I made an international call.
“Mom, Dad’s mentioned the marriage with the Liguori Family’s daughter in his will. I agreed, so please cancel my domestic registration for me. I’ll be there in three days.”
I walked more than ten kilometres with a high fever, but finally fainted on the ground due to exhaustion.
When I woke up, I found that I had been taken to the hospital. It was already the next day.
Thirsty and parched, I wanted water, but there was no one by the bed. A nurse happened to pass by and poured me a cup of hot water.
“What’s wrong with you? You have a high fever and you’re running around everywhere. Luckily, a passing driver found you and brought you to the hospital.”
“The person listed as ‘wife’ in your phone is also at fault. I called your number, but it kept hanging up and eventually it was turned off.”
“Don’t you think your wife is worried about you?”
I responded with a bitter smile, picked up my phone and saw a red dot on my feed.
I clicked on it and saw that Timothy had updated his status last night.
The caption read: [I will not betray our encounter and I have no regrets in this life.]
The nine-grid layout was filled with live photos of Regina’s every smile and expression.
She seemed to be playfully scolding him, yet her eyes were filled with nothing but affection.
The sparkling ring on her ring finger pierced my eyes sharply.
The comments section was even more lively.
[Timothy, aren’t you afraid your wife will find out you’re divorcing her?]
[Nonsense! Regina is the sister-in-law. Timothy and Regina are the real deal.]
Timothy made a funny face.
[I’ve blocked the tiger at home. Everyone, remember to keep this a secret for me.]
He blocked his current girlfriend, my former fiancée Ursula Auxerre, but left me as the only one who could see his posts.
Just as I was about to log out of the social media app, I noticed that Timothy had sent me a link.
I accidentally clicked on it and found it was a couple’s chat room on the Line app.
It was filled with declarations of love, where the two confessed their feelings to each other and even said some explicit words of flirtation.
There were over a thousand photos, all of the two of them together, with the photo timestamps dating back as far as ten years ago.
They were hugging and kissing and even through the screen, I could feel the genuine love between them.
I flipped through my phone’s gallery. Over the past five years, the number of photos I had with Regina could be counted on one hand.
I had asked her to take photos with me hundreds of times, but every time we appeared in the frame, she would angrily push the camera away, saying she didn’t like taking photos.
It turned out she wasn’t against taking photos; it was just that the small frame couldn’t accommodate three people.
I was just the pitiful outsider excluded from her world.
I saved all the photos and screenshotted the ones Timothy had posted on his social media.
When I returned home from the hospital, I found Regina hadn’t come back. Checking the surveillance footage, I realized she hadn’t returned all night.
I looked at the crystal wedding photo hanging on the wall. At some point, the crystal had cracked, forming a line exactly between Regina and me.
I took down the wedding photo and my phone rang.
“Boss, don’t forget, today is our company’s new product launch. The event can’t go on without you. After all, you’re the architect of the entire system.”
“Got it, I’ll change and be right there.”
When I arrived at the event venue, I just heard the host inviting the responsible person to take the stage.
I straightened my suit, but before I could take a few steps, I was stopped by a figure.
“Stephen, please take a good rest. After all, you had a high fever last night. I’ve already asked Timothy to speak on your behalf.”
I looked at Regina in confusion, noticing the faint kiss mark on her half-covered neck and felt a pang of jealousy.
She subconsciously pulled up her collar and said with a guilty look on her face.
