Realization.

Knowing that she could harm herself if she keeps driving in that situation, and not wanting to remember Richard, Ivy parks her car at the nearest cafe she could find and stumbles inside, hurriedly locating the furthest booth from the outside.

She sits down there and cries, trying to muffle them so no one will be alarmed.

She removes her coat and hangs it behind her chair, sniffling quietly but still trying to hide it as a waitress aporoaches her.

"Good afternoon ma'am. What would you like to have?"

Ivy looks half heartedly through the menu. "I'd like a cup of chamomile tea."

"Coming right up ma'am."

For the next few minutes, Ivy stares into space, her mind inevitably taking her back to the moment she witnessed less than twenty minutes ago.

Her husband in another woman, not just any women infact, her own best friend, and his uncaring attitude even after she found out.

He always manages to device new ways to make her hurt over and over again.

She wipes her eyes over and over again.

Her tea arrives and she takes a sip.

It immediately burns her tongue.

She shrieks, this time, the pain is too much for her to bear.

Her eyes water up again.

Immediately, she hears chair being pulled out and someone sitting opposite her. She dries her eyes and looks at the visitor.

She gasps his name "Ashton."

Ashton Wright, elder brother to Richard, is sitting right in front of her, watching her every mood.

"You should have smacked him, slapped him, beat him up, made sure he never did such again. You only ran out. What's that supposed to solve?" He spoke so harshly to her.

Ivy bites her lower lips, biting back her tears. "I was very shocked."

"Yeah? No matter how shocking that was, you should have done something. Now that girl will think you're a pushover."

"I'm not a pushover. I just didn't... I didn't..." Her tears come rushing back.

Richard is the only man she had ever known, his physical abuse, she could endure and those heal with time but this mental and emotional abuse... It's downright wrong.

"You didn't...?" Ashton furthers, giving her no time to slide into self pity.

Getting angry from nowhere, Ivy gives him a dirty look. "He's your brother after all. Of course, you won't comfort me, try to give excuses for him. Did he send you?"

"I'm appalled you will think that of me..." His eyes grow dark and menacing.

Ivy swallows. "But..."

"No buts. What will you do now?"

"What will I do? I guess I'll go back home first and think it over. I'll ask for his opinion when he returns home. Who knows? Maybe that woman lured him into it?"

Maybe... Just maybe. It's easier to cut ties with a friend than Richard.

Ashton watches her, his expression dark. "You think so?"

"It's possible isn't it? It's quite hard for men to turn away from temptation like that. It has to be her."

Ashton clumps his fist in his coat. "So what?"

"If he admits that she tempted him, I'll forgive him. It's his first time anyway."

Ashton chuckles drily. "His first time?"

"Yes. It is. Right?"

Ashton shrugs and stands up. "I hope you make the right decision. You've suffered long enough for you to come to your senses." He remarks, looking at her neck.

She shivers, feeling like he saw right through her turtle neck at the burns and her wounds.

He walks right outside the cafe and disappears.

She finishes her now cool tea and makes her way home.

For the rest of the day, she busies herself with house chores, so as to stay distracted, so thoughts of her husband's infidelity won't keep her down until she decides on what to do.

The fact that the lady is also the woman she calls a best friend. The same woman she had told all her troubles to, who had comforted her and told her to bear with it.

Her mind keeps traveling back to what Ashton had said to her.

"You've suffered long enough..."

She looks at her hand, bandaged from the morning burn that had turned into a blister.

Luckily, the ones on her body just took ointments and reduced but this particular one is turning into a wound...

One that she hopes won't turn into a scar.

Eight pm that night, table set for dinner, she hears the sound of the door.

She stands up to welcome him, and take his coat and briefcase as she always does.

He gives it to her, and smiles slyly, shaking his head subtly.

She smiles welcomingly. "I made dinner. Would you like to eat first or wash up first?"

"Neither. I have something for you instead."

Ivy's face lights up. "For me? What could it be? Is it an explanation for what I saw?"

"What you saw? Oh, me having sex with my secretary? Some fun?"

Ivy's smile fades. "Fun? You call that fun? Didn't she seduce you? She tempted you didn't she? I'm sure you won't do something like that by yourself."

Richard laughs heartily. He fishes into his briefcase and flings a piece of document at her.

It falls to the ground and then she picks it up.

"What is this?" She asks as she looks at it. For someone who already had a sullen face, her face got worse, she got even paler. "D...Divorce? For who?"

"You obviously. You just need to sign it. As you can see, I've signed my side, just do yours and I'll have it submitted to the courthouse tomorrow." He speaks, as though it's a very casual matter.

"But why?" Ivy whispers, hoping to get some answers.

"Why? Because I don't want you anymore. Can you be any denser than you already are? You get worse as the days progress."

"But I'm just looking out for you. I dedicated my whole youth to you, taking care of you, tending to your needs."

"Who asked you to do so? Huh? Did I beg you to put me through college? Did I beg you to buy me a company or even help me? I could have done it all by myself, who begged you?"

Ivy's world starts crumbling, brick by brick and then walls and then the whole thing starts falling down to her feet.

Deep inside her, she knows nothing she does will change his mind.

Her emotions in a full muddle, her eyes locate a pen lying just in his coat.

She reaches for it and signs the document, Ashton's words coming to her again.

"You have suffered long enough..."

For some reason, after appending her signature to the document, her heavy heart became weightless, like everything making her heart heavy has been removed and deflated.

She hands him the paper, her eyes alight.

He watches her, surprised. "That fast? Have you been waiting for me to do so for some time?" His face starts to redden, his anger rising.

"What else do you want from me? We're divorced now aren't we?"

"The nerve of this bitch!" He raises his hand to give her his signature form of abuse.

Calmly, she turns around and looks into his eyes. "I don't think you know but I can sue you for assault and battery now, you're no more my husband."