I’m an outdoor enthusiast. My wife, though, she’s a total social phobia and never wants to leave the house. Then there was this “How Lazy Are You, Really?” challenge trending on TikTok. I snapped a picture of my wife, Chloe, sprawled on the couch, and uploaded it, starting the challenge. The comments were all like: “Yep, that’s genuine laziness, not an act.” But one comment made me freeze. 【Isn’t that Chloe , the swimming sensation from back in the day?】 【She and Jake even won awards for their synchronized swimming routines. Too bad they broke up after college.】 A week later, Chloe, uncharacteristically, grabbed her swimsuit and was heading out. She said she was going swimming with a friend. But I stared at her. “That ‘friend’ wouldn’t happen to be Jake, would it?” I’d known for a while that her first love was back. Chloe’s face instantly went pale. Her hand tightened around the swimsuit. “Alex, what are you implying?” “Are you stalking me?” I looked at her, feeling a strange sense of unfamiliarity. “Do I need to stalk you? Jake’s back in the country, right?” Chloe’s eyes darted away. She threw the swimsuit onto the sofa. “Yes, Jake is back. I only found out after a class reunion. Nothing happened between us!” I picked up the swimsuit. It was incredibly sexy, barely there. Nothing like any swimsuit I’d ever bought her. “If you’re so innocent, why dress like that?” “Alex!” Chloe’s voice rose. “How can you be so disgusting!” “We were just going for a swim, having a chat!” “What right do you have to go through my things, to read my messages!” “That’s my privacy!” I tossed my phone onto the coffee table in front of her. The screen displayed the comment section of that short video. 【Swimming Sensation Chloe】 【Chloe and Jake, the Golden Pair】 Those words were like a punch to the gut. “Privacy?” “Chloe, three years married, and I didn’t even know you used to be a competitive swimmer.” “I always thought you genuinely hated working out.” “But what’s the truth? You just hated working out *with me*.” Chloe stared at the phone screen, her body starting to tremble. “Who told you to post my picture online? Why would you expose my privacy?” “I’m your husband. Don’t I even have the right to post a picture of you…?” She picked up the swimsuit from the couch. “Believe what you want.” With that, she opened the door and left without a backward glance. I stood alone in the living room. A while later, my phone rang. It was my friend, Ryan. “Alex, did your wife go to ‘The Beast’ gym? I saw her with a guy… they looked really close.”
I hung up and drove to The Riviera Club. At the entrance, I saw Chloe’s car. I didn’t go in. I just sat in my car, staring at the club’s main door. At ten o’clock that night, Chloe walked out, side by side with a man. The man was tall, broad-shouldered, wearing a simple T-shirt that showed off his strong arms. It was Jake. Chloe was smiling beside him, a joy I hadn’t seen in the three years of our marriage. She tilted her head slightly, looking up at him, her eyes sparkling. Jake said something, then reached out and ruffled Chloe’s hair. In that moment, *they* looked like a couple. And I? I felt like a pathetic fool, hiding in the shadows, watching. I started my car and quietly drove away. Back home, I deleted that short video. And I deleted my account too. I sat in the dark, waiting for her to return. At midnight, the door opened. Chloe came in, smelling of alcohol. She saw me sitting on the couch and jumped. “Why are you sitting in the dark? You want to scare someone to death?” She complained as she switched on the living room light. “Have fun?” I asked. Her expression stiffened. “It was… just okay. A class reunion, what do you expect? Dinner, drinks.” She spoke, but her eyes kept avoiding mine. “Really?” I stood up and walked closer to her. “I thought you went swimming.” “No swimming.” She was still lying. “Chloe, Jake touched your hair.” She snapped her head up to look at me, her pupils constricting. “You… you really did follow me! Alex, you’re terrifying!” I pulled out my phone and played a video. In the video, Jake was ruffling her hair, and she was on her tiptoes, straightening his collar. “My friend sent me this video. If you’re brave enough to do it, why can’t you own up to it?” Chloe’s face instantly drained of all color. She stared at the video, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word. Finally, she lost control. “I was drunk! He was just helping me, what’s wrong with that!” I smiled. “Then that bracelet he bought you, did you accept it?” Chloe subconsciously touched her wrist. “How… how do you know about the bracelet?”
“Guess.” I didn’t tell her I’d seen an empty jewelry box in the storage compartment of her car. She’d deliberately hidden the bracelet before going to see him. Just so I wouldn’t see it. Chloe’s face grew even paler. “So what? It’s just a regular bracelet, a gift from an old classmate. Do you have to be like this?” I took a step closer to her. “Chloe, you wore clothes I bought you, drove the car I bought you, to go see your ex-lover.” “He buys you a bracelet, and you happily accept it. What about me? Do you even remember my birthday last month?” I stared hard at her, my mind replaying the day I’d excitedly booked a restaurant and returned home with the necklace you’d had your eye on for so long. I called you, and you said you weren’t feeling well, you’d been lying in bed all day. “I believed you then. I canceled all my plans and came home to take care of you.” “But when I got home from work, there was a takeout receipt in the trash.” I spoke slowly, each word deliberate, my voice trembling. “Chloe, you weren’t unwell. You were just too lazy to celebrate my birthday.” Chloe’s eyes welled up. “Alex, I didn’t forget…” “Yes, you did.” I cut her off. “Because you don’t love me at all. You just married me to find a safe place to heal your heart after Jake broke it. I was just some kind of landlord, providing you with a roof over your head and food on the table.” The living room was terrifyingly silent. Chloe’s tears started to fall. “No… Alex, it’s not what you think…” She tried to reach for my hand. I pulled away. “Don’t touch me.” She froze. It was the first time I’d spoken to her so harshly. She started crying even harder. “Jake and I really have nothing going on, we’re just friends from the past…” “The past?” I scoffed. “The moment he came back, you threw everything else out the window.” Chloe’s phone suddenly rang. She fumbled in her bag, pulling it out. The screen lit up with the name “Jake.” She didn’t dare answer, nor did she dare hang up. I looked at her. “Go on, answer it. Why aren’t you answering? Your old friend must be worried about you.” Chloe bit her lip until it was white. Finally, she pressed the answer button and put it on speakerphone. Jake’s voice, laced with laughter, came through the phone. “Chloe, are you home? If your husband dares to bully you, just tell me. I’m not someone to be trifled with.”
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