Chapter 2: The Disappearing Husband

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Translator: Soafp

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[Fumika PoV]

My husband suddenly disappeared.

The family that had been broken by my foolish actions.

Just when I thought, after three years, that we might finally be able to rebuild it, this happened.

I immediately tried calling my husband's phone, but the call wouldn't go through.

When I contacted his company, they told me he had handed in his resignation a month ago, and that yesterday was his final day after finishing the handover.

“Why…”

A month ago?

What does that even mean…

“Is there anything you can think of?”

“Fumika, anything at all, try to remember.”

My parents, who rushed over, pressed me.

But I couldn't think of anything.

For the past two months, my husband had shown signs of opening up.

It felt like the days of atonement were finally coming to an end.

“You don't mean… you're still seeing that man?”

“Of course not! Do you know how much I've suffered because of my mistake?!”

I snapped back at them without thinking.

“Then why does it say [be happy with him]?”

“I don't know…”

On the table was the note my husband had left behind.

[Sorry for making you endure three years. Please, be happy with him.]

I couldn't make sense of the words.

I swear I haven't met Yamaguchi since then, not even once. And yet…

“In any case, we need to find Masashi as quickly as possible.”

“That's right. As long as we don't know what Masashi might do…”

How dare they say something so ominous while speaking my husband's name!

“Don't say such things so lightly!!”

“…Fumika.”

“I'm sorry…”

It wasn't my parents' fault, but again I lashed out. I hated myself all the more for it.

We reached out to acquaintances and even my husband's family, but there were no leads.

“How much more do you intend to make this family suffer?!”

“Enough already, you people!!”

Masashi's parents arrived in a rush, shouting in anger. All my family could do was bow their heads.

We even submitted all the information we had about him to the police, filing a missing persons report.

“Don't get your hopes up too much,”

said a friend of mine who worked in the legal field.

“If they don't see it as a crime, the police won't move proactively.”

She told me there were over eighty thousand missing people. With so many cases, why would my husband be the one they miraculously find?

“We've hit a dead end…”

The situation was hopeless. There were hardly any of my husband's belongings left at home.

Come to think of it, two months ago he had started getting rid of the things related to his hobbies.

“Time to say goodbye to old things. I need to start fresh.”

He had said it with a smile. Did I ever really try to understand what he was feeling? All I thought was that we could start over.

“…Shiori.”

I thought of my best friend, Shiori Mitana. The one who had witnessed my affair.

“What's wrong?”

Even though it had been three years, she answered immediately.

“M-my husband… he's gone.”

“Huh?”

“I'm telling you, he's disappeared!”

“Well, that's only natural after what you did. Why act surprised now?”

Her exasperated tone made anger rise in me. But I swallowed it. She had never spread word of my affair to our other friends.

“No, you don't understand. We were rebuilding, things were going well. And then suddenly—”

“Maybe you were the only one who thought things were going well.”

“Shiori…”

Her voice over the phone changed. Gone was the warmth, replaced by something cold and harsh.

“People who've been cheated on, even if they look normal, deep down they're broken.”

“No way…”

“For the record, I don't know where your husband went. From the moment you cheated, Fumika, you became someone disgusting to me.”

“…I'm sorry.”

Shiori had once been betrayed herself—her fiancé cheated, and the engagement ended. That's why I confessed before anyone else could, afraid she would expose me.

“Because we were once friends, I'll say this: there must have been a trigger.”

“A trigger? What do you mean?”

“How would I know? Don't call me again.”

And with that, she hung up.

“A trigger… what could it have been?”

Desperate, I searched through my memories. Since we began rebuilding, I had kept a diary, household accounts, even printed out call logs from my phone…

“…Ah.”

My eyes stopped on a few call records. They had been coming in regularly, starting about a year ago.

“Section Chief Yamaguchi…”

My former boss, Ryoji Yamaguchi, the man I had the affair with. Could it have been my conversations with him?

“W-what am I doing…”

The phone trembled in my hand. Who was I about to call just now?

“…Dad, maybe…”

I pulled myself together and called my father.

“Idiot!!”

“Why would you ever get in touch with him again?”

After leaving my son at after-school care, my parents rushed in and hurled words at me. I couldn't stop trembling.

“It was sudden—he called to check on me, to encourage me.”

“That's not kindness!”

“Don't you see yet?!”

The words kept coming, one after another. Why couldn't they understand? I had no intention of seeing him, much less having an affair again!

“That man is a coward!”

“No way…”

A coward? Yamaguchi? But he had sincerely apologized, and even paid compensation.

“Think about it—what kind of decent man sleeps with a married woman?”

“Ah…”

“And that compensation—he only paid because he knew his career wouldn't be ruined. That's all.”

“That's right. If he had really been at risk of losing his position, he wouldn't have agreed to a settlement so quickly.”

“But… he tried to encourage me.”

“That's just more proof of his cowardice. Don't you get it?”

“He only wanted to look good, to avoid being hated. Imagine—after destroying a family, and still worrying about appearances. He's the lowest of the low.”

…Could it be?

“No… had I been deceived by Yamaguchi again?”

“Most likely, Masashi overheard your conversations with that b*****d… Oh God…”

“No! I have to clear this up!”

“How? We don't know where Masashi is.”

“Still! Yamaguchi has to explain it to him! Tell him it wasn't me who called—”

A sharp sting ran across my left cheek. Through tears, I saw my mother glaring at me.

“It's too late… Masashi is broken.”

“It can’t be… we've made another mistake. We should have let him divorce you right away. But because of our love for our grandson, we…”

“Dad… Mom…”

How foolish could I be? Repeating disgraceful acts out of selfishness, destroying the man I loved…

“Ahhh…”

The tears would not stop. I wished I could just break apart and disappear, too.