While I was giving my wife a bath after we got intimate, I accidentally touched her new tattoo. My wife, who was always so sweet-natured, absolutely exploded at me. “What are you doing, touching there? What if you scratch off my tattoo? Are you just taking out your frustrations on my tattoo because *you* can’t perform? A good tattoo costs thousands, you know! My money doesn’t just magically appear!” She absolutely *despised* anyone with tattoos, and now she’d spent thousands on one herself. My wife, something was definitely wrong with her. After sex, as I was giving Chloe a bath, I accidentally brushed against her new tattoo. My usually sweet-natured wife, who rarely raised her voice, suddenly unleashed a torrent of anger at me. “What are you blindly touching? What if you scratch off my tattoo? I just got it done, it cost thousands!” “If you ruin it, I swear I’ll never forgive you!” She lowered her head, carefully, almost reverently, tracing the tattoo on her shoulder. Only after confirming it was perfectly fine did she finally let out a long, shaky breath. She glared daggers at me. “Good thing it’s fine,” I heard her hiss, “otherwise, you’d be in for it, big time!” Just moments ago, when I carried her into the bathroom, she was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open. But the second I accidentally touched the tattoo on her arm, she was like a startled cat, all claws out. And wasn’t she the one who *hated* tattoos more than anyone? When I was younger, I thought tattoos were cool too. I even got one behind my parents’ backs. But later, when Chloe and I started dating, she accidentally discovered it. I can still vividly recall the look of disgust on her face. She frowned, her voice dripping with disdain. “What *is* that hideous thing you’ve got tattooed? It’s so gross! I absolutely *loathe* tattoos. If you want a future with me, you’ll get it removed, like, yesterday! Otherwise, I’ll just be disgusted every time I look at you.” I was absolutely ecstatic when she said that. It meant she was serious about us, about a future together. So, just because she disliked it, I endured the pain and had every tattoo on my body removed. But now, *she* had gone and gotten a tattoo herself. The sheer hypocrisy! Her unusually protective attitude towards this tattoo kept screaming one message at me. My wife, something was definitely wrong with her. I tried to lean closer, to get a better look, but she immediately clutched her arm defensively, demanding, “What are you staring at, Liam? I knew you’d find a way to make it an issue.” I froze. We’d been married for three years! And now she was telling me I had “bad intentions”? That was just… insane. Totally out of line. I pulled on my clothes, my voice laced with annoyance. “Chloe, what the hell is that supposed to mean? We’ve been married for years! What on earth haven’t I seen of you?” “It’s just a tattoo. Why are you acting so weird about it?” Then, something clicked. My voice changed, a cold edge creeping in. “Or are you hiding something from me?” I scoffed. “I knew it. Why else would you suddenly decide to get a tattoo, out of the blue? So *this* is what you’ve been up to.” A faint flicker of panic crossed her face, vanishing so fast I almost convinced myself I’d imagined it. She snapped at me, then shoved her arm in front of my face. “There! I showed you! Now what? Did you figure something out?” “Always being so nosy. I just didn’t want to show it to you because it was expensive, so I kept it hidden, alright?” “You’re so annoying. All you ever do is suspect everyone and everything. Don’t you have anything better to do?” She shoved me away and wrapped in her robe, yanked open the bathroom door. Her strength wasn’t considerable, but for a split second, I was completely disoriented. I stumbled back, my lower back hitting the sink with a painful thud that made me wince and grit my teeth. By the time I recovered and walked out of the bathroom, Chloe was already lying on the other side of the bed. The faint glow from her phone screen lit up her face, a face beaming with a smile. And for some reason, it just felt… jarring. Almost blinding. It had been a long time since she’d smiled like that in front of me. When she saw me, she quickly turned off her phone and burrowed deep under the covers. She was angry again. I still couldn’t understand why she was so angry. I’d just accidentally touched her tattoo. And what were those bizarre things she had tattooed anyway? What kind of sane person gets such a hideous, tacky thing tattooed on their arm?!
