My fiancée, Julia Hartwell, got promoted to Vice President and threw a party to celebrate. I was holding a custom pink diamond ring, planning to surprise her with a proposal. But outside the door, I overheard her telling her friends: “I’m making a million dollars a year now. Xavier is nowhere near my league anymore. He’s just a dog I keep around.” Her newly hired assistant, Derek Stone, wrapped his arm around her waist and said: “Being your dog is an honor for him. He has no idea how many men are lining up for the chance!” She laughed in Derek’s arms, her body shaking with amusement. I smiled bitterly and tossed away the pink diamond ring, sending my father a message: “Dad, I agree to the arranged marriage. Fire Julia immediately!” Then I called the wedding planning company: “Hello, for the wedding in ten days—the bride’s name needs to change. I’m getting a new bride.” “Yes, we’ll discuss the details when we meet.” After I hung up, the party had ended and Julia was just coming out of the bathroom. Her hair was half-dry, wrapped in a bathrobe with moisture clinging to her skin. Normally her showers took half an hour, but today she’d been in there for a full hour. She frowned at me: “Who were you just calling?” I told her honestly—someone from the wedding company. Julia relaxed. “The wedding isn’t for another ten days. You don’t need to be so meticulous.” She probably thought I was calling to go over details with the wedding planners. After all, during our five years together, I’d personally planned every holiday and anniversary down to the smallest detail, just to make her happy. “Mm.” Indeed, I didn’t need to be—especially since the person I was marrying was even more meticulous than me. At that thought, I smiled bitterly. Julia impatiently ran her fingers through her hair. “My hair’s still wet!” Before, I would always patiently blow-dry her hair after every shower. But now, I didn’t want to. “Sorry, I still have things to do. Dry it yourself.” Julia froze, her voice turning sharp: “What could a house husband possibly have to do?!” “Your main job is taking care of me! Those were your own words. Have you forgotten?” A fine, dense pain spread through my chest. Five years ago, I had said I would take good care of her. But now, I didn’t want to anymore. “I don’t want to take care of you anymore, Julia.” With that, I grabbed my jacket and left without looking back. When I got home, I fell to my knees before my parents in remorse. “Mom, Dad, I was wrong! I agree to the arranged marriage. Same wedding date, different bride!” My parents exchanged surprised glances and quickly asked what happened. To be with Julia, I’d broken with them and moved out five years ago. A few months ago, when they found out I was going to marry Julia, they finally couldn’t stand by anymore. They came to me and said they’d found a suitable match for an arranged marriage—the daughter of the Sinclair Corporation, who was also my childhood playmate. By any measure, she was better than Julia. I refused them, saying my true love was Julia. As it turned out, Julia slapped me hard in the face and broke my heart. “Xavier, do you really agree to the arranged marriage? Don’t you want to meet her first?” My mother helped me up, her heart aching for me. “No need. I trust your choice.” At least I wouldn’t be hurt so badly by love again. Late at night, Julia called. “Xavier, I didn’t dry my hair in time and now I have a cold. Can you buy me medicine and bring it home?” On the other end, her voice was soft and sweet—clearly giving me a way out. Every time we fought, as long as she spoke gently and played the victim, I would always soften. But not this time. “Don’t you have an assistant? Just have him bring you medicine. I’m busy. Gotta go.” Julia’s voice shot up, shrill and angry: “What’s your problem? Why are you bringing him up out of nowhere?! You’re my husband—of course you should be the one taking care of me!” I said nothing. During our five years together, Julia had always been imperious with me like this. She trampled on my sincere feelings, constantly giving other men opportunities. Too bad I was too foolish. Blinded by love, I stubbornly believed she just had a bad temper, but that deep down she always loved me. Until I saw with my own eyes how she compared me to Derek, saying I was boring and he was exciting. That’s when I finally understood—she only loved herself. “Like I said, I’m busy. Figure it out yourself.” I hung up. My parents breathed a sigh of relief. The next morning, I went home to pack my things. Opening the door, I saw Julia lying on the couch, looking at me with an aggrieved expression. “You’re finally willing to come back.” Her face was pale, clutching her stomach as she spoke resentfully. I sighed. Seemed like she’d gotten herself pretty worked up yesterday. She had stomach problems—whenever her emotions fluctuated too much, her stomach would hurt. Though I was determined to leave, seeing her like this made me feel somewhat guilty. I pulled out the medicine box, found some cold medicine, and poured her a fresh glass of water. “There’s medicine in the box. You didn’t even think to get it yourself.” She took the medicine, but before she could speak, a male voice rang out. “Julia, should I put sugar in the porridge?” Derek, wearing an apron, walked out of the kitchen. The moment he saw me, he froze, then smiled: “Xavier, you’re here?” Like he was the man of the house greeting a guest. The next second, realizing he’d said the wrong thing, he quickly corrected himself: “Oh, you’re back, Xavier. Julia’s been running a fever and her stomach’s been hurting. She said you were busy, so she had to call me to bring medicine.” Only then did I notice a paper medicine bag on the coffee table. I couldn’t help but smile. Looks like I’d worried for nothing again. Julia tilted her head back and swallowed the pills, then gulped down several mouthfuls of the water I’d poured. “Honey, your medicine still works best.” “Don’t be mad. I waited for you all last night. This morning I was feeling so awful I had to call my assistant over.” She rested her head on my shoulder, speaking weakly: “The moment I saw you, I felt so much better.” “Derek, you can head back to work now.” She raised her hand to dismiss Derek. After he left, Julia took my hand and said earnestly: “Honey, yesterday was my fault. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.” “Will you forgive me?” She rarely called me “honey.” This was also the first time she’d chosen me in front of Derek. So she did know how to make me feel secure. She just never wanted to before. Now it was too late. I gently pulled my hand away and stood up: “Just rest. Don’t overthink things.” In the kitchen, I looked at the two sets of bowls and chopsticks in the sink. My heart sank to the bottom. Derek had been here last night. Once again, Julia had lied to me.
