He always said I got pregnant on purpose.

He was the one who wanted his parents to accept me and wanted to have a child with me.

But after Brittany came back, he regretted it and blamed me.

He honked the horn loudly.

If he was this angry, I would apologize and explain.

But I didn’t want to argue anymore.

I looked out the window.

After a long time, he turned to me, and called, "Ashley."

I closed my eyes and didn’t answer.

The GPS was giving directions.

When we were 0.2 miles away from the destination, his phone rang.

Brittany was crying and said her heart was hurting again.

Honestly, I was tired of hearing it.

Since she came back to the States, her heart was always acting up on important days.

It was obvious she was faking it, but Mark couldn’t see it.

I said, “Just drop me off at the next intersection.”

Mark stared at me. “You’re not mad? You don’t want to come with me?”

I shook my head.

I didn’t want him to be alone with Brittany, so I said I could go with him to take care of her.

He yelled at me, saying I was bad, petty, and should be pure and kind like Brittany.

He pursed his lips, and his phone kept ringing.

The car was at the intersection.

I grabbed my bag and got ready to get out of the car. But he grabbed my wrist, looking at me. “I’ll go see her. I’ll be back to take you out to dinner. You’ll be Mrs. Mark, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad." I tried to push him away.

He squeezed my hand tighter. “Ashley, you’re not the same anymore. You don’t..."

"You’re not jealous anymore? It’s okay. She just sees you as a brother. It’s normal for her to find you. You should go.”

I smiled and got out of the car.

Then I took a cab back to the hotel, ate the buffet, and went to bed.

I was half asleep when Mark called, and he explained that Brittany couldn’t be alone. He couldn’t take me out to dinner and told me not to wait for him.

I only said, “I already ate.”

He was silent, then gritted his teeth and asked, “Are you going to do this?”

I said, “Yeah,” and hung up, going back to sleep.

I saw a text from him the next day, warning me not to play with fire.

When I went back to work, I knew what he meant.

The projects I was working on were under Brittany.

She was our new leader, and she was always smiling and asking me to do chores.