The Shape of Happiness: A Family Crumbling Due to the Mother's Infidelity, a Wounded Middle School Daughter, and a Struggling Father Finding a New Form of Happiness. - Episode 29

Atsushi, his face twisted with rage, slumped arrogantly on the sofa and shouted.

“Who cares, idiot! You got a problem with me?! What, you want money? Is that it? You poor bastard! Fine, I’ll pay. How much? A million? Two million?!”

Atsushi sneered at Shinichi, then turned his attention toward his wife, Ryoko.

“Ryoko, you don’t have any complaints, do you?”

Ryoko glared at him with contempt.

“Do you even realize your position? Who else would marry someone like you besides me, huh?” Atsushi smirked.

Ryoko flinched, her body trembling slightly.

“You know it yourself, don’t you? You’re ugly. Who else but me would be willing to sleep with you? No one, right?”

Hearing Atsushi’s cruel words, Shinichi clenched his fists tightly.

“I’d bet on it. If you leave me, your chances of happiness are zero. You know that better than anyone, don’t you?”

A single tear rolled down Ryoko’s cheek.

Atsushi, his face still twisted in a sneer, delivered a final, heartless blow.

“You can’t even have kids, after all.”

In a flash—

Shinichi, unable to hold back his fury, lunged at Atsushi. But before he could strike, Ryoko grabbed his arm, stopping him. As Shinichi turned to look at her, she shook her head, tears streaming down her face. He gritted his teeth, his fists trembling, and sat back down on the sofa.

For a brief moment, a flicker of fear crossed Atsushi’s face, but he quickly reverted to his smug expression.

“You know, the real problem here is that you couldn’t satisfy Akiko, isn’t it?”

Akiko smirked at Shinichi.

“That’s right! If it weren’t for Atsushi, I would have been completely broken by your emotional abuse!”

“Well, I guess I should apologize for stealing your wife, huh? She felt amazing, by the way. But don’t worry—I’ll pay you for the trouble.”

“Atsushi was truly wonderful… Since he did what you couldn’t, you should be paying him instead!”

“Hahaha! That makes sense. That’s how it should be, right?”

“You should be thanking him for pleasing your wife! Bow your head and show some gratitude! Why should Atsushi be the one to pay?!”

Even as Akiko spat out her vile words, Atsushi continued grinning. Meanwhile, behind Shinichi, Akiko’s mother, Saori, stood trembling, barely able to contain her rage. Next to her, a middle-aged man stood motionless, his face unreadable.

“Calm down, Akiko. He’s just acting like a spoiled brat, throwing a tantrum. Here, take this money and go to a brothel or something.”

“Atsushi, you really are the best. This is what a real man looks like.”

Akiko shot a sharp glare at Shinichi.

“All this fuss over a little affair. Are you stupid? This is all your fault! Do you really think I’m to blame? And you dragged my mother into this mess—enough already!”

She slumped back onto the sofa, just like Atsushi.

“I thought maybe I’d keep playing the role of your wife since you’re useful as an ATM, but I’m done. I want a divorce. And I don’t want Misaki either.”

She sneered as she coldly discarded her own daughter. Her expression twisted further into madness as she yelled.

“I’ve found my own ‘happiness’! I won’t let you, Misaki, or even that woman Ryoko get in my way! You have no right to complain about what Atsushi does! If things had gone differently, I should have been his wife…”

Akiko’s crazed grin turned toward Shinichi.

“There, I’m giving you the divorce! You have no complaints now, right?! I’m so sick of this!”

Can a person truly fall this far into madness?

Shinichi thought to himself. It wasn’t just him—Saori and Ryoko felt the same. Atsushi and Akiko had completely lost their sanity. Perhaps, in the beginning, they were simply desperate, lashing out in reckless abandon. But now, it was different. They genuinely believed they were in the right.

They had convinced themselves that their twisted, selfish world was justified.

But in reality, they were nothing more than addicts—drowning in the euphoria of their immoral affair, high on the brain’s own intoxicating chemicals. Their justification existed only within the walls of their depravity, completely disconnected from reality, from Shinichi, from Ryoko, and from Saori. And certainly, from the law.

Soon, Atsushi and Akiko would come to understand the consequences of their actions.

Their judgment was about to begin—