I lay awake in the dark for a long time, silent, before finally breaking the quiet. “Chloe, why did you suddenly decide to get a tattoo?” She didn’t answer, but I knew she wasn’t asleep. Just a moment ago, a faint light had flickered from under her blanket. The next morning, when I woke up, the spot beside me was cold. She was already gone. My back was still throbbing from hitting the sink last night. After much tossing and turning, I decided to take the day off work and call a cab to the hospital. But I never expected such a coincidence. Chloe was already there, bright and early. When she saw me at the registration desk, a flash of panic crossed her face, immediately morphing into fury. “Liam! Are you actually stalking me, you jerk?!” Her voice involuntarily rose several octaves, causing quite a stir in the quiet hospital. Curious eyes from all around turned to me, and my face felt like it was on fire, burning with embarrassment. I forgot all about registering. I grabbed her arm, intending to drag her out, but she wasn’t about to let me. She sneered, stepping back a few paces, her sarcastic voice drilling into my ears. “I never knew you were so clingy! When did *that* happen?” “Or are you just hoping to catch me cheating?” The crowd, ever sensitive to the scent of gossip, had already pulled out their phones, ready to record the explosive drama unfolding in the hospital. I could practically hear them, in their SnapChat groups, vividly recounting the juicy spectacle to their friends and family. “Chloe! What are you talking about? Who’s stalking you? I should be asking *you*! What are you doing at the hospital this early?” My heart dropped. A wild, absurd thought suddenly shot through my mind, and I struggled to suppress my excitement as I asked her. “Are you… pregnant?” She’d always said she didn’t want kids, and we always used protection. Did we… hit the jackpot this time? She froze, then became even more infuriated. “What are you talking about, you idiot?! Who the hell is pregnant?!” Her reaction was extreme, far more than I’d anticipated. In my memory, she had always been sweet-tempered. Even when we had disagreements, she was willing to sit down and calmly resolve them. What was going on with her now? She put her hands on her hips, taking a few deep, forced breaths before her voice finally, barely, steadied. “A friend of mine is sick. I just came to the hospital to check on him.” “But you, weren’t you supposed to be at work today? Why are *you* at the hospital?” I lowered my eyes, contemplating. What kind of friend, I wondered, could possibly make *her*, a notorious night owl who practically lives for late mornings, drag herself out of bed at this hour? Before I could piece anything together, she answered a phone call and then dashed off without a backward glance. By the time I processed what was happening, she was already fifteen or twenty feet away. She didn’t even stop to hear why I was at the hospital. I had no choice but to pull out my phone and message her. **[Chloe, I accidentally hit my back on the sink last night in the shower. I wasn’t trying to follow you to the hospital.]** **[Which friend is sick? Are their family members not around? You seemed so rushed.]** Chloe was on my ‘close friends’ list, so I’d get a notification the second she messaged me. But I didn’t get a single reply, not until I had taken my number and seen the doctor. I tried calling her, but it just rang and rang. Left with no other option, I texted her again. **[Are you coming home for dinner tonight? I’ll pick up some of your favorite dishes?]** **[Or is there anything specific you’d like to eat?]** But all my messages vanished into the void. So, I just cooked a huge meal based on her preferences. It wasn’t until six in the evening that she came home, humming a carefree tune, silhouetted against the setting sun, the whole meal long since gone cold. I sat at the dining table, staring at the untouched, cold food, my expression unreadable. She walked in, flipped on the lights, acting as if nothing was amiss. “Why is it so dark in here? Why didn’t you turn on a light?” The sudden brightness made my eyes sting. Then she seemed to notice the food on the table, and she complained, “Why would you make so much food for just one person, Liam?” “Money doesn’t just grow on trees, Liam! And didn’t we agree we were saving up to get *me* a new car?” I slowly raised my gaze to meet hers. Unlike what I’d seen at the hospital earlier, she was wearing a completely different outfit now. She had time to visit a friend in the hospital. She had time to go shopping at the mall for new clothes. But she couldn’t spare two minutes to reply to my messages.
“Why didn’t you reply to my messages? I sent you so many, asking if you were coming home for dinner, and you couldn’t even bother to respond to one.” “You don’t answer calls, you don’t reply to texts. Chloe, how dare you ask *me* why I made so much food for myself?!” I rarely yelled at her by her full name, and she knew I was truly furious this time. Her face went pale. She pulled out her phone, a look that might have been guilt, or perhaps relief at finding a new excuse, flashing across her features. “My phone died. That’s why I didn’t see any messages.” “Liam, you know I didn’t do it on purpose.” Bullshit, I knew! “You had time to shop at the mall, but no time to charge your phone? Your phone had enough battery to pay at the checkout, but not enough to call me back?” “You always have so many excuses! Just look at the past few days – have you honestly bothered to read any of my messages?” “You clearly don’t care about me! So who *do* you care about? Tell me, who was that person you went to see at the hospital today?” “Don’t think I don’t know, Chloe. None of your ‘besties’ have been in the hospital lately, I know that for a fact.” It seemed I had hit a nerve. She stiffened, her voice defiant as she shot back. “My friend was hurt, and I went to see him at the hospital – what’s it to you? I married *you*, I didn’t become your puppet, expected to obey your every command!” “I have my own life too! I can’t revolve around you every single day!” “Besides, you don’t even believe me anyway! Otherwise, why would you secretly follow me to the hospital?” She clearly hadn’t read my messages. She hadn’t seen me tell her I went to the hospital because of my back pain. Right. All my rambling, unanswered messages were just a burden to her, I guess. By a cruel twist of fate, if I hadn’t hit my back yesterday, I might never have known she had run off to the hospital so early in the morning. “I wasn’t following you to the hospital! How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a stalker—” She cut me off, rubbing her temples wearily. “Forget it. We’re both too upset right now. Let’s talk about it properly when we’ve both calmed down.” The front door slammed shut. I had no idea where she could possibly go at this hour. At eight in the evening, the dinner I’d cooked lay mostly untouched. I picked at a few bites before dumping the rest into the trash. Chloe had blocked my number and all my social media. I couldn’t reach her, so as a last resort, I called her friends. My neighborhood was pretty isolated. It wasn’t safe for a woman to be out alone so late. But from eight to nine, I called a dozen or so friends, and every single one said they had no idea where she was. Where else could she possibly be at this late hour? I was just about to throw on a jacket and go look for her when I received a text from my buddy, Jake. **[Hey man, why are you in the hospital? Everything alright?]** My mind raced with questions. Who was hospitalized? I’d hurt my back, but it wasn’t serious enough to be admitted. **[?]** I texted back a question mark. Jake immediately responded with one of his own. **[Wait, dude, you’re *not* in the hospital? Then who the hell is with Chloe? I was about to go say hello to you both.]** **[But my wife was rushing me, so I didn’t even get a chance to say hi.]** **[Good thing I didn’t say hi, or I don’t know how awkward it would have been.]**
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “NovelMaster” app 🔍 search for “298726”, and watch the full series ✨! #NovelMaster #浪漫Romance #现实主义Realistic #重生Reborn
Leave a Reply