Hester thought I was throwing a tantrum—like one of those live-in husbands who discover their wife's affair and dissolve into tears and threats, only to be pacified with a luxury watch and a lavish party.
She seemed to have forgotten who I was.
I didn't have a family empire to fall back on like she did. But I'd carved my own path. Accepted to a top foreign university at sixteen. Clawed my way through Wall Street's shark-infested waters by twenty-two. Returned home at twenty-five to compete with her head-to-head in the business world.
We married not because I couldn't live without her, but because she'd promised me forever. One life. One love. Just the two of us.
The joke was on me.
Five years. That's all it took for her to forget every word.
The next day, I received a friend request from Joshua. The note read: "Darrell, I'd like to explain about your car's maintenance issue."
Work buried me that day—back-to-back meetings until evening, then a rushed flight home for my uncle's seventieth birthday. He was my only living relative.
I didn't accept the request until I landed.
Joshua immediately sent a voice message. Something about the mechanic being a temp worker who'd gone AWOL. Couldn't be reached.
I didn't reply. But my thumb slipped, and I accidentally tapped into his feed.
The latest post was from thirty minutes ago.
Hester sat on our couch in our villa, drinking soup. Behind her hung the oil painting I'd paid a fortune for at auction. The handcrafted Italian rug I'd had custom-made.
And there was Joshua. Wearing my favorite pajamas. My slippers.
Grinning beside her, one arm raised to take a selfie, the other flashing a peace sign.
The caption: "Finally able to take care of you while you're sick. I know I've been misunderstood, but the truth speaks for itself. Homemade bone broth—hope you feel better soon."
I screenshot it and sent it to Hester.
"Living in my house. Wearing my clothes. Getting cozy with my wife. This is your idea of 'innocent'?!"
Her reply came instantly.
"Darrell, Joshua spilled soup on his clothes while cooking. He's just borrowing yours temporarily. He meant well. Don't overthink it."
I laughed—cold and sharp.
"Meant well?"
"More like the soup was an excuse and sneaking into my home was the real goal. Wearing my clothes to play house? What—does he think if he squats here long enough, he'll get promoted to husband?"
"Do you have to be so cruel?"
Her tone shifted.
"You're never around. He came to take care of me. Can't you show a little generosity?"
"Darrell, you weren't like this before. When did you become so overbearing? So cold?"
I stared at the screen and laughed in disbelief.
Overbearing? Cold?
When Cobb Group's funding collapsed, I was the one who led my team through a month of sleepless nights to secure the investment that saved her.
When her father was hospitalized, I was the one who shelved a billion-dollar acquisition to sit by his bedside for two weeks.
She used to say she admired my decisiveness. My killer instinct in business.
Now that she had a sweet, attentive little angel by her side, suddenly I was overbearing and cruel?
My uncle insisted I stay. It wasn't until the third day that I caught the earliest flight home.
The fingerprint lock hadn't been changed.
But my fingerprint had been deleted.
I stood at my own front door and rang the bell.
Joshua opened it.
This time, he wasn't wearing a shirt. Just loose athletic shorts slung low on his hips. His hair was wet, dripping—like he'd just stepped out of the shower.
"Darrell?" His voice pitched with surprise. "What are you doing here? Hester's still sleeping—"
I cut him off.
"Last I checked, I don't need permission to enter my own home."