I pulled out my phone and looked at Derek’s post from last night. Still set to be visible only to me. [Boss works so hard, working late and getting sick before her wedding. Brought her medicine and a late-night snack.] The picture showed him making a peace sign next to Julia’s sleeping face. Since he wanted to move up so badly, I’d just let him have her. I went to the wedding company to discuss the details of changing brides. I’d handled all the wedding arrangements—Julia hadn’t shown her face once, so it was easy to finalize everything. Back home, looking at our wedding photos in the living room, I found them grating. I took them down, along with all our photos together over the years, and packed everything in boxes to throw away. A pink card fell out of the album. It read: [Julia will always love Xavier Knight]. She’d written it five years ago when she confessed her feelings to me. Over five years, I’d compromised again and again for love, becoming someone unlike myself, only to be met with disdain. I crumpled the card into a ball and tossed it in the trash. “What are you doing?” Julia’s voice came from behind me. I looked up at the clock—it was already 7 PM. Right when Julia got off work. Today she hadn’t worked late or had any social obligations. She’d come straight home. I was a bit surprised and quietly closed the box. “Just sorting through some trash.” She looked around, seeming to notice something missing from the living room. “Where’s our wedding photo?” “The frame broke. Took it to get fixed.” I answered casually without looking up. “Oh.” Julia didn’t ask more questions. She held up a box. “Stop working for now. I brought you shrimp. Come eat.” Seeing I didn’t move, Julia frowned: “What’s wrong?” “I’m allergic to shrimp.” She knew that. But she’d forgotten. Julia’s expression froze, guilt flashing across her face. “Sorry, I forgot. Let me go buy you something else!” She grabbed the box and headed out again. I took out my phone and, unsurprisingly, saw Derek’s post. [Boss brought me a love dinner—my favorite shrimp!] I see. It was just that Derek loved shrimp, and she’d brought me some on the side. I smiled and continued packing. Julia said: “You don’t need to rush with the packing. After we get married, we’ll move to the new house together. I’ll help you organize then.” “Mm. I just want to throw out some useless stuff ahead of time.” I replied perfunctorily. Seeing my lack of enthusiasm, Julia took the initiative: “You always said you wanted to see the Northern Lights in Iceland, right? For our honeymoon, I requested a month off. I’ll go with you.” If this were before, hearing her say this would have made me excitedly spin her around. But now, I knew we wouldn’t be going together. She held my face and kissed me, but her phone rang. With just one glance, her expression changed. “Honey, something came up at the company. I need to go back and work late.” I nodded and got up to carry the boxes out. “Let me take out the trash.” Julia eagerly took them from me and left. Actually, if she’d just opened them and looked, she would have seen that the “trash” I was throwing away was our wedding photo, our couple’s albums, and the confession card she’d written by hand. Unfortunately, she never noticed.
