The Illusion of Forever

He Was the Perfect Match

At noon, I was right in the middle of sipping on some porridge when I received a video call from my mother. Her eyes filled with sorrow the moment she noticed my pallid face and the bowl of porridge in my hands.

This was the longest period I had ever been away from home. Never had my parents and I ever been apart in my twenty-seven years of life until now.

With a note of concern and frustration in her voice, she asked where Nicholas was and how I could be suffering so much during my pregnancy. I didn't know how to begin telling her everything that had happened recently.

To my parents, Nicholas was the perfect match. We had grown up together. He was dependable, honest, a graduate from a prestigious university, and held a stable job. He was everything they could hope for in a son-in-law, and we had been in love.

Remembering all this made my tears sting the corners of my eyes. In the end, I brushed off her questions with a few vague responses and quickly ended the video call.

They had spent their whole lives worrying about me, only to finally see me married and settled. I wasn't about to burden them with the mess my marriage had become.

After hanging up, I opened the chat window with Nicholas. The last message was dated a week ago when he sent me a message about a business trip. A week later, he had come back with a homeless woman in tow.

I sat on the couch and laughed at myself, laughing at the fact that the relationship between him and I was ending in such an ugly way.

Ding!

The sudden sound of a notification echoed in the empty room. It was a friend request from Ashley. I hesitated for a moment before accepting. Then, she sent me a picture.

I didn't even need to click on it to know that it was a photo of her and Nicholas.

My fingers trembled as I clicked on the image, even though I knew it was a provocation. There they were, smiling like nothing in the world could touch them.

Ashley's skin, once marred by an allergic reaction, was clear again, with hardly a trace of redness. She and Nicholas were holding a piece of pottery they had been shaping together. Mud splattered across his face. I hadn't seen him that happy in so long.

Ever since I got pregnant, there had been a constant shadow on his face. He told me that he felt the weight of responsibility bearing down on him and that the thought of becoming a father excited and terrified him at the same time. He grew angrier as my pregnancy symptoms worsened.

I had wanted him to spend more time with me, but he said he didn't want it to interfere with his work.

'Work?' I thought bitterly. He wasn't avoiding me because of work. He was avoiding me so he could be with Ashley.

Only I had been foolish enough to believe his excuses.

I saved the photo and took a screenshot of our chat. All of this would help me to divorce him.

Afterward, I sent Nicholas a message, asking him when he would be home. I reminded him that my prenatal check-up was tomorrow. As expected, there was no reply.

Later that evening, as I finally managed to eat a bit of fruit, I saw Ashley's latest post on her social media feed.