The Earring

I found an earring wedged in the passenger seat of my professor husband's car.

It was the kind his favorite student always wore.

He glanced at it and explained, "It was snowing today, so I dropped two of my students off on the way. One of them must have lost it."

I put the earring away and smiled at him. "It's fine. You don't have to explain."

I knew all the students he meant. The only one who liked to sit in his passenger seat was his student Sophie.

Because of her, I'd screamed at Ethan like a madwoman more times than I could count, and threatened divorce more than once. It wasn't until I lost our baby that he finally gave in and promised he would never see her alone again.

Seeing how little I seemed to care, Ethan was stunned. He finally couldn't hold it in.

"Don't you care at all?"

When I used to care, all it got me was endless fights, endless tears, and in the end, a lost child.

Now, I truly didn't care anymore.

——

Chapter One

I didn't answer Ethan.

When we got home, he stopped me, his face heavy with exhaustion.

He looked at me, his eyes complicated. "Why?"

I smiled and asked softly, "Isn't this what you wanted?"

Ethan was quiet for a moment, then explained again. "Sophie is my student. I didn't just drive her today. There was another student too. That's all. Why do you always..."

He didn't finish.

I finished it for him in my head: why do I always have to read into their relationship?

He realized he'd said the wrong thing and sighed helplessly.

"I haven't been seeing her alone. She sits in the front because she gets carsick."

"Other than that, she's my student, and I'm her advisor. There's nothing else between us."

I didn't say anything.

Ethan's expression shifted slightly, with a faint, hidden weariness and helplessness.

"Emma, then what do you want me to do?"

I looked at him calmly.

"I don't want you to do anything."

"And you don't need to explain so much to me." Remembering the earring from the car, I added, "Why don't you take it back to her now? That way she won't have to come over in the middle of the night again. That's not very safe."

Ethan's face changed.

Sophie had come to the house in the middle of the night twice.

The first time, she'd left her lab report in Ethan's car by accident, and she showed up late at night with red eyes, looking for him.

In the end, Ethan drove her home.

Two weeks later, I found a lipstick under the passenger seat of Ethan's car.

Ethan explained lightly, "Sophie must have dropped it."

Then he slipped the lipstick into his pocket as if it were nothing.

I frowned and pushed down a strange feeling I couldn't name.

I still didn't ask anything.

I never expected Sophie to show up at the house again that same night.

She held her hand out to Ethan, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Professor Hale, can I have my lipstick back?"

Ethan took it out of his pocket and handed it to her. His voice was flat.

"Be more careful next time."

Sophie stuck her tongue out at him playfully. "Okay, Professor~"

She was so practiced at being cute with Ethan, asking for things.

I stood there, frozen.

That was the first time I fought with Ethan over her.

By the end of the fight, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Emma, not everyone is like you, with their head full of this kind of nonsense."

"Sophie's not like you. She's brilliant."

The tears were still clinging to my lashes.

I just stared at him.

Ethan didn't say anything else. He turned and walked away.

I came back to the present.

Ethan was staring hard at me, as if he were trying to find some change in my face.

Too bad. There wasn't any.

My expression didn't move at all.

As I turned to go upstairs, his voice came from behind me, hoarse and hopeful.

"Emma, today is our fifth wedding anniversary."

"Do you remember?"

If he hadn't brought it up, I would have forgotten.

Ever since Ethan started taking on students, he only ever had one word for our anniversaries:

Busy.

Last year on our anniversary, I called him, nervous and excited.

But it wasn't Ethan who answered.

It was Sophie.

"Mrs. Hale, the professor's had too much to drink. Maybe call back when he's sobered up?"

When I heard Sophie's voice, it was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over me from head to toe.

Ethan didn't like anyone touching his phone, not even me.

Our first year of marriage, I picked up his phone by mistake.

He didn't say anything.

But his face turned ugly.

After that, I never touched his phone again.

But Sophie could just answer his calls whenever she wanted.

I had another big fight with him over it.

He slammed the door and left.

The dinner and the present I'd prepared so carefully sat on the table all night.

I turned around. "I forgot."

Ethan's face froze. He looked like he couldn't believe it.

"You forgot?"