After He Left Me Bleeding on the Curb, I Chose Divorce

Ethan handed me his phone. "Melody said she wants to eat at Le Petit Paris tonight. I have a business dinner, so you take her. Consider it returning the favor for the gift." "Be polite to her. And after dinner, take her to buy a designer bag. It’s called etiquette." A ten-dollar brooch in exchange for a ten-thousand-dollar bag. What a brilliant calculation. I didn't reach for the phone. Seeing me ignore him, Ethan dialed Melody’s number himself. Melody answered, her voice sweet and bubbly. "Ethan? Do you miss me already?" Ethan cleared his throat, his eyes fixed on me. "Chloe is taking you out for dinner tonight. Pick out a gift you like, and she’ll pay for it." Melody paused for a second before squealing, "I knew you were the best, Ethan!" I looked at him coldly. "I told you, I’m not feeling well. I'm not going." Ethan’s face fell. He grabbed my wrist tightly. "Don't push your luck, Chloe. You are going tonight, whether you like it or not!" With a burst of anger, he ripped off his coat and threw it directly at my face to vent his frustration. The force of his throw was so strong that I lost my balance. I stumbled and fell hard against the sharp corner of the sofa. My right leg slammed into the wood. Instantly, blood began to gush out. Ethan looked at me as if I were acting. "Seriously? Fine, I’ll get the medical kit." He rummaged through the drawers for what felt like forever but couldn't even find a single roll of gauze. He grew even more annoyed. "Chloe, is this how you keep the house? You can't even keep a damn roll of gauze in the medical kit?" He seemed to have completely forgotten that I had appendicitis surgery just a month ago. The gauze was used up during my recovery. I had explicitly asked him to buy some more when he passed by a pharmacy. Before, I would have argued with him to prove it wasn't my fault. Now, I didn't want to waste a single breath. My vision was swimming. I had a severe phobia of blood. Forcing myself to stand, I whispered, "Just... take me to the hospital to get it bandaged." Ethan muttered an annoyed curse, grabbed his keys, and walked out. I dragged my leg and followed him. But right after we drove out of our neighborhood, Ethan's phone rang. I glanced at the screen. The caller ID read: *Melody.* The next second, Ethan blocked my view with his hand and declined the call, looking at me guiltily. I turned my face toward the window, completely indifferent. He stared at me, his expression strange. "You’re not going to make a scene?" Why would I? I looked back at him. Did he expect me to scream, snatch his phone, and block her number to assert my dominance like I used to? Right now, my only priority was getting to the hospital. The phone rang again. Ethan frowned, glanced at me, and finally pressed answer. Melody's crying voice filled the car. She claimed someone was stalking her and she was terrified. Even then, she didn't forget to play the victim: "Ethan, please explain to Chloe so she doesn't get mad at you because of me..." Ethan panicked. He glanced at my bleeding leg, then shouted, "Get out of the car!" I didn't move. He literally got out, walked to my side, opened the door, and dragged me out onto the curb. "If I don't go, Melody might die!" he yelled, slamming the door. He stepped on the gas and sped away. I sat on the cold pavement, inhaling the exhaust fumes he left behind. My heart was completely shattered. I managed to hail a Uber to the hospital. On the way, the driver looked at me through the rearview mirror with concern. "Are you okay, miss? Your leg is bleeding pretty badly. Are you alone?" The genuine concern from a stranger made my eyes sting with tears. While the nurse was bandaging my leg, I could hear the girls at the nurse's station gossiping about Ethan and Melody trending on Instagram. Ethan's family company was a titan in the city, so it wasn't surprising that he was always in the spotlight. Even though I didn't want to hear it, their whispers drifted over. "Ethan’s muse is so gorgeous!" "They look perfect together. I heard she’s a world-class pianist." "Do you think they’ll announce a wedding soon?" As I sat there numbly, the nurse bandaging me shouted toward them, "Keep it down! If the head nurse hears you gossiping, you’ll get your pay docked." I smiled bitterly. I had attended several charity galas with Ethan after we got married, yet I was so forgettable. Under the bright light of his "first love," everyone had forgotten he actually had a wife. When I stepped out of the hospital, my phone buzzed with a breaking news notification. Someone had uploaded a video of Ethan physically beating a man. The internet was in an uproar. Melody had indeed been harassed, but Ethan usually cared deeply about his public image; his assistants usually handled these things. This time, he had actually lost his mind and fought the guy himself for her. I remembered during our company’s annual gala earlier this year, someone had accidentally shoved me, causing me to fall flat on the floor in front of everyone. Ethan had been holding Melody’s hand, walking toward us under the spotlight. I called out his name, but he didn't even look at me. It was only after Melody whispered something to him that he glanced at me with utter disgust, as if remembering I was his wife. "How embarrassing," he had muttered. Then, he walked away, leaving me to be mocked by the entire room. The next day, he casually bought me a diamond necklace as an apology. At the time, I cherished it like a treasure and was too afraid to even wear it. Only later did I find out it was just a custom piece that Melody had rejected. I limped back to our house and began packing my bags. At the same time, I called my best friend, Ashley. She was a top attorney at a major law firm in the city. "Ashley," I said, my voice steady. "I want a divorce." ###

