I know they're trying to pull off a "but he has a prosthetic foot he's self conscious about!" as the reason why he doesn't treat her like a human partner, but it's simply not going to work. He's too big of a scuzz bucket.

They also explain that, due to his horrific upbringing in a destitute orphanage, he either has zero emotion, or rage. All the other feelings? He doesn't feel them..... which means he's a sociopath with anger issues. Not some Byronic hero. Yay.

Contrary to most criticism lobbed at FLs in her situation, she does try to talk to her husband. Has tried multiple times over the course of their marriage. He just either a) cuts her off and dismisses her, b) is never home for her to talk to him, or c) literally doesn't listen to what she says (she tells him multiple times what her problems are, only for him to ask her the same question over and over again, or have an epiphany that is almost word for word the thing she explicitly told him earlier).

A reason she gives for wanting the divorce is that she thinks he doesn't love her, and when she asks him if he DOES he won't answer but thinks to himself that he doesn't know what love is. Continues to wonder afterwards about why she wants a divorce. She also tells him that one of the ways their marriage is shitty is that not once in 5 years have they celebrated either of their birthdays together (bcs he's always gone). Cut to some time later when it's the day of her birthday and he almost-but-not-quite forgets about it and thinks to himself: "Huh, we've never celebrated her birthday in the past 5 years." Yeah, dumbass, that's literally what she told you the other day.

However, her insistence on continuing to love her husband in spite of the fact she feels he's driven her to despair and acknowledges that he's the root of most of her pain is a real burr and annoying to read. It makes her come off as incredibly pathetic, and not in an endearing way, especially when all the two of them do is give examples of how he is Actually The Worst outside of being a bad husband. It's depressing how the bare minimum effort from him is enough to make her smile and rethink her whole plan for a divorce. Five years. Five years of less than nothing from him. Come on, girl.

It's even more tragic after she reveals that her parents were in the same situation of "arranged, wife loves husband, husband doesn't love wife, " but with an added element of physical ab*se that caused her mother to become an alcoholic. Which is really sad and makes Chloe read very much like a someone looking for the exact same toxic dynamic of her parents bcs that's what she associates love with. Especially when she says to herself "at least I haven't been beaten". Yikes! Unfortunately realistic! Tragic! And I also want to say that I don't necessarily agree with her that he isn't the kind of person to lash out at her physically, most of his angry reactions put me on edge and make him seem like he IS on the precipice of physical violence.

There isn't any. The FL stays a doormat till the end and the ML stays a jerk. She goes to another place after divorce but ML comes chasing after her and promises to build her a mechanical heart and just like that, she goes back with him and happily ever after I guess. He doesn't really love her or regret his actions or change his behaviour. FL also doesn't stick to her own thoughts and just complies to whatever ML says.

One of the most frustrating elements of Chloe's character is all of the self blame. She almost never blamed anyone but herself for all of the psychological and physical ab*se she was subjected to, and even blamed herself for Eric's indifference towards her at first. Though she later realizes that she needs to leave him to be at peace, it's still heartbreaking to see her have to suffer with no one by her side.

The most influential aspect of Eric's character is his inferiority complex. Though I understand this feeling and why it is so strongly rooted in him, he allows his inferiority complex to stop him from even trying to talk to Chloe, and as a result, he bases all of his words and actions on baeless assumptions. For example, he assumes that Chloe pities and belittles him for having a commoner background, yet she has never once looked down on him and only ever expressed her awe and admiration for his inventions.

His inferiority complex is also the root of his hypocrisy. Although Eric earned the status of a noble and constantly reminds others of this, he still calls himself a commoner infront of Chloe to blame her whenever he thinks that she's looking down on him. Seriously, if you read this novel, he is blaming her for looking down on him in every "conversation" they have with absolutely zero basis.

In addition, he values prestige, money, and status so much that he imposes impossible expections on Chloe solely because she comes from a high-ranking status. He thinks of her as a flawless, unreachable person and justifies that his only reason for never trying to talk to her is because of that belief, when truly, he is just a coward who's afraid of taking responsibility for his actions and reflecting on his words.

One of the most frustrating situations where this happened was in c43 where he found out that Chloe was being slashed and ab*sed by her mother. For context, he had blamed her for being childish and ignorant towards her mother because she had locked herself in her room and refused to talk to her. However, he didn't even ask why she was locking herself in or why she felt sick, and immediately blamed her for being ungrateful. Now, after finding out the truth of her being ab*sed, he explicitly thinks in his mind that he cannot cast aside his pride to apologize even though he knows he is in the wrong.

Now, adding to when I said that he does absolutely no self reflection, he literally refuses to take responsibility for any of his words or actions, to the point where I genuinely think he can't even hear the words he's speaking sometimes. For example, he once again blames Chloe for being ungrateful of his efforts to be a "good husband" and says that he truly tried his best. This happened after he refused to apologize for his misunderstanding and after he blatantly told her that he didn't want to divorce her because she was like an achievement—a prized object that was in his possession, yet he still had the audacity to say that he was being a "good husband" and that she lacked appreciation for his efforts, when everything he did and said was half-assed and insincere.

Lastly, he has a false conception of Chloe that she is a snake, when she has never done or said anything underhanded towards him. Yet, he believes the smallest rumours from her bit*h of a mother that she is a conniving liar and later agrees and calls Chloe a liar as well, without even talking to her, adding to the blatant ignorance.

I really hope to god that this novel ends with Chloe living far away and finding happinness for herself, and not her ending up with Eric. Seriously, he is the most arrogant, egotistic, hypocritical ML I've ever seen, and is to the point of no redemption. I understand that his past is what caused him to think this way, but a bad past doesn't excuse anyone's actions and blatant ignorance at all. He gives up before even trying and excuses it with his inferiority complex. He doesn't try to hear her out or have a proper conversation with her because he's afraid of hurting his pride and ego, and only acts on the assumptions he's made of her. Seriously the worst ML possible. Chloe deserves much better.

and ta-da! It was what I thought. Draggy and full of frustrations.

ML has inferiority complex and marrying FL only worsen it making him neglect her for years. FL has a crappy childhood turning her into a meek woman who loves to apologize even though she don't know what she did wrong. ML loved FL at first sight but since he was still a commoner at that time his feelings masked into other mixed feelings besides love. He explained to her how at some point in trying to be successful, he lost his feelings and became emotionless. He always viewed FL as someone he can only look up to because of his old title as a commoner and his mechanical leg.