The night my wife went on a business trip, I received a call from the airline.
"Is this Mr. Richard Lambert? Your wife, Mrs. Susan Lambert, has purchased two aviation insurance policies. Please verify the information."
Two? My wife was traveling alone, so why would she have two insurance policies?
Looking at the information from the airline, one policy belonged to my wife, Susan and the other to her intern, Mike Specter.
My eyes stung. I picked up my phone and called Susan, "Are you traveling alone?"
She was breathing heavily on the other end of the line, "Yes, of course I am. What's wrong?"
I looked at the ticket purchase record on my computer, my body swaying for a moment. Then I calmly said, "Nothing. What are you doing?"
"Huh... I'm running. I'm hanging up now. You're home alone, take care of yourself."
Running? I smiled sarcastically. Without you, I could take better care of myself.
——
When did Susan and Mike start dating?
I remembered what happened a week ago. That day, I needed Susan's signature on a document, but I saw Mike coming out of her office.
When Mike saw me, his eyes were visibly flustered, but I didn't notice and asked him, "Is Miss Susan in there?"
He glanced away and pointed at the office, "Yes, Miss Susan is in there."
Then he shouted, "Miss Susan, Mr. Lambert is here."
At the time, I scolded him for yelling in the office, but now I understood he was tipping off Susan to clean up the mess and avoid me getting caught off guard.
The same thing happened three days ago, on Mike's birthday. I saw a watch on his wrist, the latest Patek Philippe model, which he couldn't afford with his salary.
I smiled and asked him, "Is it a gift from your girlfriend?"
His face paled and he lowered his head in confusion, stammering. I thought he was worried I'd despise him for being a gigolo. So I patted his shoulder with a smile and turned to Susan, saying, "Honey, I want a Patek Philippe watch, too."
Susan replied, "Why buy one? It's so expensive! Watches are just for telling time. Just buy something decent."
Well, now I realized she wasn't too bothered by the price; she just didn't want to buy it for me.
In reality, everything had been obvious for a long time, but I didn't think much of it. From the beginning, I had absolute trust in Susan. And yet, she exploited that trust to hurt me again and again.
Tonight's insurance information and phone call made me see her clearly and face reality.
If she didn’t love me, why should I risk getting hurt and forcing her?
After glancing at the insurance information on my phone, I went into the study and opened Susan's computer. I gathered all of the evidence and file for divorce!
The startup prompt asked for a password. I tried my birthday, her birthday and our anniversary, but none of them worked. My eyes darkened for a moment and I picked up my phone and called my programmer friend.
"Do me a favor. Get the computer that requires a password to boot up and retrieve all the chat logs, photos and videos, even those that have been deleted."
"No problem. I'll come to your house after work to get the computer."
"Yes!"
Just one night later, my friend showed up with his computer, angrily declaring, "Divorce. You must divorce her!"
I didn't say anything, but took the computer and examined it.
The first thing I looked at was the chat logs.
[Miss Susan, was it exciting at home yesterday?]
[You're so mean. You kept me on edge the whole time.]
[Hey, didn't you enjoy it too? Miss Susan, when can we do it again?]
