Love Is the Scorching Summer Evening Breeze

Eight months after giving birth, Celine Donaldson asks her husband Thaddeus James for money for the first time: a cheap fan and a bottle of drugstore lotion. He refuses, telling her to put up with the heat, while his phone shows a post from Jade Henson of high-end skincare he paid for. When Celine questions the gift, Thaddeus calls it business and accuses her of making a scene. In the struggle, a cart crashes into a shelf; she falls, cuts her palm and twists her ankle, but he walks off, leaving a store worker to help her. Humiliated, she borrows money from Natalie Lawrence to pay for the damage.

At home, Thaddeus shoves their feverish baby into her arms and shuts himself in the study with Jade's laughter on the line. When the baby's fever spikes, he dismisses it and leaves to check on Jade, who has a cold. Celine, ankle swollen, carries the baby to the hospital alone. As she sits through the IV, she begins to calculate what it would cost to leave him for good.