Chapter 1

We'd been married for eight years when Conan Grande posted a tweet tagging his secretary, Mindy Campbell, saying, "You guys should ship us together. We look good together, after all."

I liked the tweet, but seconds later, it vanished.

Then, I received a video call from Conan. Mindy was crying in the background, and there were also a number of our mutual friends there. Conan kept yelling at me and calling me stupid and petty for not getting that it was just a joke.

Five minutes later, however, Mindy's Instagram profile picture had changed to a photo showing her face and Conan's adorably squished together in the frame.

If this had happened in the past, then I would have immediately stormed over to wherever they were and demanded an explanation for everything. I wouldn't have let up until I got a satisfactory answer and made everyone miserable in the meantime.

This time, however, I honestly didn't care anymore.

I was in the middle of clearing away the dishes and cake from the dinner table when Conan came back home.

It was his birthday yesterday. And he'd told me that he was bringing home a few friends to celebrate together.

I had purposely requested a half-day leave and busied myself with cooking for the rest of the day. However, I waited up all night, and Conan never appeared.

I wouldn't even have known that he had changed his plans at the last minute if I hadn't seen Mindy's Instagram story.

"Did you make the cake yourself?"

Conan came by and smeared frosting all over my cheek. When he saw me nod, he smirked and said, "No wonder it's so hideous."

If I'd heard this in the past, I would've immediately started crying and arguing with him about it. But this time, I didn't even bother saying anything.

Conan watched me busying myself and probably felt a little touched.

"Ingrid Zinger, I bought some paella for you."

"I saw."

Every time Conan yelled at me, he would always bring me food afterward. It was like an unspoken rule that we made it up to each other.

"I'll go heat it up."

He then walked into the kitchen without giving me a chance to reject him.

Ten minutes later, something started to burn on the stove.

Since Conan was still in the bedroom, I had to rush over and turn off the fire on his behalf.

While taking out the paella, Conan's phone, which he'd left on the kitchen counter, suddenly lit up with a soft ping.

It was a text message from Mindy.

"Thank you so much, Coco. You made me really happy last night."

Before I could avert my gaze, Conan's icy voice already came from behind me.

"Who gave you permission to spy on my phone?"

"I didn't—ow!"

Conan had angrily shoved me from behind, and the bowl of hot paella spilled onto my left hand, where it blistered instantly.

Conan then looked at me as if I was daft before offering to send me to the hospital.

Even though it was excruciatingly painful, I tried not to make a huge fuss and just followed him out.

The first thing I saw when I got into his car was a huge, custom-made cutesy sticker Mindy must have stuck on the dashboard of the front passenger seat. It said, "Mimi's Little Throne".

Conan's face changed. "Mindy just stuck it there because she was bored."

I answered calmly, "Oh. It's pretty cute."

The car then descended into total silence.

Conan looked at me with a weird expression. "Aren't you going to tear it off?"

I blinked at him.

Why would I want to tear it off?

Oh, right.

If this had been in the past, I would have definitely thrown out everything in the car that other women had purposely left behind.

But now, I didn't even care about Conan anymore. So, why would I give a damn about his affairs?

"Can we please hurry up and go to the hospital? I still need to get to work after."

Conan stepped a little harder on the pedal when he heard me say that.

We were just one turn away from the hospital when his phone suddenly rang with Mindy's personal ringtone.

Mindy then made a fuss, saying that she'd had too much to drink last night, and she had such a terrible headache that she couldn't fall asleep at all.

After hanging up, Conan didn't even spare me another glance before making a U-turn and speeding off toward Mindy's apartment.

Conan parked the car, flipped through the glove compartment for the hangover pills I'd prepared for him, and bluffed, "I left an important document at Mindy's place. I'll be back with it soon."

Then, he got out of the car, locked it, and went up by himself.

I waited for an entire hour in the car.

It was terribly hot and stuffy inside, and it was starting to get hard to breathe. I could feel all the energy leaving my body, and yet, Conan still hadn't returned.

I found the emergency hammer in the car and used all my might to break one of the windows. Then, I dragged my limp body out of the car and got help from the guards to send me to the hospital.

That night, Conan came home and saw me eating takeout.

"Why didn't you order anything for me?"

Chapter 2

Conan knew that I'd hurt my hand and couldn't cook.

So, why hadn't I ordered for him? After all, he had informed me half an hour earlier that he was coming home. And for the past eight years that I'd been married to him, I'd always read his text messages the moment I received them.

