On the other end of the phone, her voice trembled, her desperate sobs piercing the distant galaxy and striking my eardrums. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to Mars, Neil? I've been here on Earth, searching for you like a fool!" On Mars’ desolate, ochre landscape, I stood in my bulky spacesuit, my gaze penetrating the helmet, casting itself deeper into the cosmos than the ground beneath my feet. Sadness? No, it was something heavier, unspeakable. Her pleas grew more intense, raw and desperate in their honesty. "Please, I'll do anything! I'll cook for you, wash all your smelly socks, even pick the most poisonous berries in the universe, just come back! Please, Neil, come home!" I didn't come home. Not then, at least. Weeks later, in a dazzlingly bright hall, I stood before her, finally back on Earth, dressed in a sharp, dark suit. I merely nodded at the floor, like a stranger. A glint of gold caught her eye. Slowly, she knelt, her trembling fingertips retrieving the heavy, small medal from the polished marble. "Pioneer of Space Exploration… awarded to Neil Wade, in recognition of his extraordinary experiments aboard Spaceship Tecton 7." My name, etched in cold metal, now burned in her palm like a branding iron. She gasped, raising her bloodshot eyes to fix on me. Her once loving, now bloodshot eyes widened with a sudden, overwhelming realization. "You… you're *the* Mr. Wade?" Her voice was barely a whisper, yet it struck our worlds apart like a lightning bolt. I wasn’t a husband who had abandoned her. I was a hero. The man who had left her for a distant planet – the meaning of his absence was a sacrifice she had never been told about. What secret mission had separated us? Why had you chosen to hide all this from me? Her tears fell silently, colder than Martian dust. To repay a debt of kindness, Neil signs a secret contract with Keira's father stating that he will marry Keira for five years and help her recover from a painful breakup with her first love, Simon. During their contract marriage, Neil is attentive and caring towards Keira, but she never treats him as anything more than Simon's substitute. When the contract comes to an end, Neil discovers Keira's persistent infatuation with Simon and finally decides to divorce her.