I didn't have many personal belongings in the villa, so packing didn't take long. Ashley told me to wait at home while she brought over the divorce papers. During this time, Ethan called me several times, but I declined every single one. When Ashley arrived, I quickly signed the papers, tore up our wedding photos on the coffee table, and got ready to leave. Just then, the front door opened. Ethan walked in, looking exhausted, with a small scrape on his hand. He froze when he saw me holding my suitcase. He threw a plastic bag onto the table. "I bought you some gauze on the way back. See? You can't even handle such a minor thing." I looked down at the bag. It contained two rolls of gauze, and one of them had already been opened. "No need. The hospital already took care of it." He let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I knew it was just a tiny scratch. No big deal." My breath hitched. My hand clutched the handle of my suitcase tighter. "Right." He knew perfectly well that I had just undergone surgery not long ago. He knew I had a fear of blood, and that my body hadn't fully recovered. Usually, I kept quiet because I didn't want to bother him. But if he had cared even a fraction of an inch, he would have noticed my pain. He just didn't care. "I was a bit harsh this morning. But Melody is a young girl, she has no one else to rely on here. I was just panicking. You’re not still mad, are you?" I stared at the red swelling on his hand. "Why didn't you stay with her longer? To soothe her traumatized soul?" He frowned, irritated. "Chloe, do you have to speak to me like that?" "The opened gauze," I pointed at the table. "You used it on her first, didn't you?" I tossed the bag back onto the coffee table and turned to leave. He looked slightly embarrassed and tried to explain. "...Yeah, I used a little bit. She scraped her finger. But there’s still plenty left, so I brought the rest back for you." I nodded, not wanting to hear another word, and reached for my suitcase. Ethan’s face darkened instantly. "I came back to explain to you because I didn't want you to misunderstand. What is this? Are you playing the childish game of running away from home again?" "Chloe, I give you an inch and you take a mile. As long as I am in this house, you are not walking out that door!" With that, he lunged forward and violently grabbed my suitcase, jerking it back. The sudden, violent force threw me completely off balance. My leg wound, which had barely been bandaged, ripped open. A sharp, burning pain shot through my body. The stitches had torn. I could feel the warm blood soaking through my pants. "Ethan, it hurts... Please, take me to the hospital. My surgical wound opened." Cold sweat poured down my forehead, and my fingertips turned icy cold. "I barely touched you, and now you’re acting?" Ethan sneered. "Chloe, since when did you become so dramatic? Playing the victim card now?" I forced myself to breathe through the shaking of my body, trying to speak as calmly as possible. "Ethan, you know I had surgery recently. The incision never healed properly. It’s bleeding right now. I need a doctor." Ethan froze for a second, glancing at my stomach, but then his face twisted into a mocking grin. "How shameless can you be, Chloe? How long ago was that surgery? And you’re still using it as an excuse? If you bleed today, are you going to tell me you need an amputation tomorrow?" He shoved me away with brute force. I fell hard onto the floor, my head slamming violently against the sharp edge of the cabinet. Pain exploded in my skull. Everything went black for a second. "Since you love acting so much, keep acting! Let’s see how long you can keep this up. One of these days, you’re going to push me too far, and we will get a divorce!" I slowly looked up at him through my blurred vision. "If that’s what you want... let’s divorce. I won't contest anything. Just sign the papers, and we can end this." He gasped, looking at me in utter disbelief. "Chloe, have you lost your mind?" I looked at him with dead eyes. "Your muse is back. I'm stepping aside to give her her spot. Isn't that what you want?" Ethan roared in frustration, "How many times do I have to tell you? I only see her as a sister! Why can't you just believe me?" "When are you going to stop this nonsense?!" I whispered, "For two years, every time she called you in the middle of the night, you looked so terrified of losing her. I’m not blind, Ethan. I saw it all." "Just like today. I was bleeding, and you threw me out of the car." "But when Melody cut her finger while cooking, you panicked for three days. You ordered her takeout every single day and begged her never to step into a kitchen again." "And me? I had major surgery, and you never even asked how I was doing. You even expected me to do all the housework this past week." "You never stopped to think if I had the strength to do those things, or why my wound wasn't healing." I lowered my gaze. "Ethan, we’re done. I'm too tired." *Crash!* Ethan suddenly kicked my suitcase violently against my feet. "Enough!" He bent down, grabbed my wrist, and hauled me up. "Get up! Stop pretending to be tired. You said you’re bleeding, right? Fine! Let’s go to the hospital. I want to see with my own eyes how long you can keep up this pathetic act!" The violent pulling tore my wound even further. My face turned ghostly pale, and heavy drops of sweat rolled down my temples. I tried to struggle, but the blood loss and the concussion from hitting my head left me completely powerless. I could only gasp for air. I was practically dragged across the floor. Just then, Ashley burst through the front door, holding the divorce files. Seeing the horror before her, she let out a scream, rushed forward, and slammed her body into Ethan, pushing him away. She shielded me in her arms, screaming at him like a wild animal. "Ethan, you psycho! Can't you see she’s bleeding?! You’re killing her! Does she have to die for you to finally let her go?!" Ethan stood frozen, staring at the trail of blood on the hardwood floor left behind from where he had dragged me. Panic finally flushed into his face. "No... I thought... she was lying... why..." Before darkness consumed my consciousness, I looked at him one last time. He stood there, completely helpless, surrounded by my clothes that had spilled out of the broken suitcase. Ashley grabbed the heavy leather folder containing the divorce papers and threw it directly at his face. "Sign it! You bastard, sign it!" "Chloe didn't get a single day of rest after her surgery because of you! Her wound got infected multiple times, and I was the one who took her to the clinic while you were playing house with your little 'sister'!" "And now you drag her like a dog and make her bleed like this? Are you even human, Ethan? If anything happens to Chloe, I will personally make sure you go to jail for murder!" The sharp edge of the folder cut Ethan's forehead, drawing blood. The papers scattered all over the floor around him. Ethan stood there, his face completely pale, staring at my limp body, unable to make a single sound.