He never thought he would see me shrug nonchalantly and answer him in a perfunctory manner. "I was charging my phone. I didn't read any of your messages."

Conan gripped the gift bag in his hand a little harder and pressed his lips into a thin line. Then, he placed the bag in front of me.

"I recalled that your perfume was running out."

I shifted my gaze from my food to his expectant face and said politely, "Give it to someone else. I'm not used to such expensive fragrances."

Half an hour later, Mindy posted an Instagram story about shopping for luxury bags at the mall, and right in the bottom corner of the photo was Conan's right wrist, wearing his easily recognizable Vacheron Constantin watch.

Conan watched me, his eyes traveling from my bandaged hand to the silly cartoon show I was laughing loudly at on TV. Then, he suddenly came closer, his face hinting at displeasure, wanting to take a closer look at my injury.

Instinctively, I wanted to avoid his touch, but in doing so, I accidentally shoved the gift bag to the floor, where the perfume bottle smashed into pieces.

Conan then chuckled coldly and said, "All this just because I made you wait in the car a little longer than usual, Ingrid Zinger? Is there a need for you to stay mad at me over such a small matter?"

"I'm not mad."

I was honest, but Conan just scoffed and made fun of me.

"You're obviously still mad about it. Can't you act your age? You're so old, and yet, you still keep thinking nonsense all day. You're a helpless dumbass."

I was three years older than Conan. And every time we argued, he would always call me a dumbass and make fun of my age. Then, he would take a step back and enjoy my unraveling as I lost my shit with him.

This time, however, I didn't cry or make a huge fuss. I didn't even demand that he tell me if he ever regretted marrying me.

I just replied, "Whatever floats your boat."

I finished my food and threw the trash away. Then, I took my bag and headed for the front door before walking out.

Conan never used to care whenever I threatened to run away from home. He never ran after me once. But this time, he followed me all the way to the elevators and demanded to know where I was going in the dead of night.

I fibbed, "My mother told me to bring back some of the crops she harvested."

Conan seemed to still have something to say, but the doors closed before he could say a thing.

About two hours after I left, I received a text message on my phone while I was happily chatting with my friend in Clique Bar.

The message was from Conan and consisted of a single question mark.

Seeing that I wasn't planning to reply, my best friend, Eva Liddel, asked in disbelief, "Your husband rarely ever messages you first, Iggy. Won't he get mad if you don't reply to him?"

My friends all knew that I was most afraid of making Conan mad at me.

However, I didn't care about him tonight. In fact, I even hung out with my friends until it was well past midnight.

When I got home, Conan was drinking a glass of water in front of the fridge.

He never asked where I had been, and I didn't bother acknowledging him either. Instead, I headed straight into the bathroom to shower.

I'd just laid down in bed when Conan suddenly pressed up against me.

He kissed me for a few seconds before I shoved him aside. Conan couldn't stand it anymore and switched on the lights.

"Ingrid Zinger, don't you dare tell me that you've forgotten you're ovulating now."

Conan and I had both been trying for kids. So, every month, during my fertile window, he would always compromise and try to have sex with me.

I just flipped over in bed and said, "I'm too tired today. I'm going to sleep."

These were the exact same words he usually used on me many times in the past, and now, I was using them against him.

Conan was stunned for a while. In the end, his face darkened as he walked out of the bedroom.

I knew that he would be spending the rest of the week on the couch in the living room.

In the past, as soon as he indicated that he wasn't going to be sleeping in the same bed as me, I would always get anxious and be unable to sleep for the entire night.

But tonight, I slept extremely well, unexpectedly.

The next morning, I was a lot more efficient at work than usual, and my general manager, Jordan West, jokingly asked what I'd like as a reward. I just looked at him seriously and said, "Remember that top divorce lawyer you introduced to us last time? Could you please connect me to her?"

It was the ninth day since we slept separately, and Conan, who'd never had to wake up early, purposely got up and made me some bacon and eggs before going back to sleep in the bedroom.

About 3:00 pm later that day, I saw Conan post a photo on his private Instagram stories. It was a group photo taken at his childhood friend's wedding.

Conan wasn't the only one in the photo. Mindy was also standing right next to him, her hand shyly slinked around his arm, smiling bashfully at the camera.

Chapter 3

The photo had only been up for five minutes before Conan suddenly called me up.

