Erasing My Perfect Husband

The next day, I insisted on the divorce, but Liam adamantly refused to sign.

He started coming home on time every day, bringing a bouquet of yellow roses, my favorite.

As if that could erase everything.

But within two days, Chloe began a passive-aggressive campaign on her Instagram.

A photo of her wrist wrapped in gauze, captioned: "If my existence makes things hard for you, I'm willing to disappear."

A photo of her on an IV drip in the hospital, captioned: "Don't worry about me, Liam. This is all my fault."

A selfie in front of a university building, captioned: "A youth I can't relive, a person I can't forget."

I forwarded the screenshots directly to Liam.

He called Chloe and yelled into the phone:

"Chloe, I'm warning you, stay away from Elara! Or you're fired!"

A hurt, sobbing voice answered from the other end: "But Liam, I've loved you for eight years. I can't live without you..."

Liam hung up, his expression grim.

The next day, a company-wide email from Aethelred announced an official reprimand for Chloe.

She lost her eligibility for company awards and was transferred off her main project.

I knew this was Liam's doing.

He was trying to prove his loyalty to me.

But that afternoon, Chloe burst into my office in tears.

"Elara! Are you satisfied now? Not only are you trapping Liam in this marriage, but now you want to ruin my future too!"

She lunged at me, and I slapped her hard across the face. "You deliberately broke up a home, and you have the nerve to play the victim?"

Liam rushed in, pulling me into his arms and glaring coldly at Chloe.

Emboldened, she charged straight at him.

She brushed a fleeting kiss against Liam's lips.

My mind went blank.

Then, I heard her say:

"Liam, I'm one of MIT's top graduates. So many men are chasing me. Don't tell me you feel nothing for me at all!"

I moved to slap her again, but Liam stopped my hand.

After a few stunned seconds, he finally spoke, his voice thick with emotion.

"You can't compare to her."

"Elara has been with me through thick and thin for thirteen years. I will not betray her."

Then he snatched a pen holder from my desk and hurled it at her.

Chloe didn't dodge. She whimpered as blood trickled from a cut on her forehead.

"That's what you get for messing with Elara."

He spat the words out coldly, then wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me out of the office.

The moment the door closed behind us, he instantly dropped his arm.

He turned his back to me and lit a cigarette.

"Elara, go on home. I have to work late tonight."

The words caught in my throat.

Finally, I managed to force out a single word, "Okay."

That night in bed, Liam was rough and desperate, his eyes squeezed shut the entire time.

Afterward, he murmured in his sleep: "Chloe..."

My whole body went rigid, and I slipped out of his arms.

I looked at the man whose handsome face I had adored for a decade.

I remembered him standing up for me when I was bullied, breaking the ribs of the thugs who cornered me.

I remembered him risking his life to save me on a snowy mountain.

I remembered how I once mentioned a stomachache, and he'd canceled an international conference, flying halfway across the world just to make me soup.

All the good things, all his devotion, were still vivid in my memory.

But now, he hadn't even realized that his own heart no longer belonged to me.

I stared at the ceiling until dawn.

Then, I sent an email to Dr. Sterling, the head of the Odyssey Project.

[Dr. Sterling, I accept your invitation. I am willing to join the Odyssey Project team in one month.]