Late at night, I came across Derek’s post. [Got diarrhea from working late, but luckily my boss took care of me. So blessed!] The picture showed Julia’s bare arm as she held out medicine and water. Looked like the shrimp soup dumplings were to blame. Good thing I didn’t eat any. I met up with some old friends and had a good drinking session with them. Before, Julia wouldn’t let me drink and didn’t like me having my own social life. Now, I was finally free. I woke up from my hangover the next afternoon. When Julia came in, she automatically said: “Worked too late last night, so I slept at the office.” She tiredly took off her jacket, then sniffed and frowned. “Where’s that smell of alcohol coming from?” “Had too much with friends yesterday. Opening the windows should help.” She frowned in displeasure but, after looking at my expression, ultimately said nothing. Right—she could spend the whole night taking care of her assistant and lie to me. What right did she have to control me? Glancing at the bright red “4” on the countdown calendar on the table, she seemed to remember something. “Oh right, your birthday’s in two days. Is there anything you want?” With her reminder, I remembered my birthday was coming up. “No need. I don’t want to celebrate my birthday.” I used her own words to answer her coolly. On her birthday, I’d made a whole table of food waiting for her, only to be scolded: “My work is very busy, and I don’t want to celebrate my birthday. You don’t need to wait for me.” Later, I discovered on Derek’s Instagram that Julia had closed her eyes to make a wish over a cake. Turned out, she didn’t not want to celebrate her birthday—she just didn’t want to celebrate with me. That day we had a huge fight. I yelled asking her who she was thinking of when she made her wish. She said I was petty, that her colleagues had insisted on celebrating and she couldn’t refuse. Seeming to remember this, guilt flashed in Julia’s eyes. “That won’t do. This is your last birthday before the wedding. I need to celebrate it properly with you!” She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and gently kissed my cheek. “Huh? How come you’re not wearing the watch I gave you last year?” That watch had been thrown in the trash the moment she walked out yesterday. “Put it away for safekeeping.” I said flatly. Julia just said “oh” and didn’t ask further. She’d stayed up all night taking care of Derek, then worked all day. She was exhausted. She took a shower and went to bed early. Three more days, and I’d be completely free of Julia. I called the wedding company and had them go meet the new bride at her address, to take her measurements and pick out a wedding dress. My parents also called to urge me to meet her beforehand. “It’s not like we’ve never met. We can see each other at the wedding.” “See who?” Julia had overheard my conversation. “My parents. They said they wanted to see you before the wedding. I declined for you.” I replied coolly. Julia was a bit unhappy. “Come to think of it, in five years I still haven’t met them. Why are you declining for me?” The daughter-in-law they want to see isn’t you. I opened my mouth but ultimately didn’t bother saying it. Julia opened the closet and exclaimed in surprise: “Why are all your clothes gone?” “I packed them away. It’ll be easier to move them directly to the new house later.” I answered flatly. After Julia took out her jacket, she turned and hugged me. “I requested tomorrow off. I’ll stay home and celebrate your birthday with you!” This was one of the few times she’d taken the initiative to be considerate. “Okay.” Fine. Five years ago, we got together on my birthday. Let it end on this day too. Julia went shopping for groceries with me, then got called away by a phone call. No need to guess—the only person who could call her away at a time like this was Derek. I didn’t expose her, but went home alone and started cooking. She said she’d definitely be back within two hours. But by the time I’d finished making a whole table of food and eaten my share, she still hadn’t come back. I wiped my mouth and stood up, calling my parents. “Let’s go. I’ll come with you to see the wedding venue.” When I arrived at the reserved wedding hotel, I unexpectedly saw Julia. Behind her was Derek, dressed in a full suit. The two were chatting and laughing, looking every bit like a couple. “Don’t misunderstand, honey. I’m here to help Derek out. The girl he was set up with on a blind date won’t leave him alone, so I’m pretending to be his sister to chase her away…” I nodded. “Running into harassment and stalking is indeed troublesome. As his boss, you should protect your subordinate.” Seeing I wasn’t making a scene or misunderstanding, Julia breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll go up with him first. Let’s meet downstairs in a bit.” Derek forced a smile and thanked me, then was the first to enter the elevator. The tie he was wearing was from my favorite brand. It was also the one Julia had put in her bag this morning. It should have been my birthday present. Julia hesitated, but finally followed him into the elevator. As the elevator doors closed, I seemed to see my former self in Derek. Back then, Julia had been just as attentive to me. If anyone dared show interest in me, she’d get incredibly anxious. I toured the venue with my parents, and after seeing them off, Julia still hadn’t come down. Thinking of how she’d said “see you in a bit,” I sent her a text. [Done yet? When are you coming back?] She quickly sent back a voice message. When I played it, it was Derek’s voice. “Xavier, you should head back first. Julia got into a bit of a scuffle with that woman and got her clothes splashed. She’s in the shower now. I’ll have her call you back later!” Hearing the sound of running water in the background, I decisively took a taxi home. “Xavier, don’t be mad. This is all my fault. I didn’t expect that woman wouldn’t believe Julia and I are siblings, and even got physical with her…” Derek’s voice couldn’t hide his smugness. I ignored him. After a long while, Julia called to scold me. “I already explained everything to you. Why are you still dwelling on it?” “Derek came to this city alone to make it. It’s not easy. I’m his boss—what’s wrong with helping him out?” I could hear Derek’s aggrieved sobbing through the phone. I took a deep breath, no longer interested in engaging with his manipulative games. “Mm. I understand. You go ahead and stay busy.” I hung up, cleared out all my belongings, and left.
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