He sounded a little hesitant. "Don't get the wrong idea, Ingrid. It was a work day when Ian got married, so…"

I didn't understand where he was coming from. "What's there to get the wrong idea about?"

"You're not mad?"

"Why should I be mad?"

Conan fell silent for a while. Then, he said, "Wait for me at your company after work. I'm taking you to the dinner gathering."

Before I could reject him, he'd already hung up on me.

Mindy was sitting in the front passenger seat when Conan came to pick me up.

"Hi, Ingrid… So, you're tagging along for dinner too?"

Despite her passive-aggressive tone, I just smiled faintly at her and went straight to the backseat door.

Conan kept glancing at me through the rearview mirror throughout the journey, bringing up all sorts of random topics trying to talk to me. However, I just kept looking down at my phone and answered perfunctorily for a while before going absolutely silent.

When we reached the restaurant, Conan's friend, Ian Panera, immediately came up to me and said it was a huge pity that I couldn't attend his wedding earlier. He even said that it was his loss that I wasn't able to come.

I knew that Ian was only saying this because he was trying to defend Conan and placate me.

The thing was that I wasn't even angry in the first place.

"Don't say it like that," I said. "I'm the one who still hasn't wished you a happy wedding."

Ian was so shocked when he saw that I wasn't holding a grudge against him and instead was more focused on the food being served that his jaw dropped open.

This wasn't the first time Ian covered up for Conan. He'd also done the same thing a few times over the past year, covering for Conan as he jetted around the world on vacation with Mindy.

In fact, there was a time when I found Ian still in town when he told me that he and Conan were both overseas on a business trip. That was when I realized he'd been lying.

But Ian hadn't even felt as shocked back then as he did now.

Halfway through the meal, the restaurant manager brought in a few bottles of wine and asked Conan, "Mr. Grande, these are the bottles of wine that you and Ms. Campbell stored with us the last time. Would you like us to open them now?"

Seeing that everyone froze and said nothing, I decided to break the tension for the clueless manager.

"Sure. Go ahead. Let's not waste them."

When he saw me walking out of the private dining room, Conan got up and hurried after me. He sounded a little panicky as he explained himself.

"Ingrid, I only bought the wine last time to celebrate the company securing a new, huge client."

I just waved my hand dismissively at him and went into the women's restroom.

When I got back to the private room, I saw Conan helping Mindy block all the toasts from the other people and drinking on her behalf.

Going back two years ago, it was a similar dinner gathering with people making toasts all around the room with alcoholic drinks.

I was immensely allergic to alcohol, but the people around us wouldn't stop coercing me to drink.

Back then, Conan never helped me block their coercion to drink. In fact, he narrowed his eyes and helped them hold me down, forcefully pulling my mouth open for them.

He'd told me that it was just alcohol and that it wasn't a big deal. He also said if I had any reaction afterward, he'd just send me to the hospital to get my stomach pumped.

After that dinner gathering ended, I began having a high fever.

Two days later, I experienced excruciating pain in my abdomen and was sent to the hospital. The doctor then told me that I had been pregnant for one month, and the fetus had already started to form, but I'd lost it.

And when Conan heard that I'd miscarried, he flew to the hospital and screamed at me.

"I told you not to go, and yet you insisted on going! You fucking dumbass! See what happens when you insist on showing yourself off to men for fun?"

The flashback stopped right there, and I snapped back to the present.

I went over to my seat, grabbed my bag, and left.

Conan came home after me, and he was completely furious.

"Are you out of your fucking mind, Ingrid Zinger? How could you leave without a word? Are you happy now that you've made everyone there miserable?"

Seeing that I didn't reply to him, he tugged at his collar as a cold smirk appeared on his lips.

"Since you don't know how to behave yourself in public, maybe we should just get divorced."

This was the second time Conan threatened divorce against me.

The last time he suggested it, he'd thought I had been snooping through his phone. Back then, I'd fallen to my knees at his feet, crying and sobbing so hard, swearing to the heavens that I would never dare to make him unhappy with me again.

However, this time, I just met his gaze and said, "Okay."

Chapter 4

The air in the huge living room seemed to stop and tense up for almost half a minute.

Conan was sure that he'd heard me wrong.

"What did you just say, Ingrid?"

"I said okay. Let's get a divorce."

I stood up from the couch, planning to hand him a copy of the property settlement agreement that the divorce lawyer, Samantha Lawson, had prepared.

However, Conan suddenly raised his voice at me and gritted his teeth, asking, "Are you sure you want to divorce me for real?"

