I went.

Through the thick door of the private room, I could hear Archer's slightly drunken voice from inside.

"Back then, I had a chance to go to Hopkins, but for your sister-in-law..."

"I skipped a fifteen-point question on the entrance exam..."

"It's just a pity. Now that your sister-in-law is just a housewife, she can’t really help me with anything..."

"If I had known..."

My hand froze at the door, stopping me from going in.

Sure enough, a wave of agreement followed from inside.

"Brother Rogers, you’re so talented, I can’t believe even you couldn’t do without your wife, haha."

"I remember that year’s exam was insanely difficult, didn’t expect Brother Rogers to be lovestruck too."

"Your wife must be so touched, haha."

"Yeah, with a great guy like Brother Rogers, she’s lucky to have married you."

I don’t remember what else they said after that, just that I stood outside the door for a long, long time.

It wasn’t until a waiter passed by that I finally came to and pushed the door open.

Everything that happened after, I’ve forgotten.

But that moment stays sharp in my mind.

Archer, was that question you didn’t answer really for me?

Our college entrance exams were ten years ago, no one’s going to bother verifying the truth of it now.

Archer himself probably doesn’t even remember.

Maybe in that single instant, Archer began to rot.

Putrid blood splattered on my face.

Disgusting, carrying the stifling stench of summer decay.

No.

He had already rotted long ago.

I just hadn’t noticed.

Looking back now, it almost feels absurd.

Archer, when you claimed you gave up Hopkins for me, were you proud...

Or were you regretting not meeting Ruby there sooner?

When you said I couldn’t help you, were you wishing you had found Ruby earlier instead?

"Am I dying?"

"Starting to reminisce about the past."

I scoffed at myself.

Eventually, I drifted off into a hazy sleep.

But it wasn’t peaceful.

Seventeen-year-old Archer and twenty-seven-year-old Archer kept flashing through my mind.

It gave me a headache.

Paige was there too, crying and running towards me, begging me not to leave.

Paige...

Paige...

I woke up in a start.

The sun was already up.

I glanced at the time—just past nine.

The nanny said Paige saw I was still asleep when she woke up, so she didn’t disturb me.

After breakfast, the nanny took Paige to preschool.

Maybe it was because of the restless night or my illness, but my whole body ached.

I had an appointment with the lawyer at ten, so I had to hurry.

The meeting with the lawyer went smoothly.

She was an interesting young woman.

Looked younger than me by about two years but had already made a name for herself in the field.

She wasn’t shy about it either, openly admitting she had a well-connected father.

After hearing my situation, she insisted on taking the case, no matter what.

As she put it,

"All men who betray genuine love deserve to rot."

When I got home, the emptiness of the house hit me, and I had no idea what to do with myself.

My last message on my phone was from last week.

It was a conversation with Paige’s preschool teacher.

It suddenly hit me how much I had let go of, how much I had left behind.

Archer and I built our business together, and our social circles overlapped almost entirely.

We had many mutual friends.

But after I left the company and threw myself into family life, those friends gradually drifted away.

I lost my social circle.

And in the growing fear of the unknown, I became more and more dependent on Archer.

But now, looking back—

It was all for nothing.