blind date.

Back then, I had just left the military. My father was critically ill, my mother had remarried, and I was all alone in the world.

When he was pursuing me, he said, "Alice, your first half of life has been too hard. Let me make the second half easy for you."

I gave up my highly sought-after federal job placement, a benefit of my military service, to his younger brother, all because of that one sentence.

I sold the old house my father left me to help him get startup capital for his business.

I transformed myself from a scout who could carry sixty pounds and cover twelve miles cross-country into a mere housewife.

And what did I get in return?

He was with "Mistress #1" in a hotel room on a night when I was throwing up so hard I had stomach bleeding from morning sickness.

I was in labor for eighteen hours in the delivery room, while he was accompanying "Mistress #12" to her prenatal check-up.

For our daughter's naming ceremony, the gold charm he gave her was just plated.

The real one, the solid gold piece, was around "Mistress #38's" neck.

I stood by the apartment building entrance and tapped on the video I had just recorded.

Ninety-nine photos, with clear timestamps.

From March 17, 2020, the night before our wedding.

To February 28, 2026, three o'clock this afternoon.

He took the last photo in the spare bedroom while I was in the kitchen.

The wrapper was strawberry flavored.

I took a deep breath and dialed a number.

"General Thorne, it's Alice."

There was a three-second silence on the other end, then a deep, resonant voice spoke.

"Alice? You finally decided to contact me."

I couldn't help it; my eyes stung.

Eight years ago, I saved an old man during a border mission.

I didn't know who he was then, only that he'd been trapped in a collapsed tunnel for three days and three nights.

I carried him for six kilometers in a heavy downpour.

Later, I learned he was a highly decorated General from a major command.

He told me then, "Alice, if you ever have any trouble, call me anytime."

Eight years. I had never made that call.

I always thought I could manage my life on my own.

"General, I need a lawyer," I said. "For a divorce case."

"Also, I want to rejoin the military."

The voice on the other end simply said, "Okay."

After hanging up, I looked up at our seventh-floor window.

The crooked holiday decorations Lily had pasted on the window for Christmas were still there.

My phone lit up. It was a message from Mark:

【Honey, did you buy the soy sauce? Dad says you’ve been out for a long time.】

【Lily's asking when you're coming back to watch TV.】

I stared at the text and smiled.

When I got home, Mark was sitting on the couch, watching a reality show with Lily.

He saw me walk in and eagerly came to greet me.

"What took you so long? I thought you got lost."

Lost?

I could find my way in a primeval forest, yet I was completely lost for seven years in the marriage you gave me.

"The grocery store downstairs was closed, so I had to walk an extra block," I said, handing him the soy sauce.

He took the bottle and turned towards the kitchen.

Watching his back, I suddenly felt like he was a stranger.