I didn't even blink as I replied, "Can anyone even divorce for fake?"

Conan looked deeply into my eyes and scoffed coldly. "I hadn't known that you were the type to play hard-to-get. However, that tactic doesn't work on me."

Then, he left in a huff.

He never came back for the next half of a month.

It wasn't until late one night when Ian called me up. He anxiously explained that Conan was dead drunk and needed someone to look after him.

I just replied, "If he's really that drunk, maybe he should spend the night at your place. But if that's too much of a bother, try asking Mindy if she's free."

God knew that I only said that out of pure consideration for Conan.

However, Conan came back fine and dandy afterward, even giving me an attitude for someone who was supposed to be dead drunk. He just sat down next to me, watching TV.

Over the next few days, he kept coming home on time, but with that cold expression on his face. Moreover, he kept sending huge bouquets of 999 roses to my office every day for the whole week.

In the past, I would always upload plenty of Instagram stories for every gift Conan gave me, even if it was something as plain and simple as a keychain. But this time, Conan never found any of the roses he gave me posted in my stories, no matter how many times he refreshed the app on his phone.

There wasn't even a single rose petal.

Conan seemed to have forgotten all about the divorce.

Meanwhile, I listened to Samantha's advice and decided to wait until the timing was right.

…

"Where are you, Iggy? We're in Room No.8… Hurry up!"

I'd agreed to meet up with Eva for a karaoke date night at a private club. But before I even had time to start looking for the correct room, someone put their hand on my shoulder from the back.

"Ingrid? How did you know I was here?"

The corridor was quite dimly lit, and yet, the pure joy in Conan's lit-up face was as plain as day.

"Hadn't I told you that I'd be going back really soon? But I guess it's fine that you're here. Come on. I'll bring you along to greet the others."

Conan then steered me into another private room, and Mindy was the first person to come up to greet us. However, when she realized that it was me, the smile on her face froze instantly.

"Oh? I didn't think Ingrid was the kind of person who'd show up at a place like this."

Mindy playfully glared at Conan before giving me the once-over.

"Did you know? Coco always told me that you were the fussy and unconfident type who hated coming out in public, but I told him that you weren't as stupid as he described you to be."

I immediately recognized the custom-made blazer that Mindy was wearing around her shoulders. It was my birthday gift to Conan last year.

Some time ago, I thought of asking him to wear it out to the dinner we were having with his family. However, he'd then told me impatiently that he'd lost it while on a business trip.

I had only mumbled, "Oh, that's a pity," but that seemed to have pushed the wrong buttons because Conan then flew into a huge rage at me.

He yelled, "It's just a fucking ugly blazer past its fucking season, and here you are, interrogating me like I'm a fucking criminal! I have a good mind to throw you to the fucking neurologist and see if there's anything they can do about that fucking stupid pea-sized brain of yours!"

Back in the present, Conan pulled me along and introduced me to his so-called childhood friends to strike up some small talk.

Everyone kept teasing him for being the henpecked husband, and Conan just watched me with his upturned, smiling eyes.

As the people started loudly cheering and encouraging me to sing a love song with Conan, Mindy suddenly appeared and draped the blazer around my shoulders.

She then smiled and said, "Ingrid, you're dressed a little too skimpily. I was just worried that you'd catch a cold."

Conan panicked when he saw me wearing the blazer that had supposedly been lost on an overseas business trip. He grabbed me and said in a careful tone, "The weather turned cold so suddenly when I was on the business trip, and Mindy hadn't brought a jacket with her… That's why I had no choice but to lend it to her."

I was in the midst of replying to Eva's text message and didn't even spare him a glance as I said, "Oh? It's just a blazer. There's nothing wrong with lending it to her—you can even give it to her if you want."

Just then, Eva replied with a photo of the side profile of her "mysterious" friend she'd invited along.

I quickly passed the microphone in my hand to Mindy and told Conan, "You both can sing the duet. I've got something else to attend to, so I'm leaving now."

Before Conan could say anything, Mindy spread her arms to stop me. She then said in an upset tone, "Ingrid, are you still having the wrong idea about me and Coco? It really isn't what you think it is."

Just as Mindy wished, I immediately caught sight of the intricate tattoo on the inside of her arm when she spread her arms out like that.

It was a sword surrounded by roses.

I'd seen the exact same tattoo on Conan two months ago.

I then met Conan's panicked eyes and did something out of everyone's expectations.