Austin's POV
Jane carefully helped Chris steady himself before turning to me.
"Chris is my assistant now. I gave him the door code to make it easier for him to work. Are you seriously going to make a fuss over something so trivial?"
She shot me a look filled with disdain, her eyes practically daring me to challenge her.
"God, Austin! Your jealousy is honestly suffocating!" she snapped, the edge in her voice cutting through the room.
I stood there frozen, like I'd just been hit by a freight train.
She really said that I suffocate her?
Isn't it suffocating how, over the past two years, with her silent approval and indulgence, Chris has been present everywhere in our marriage?
He’s been all over it, invading every corner without boundaries.
From the first time he came over to drop off some papers, to the countless nights he shamelessly ate dinner and stayed over at our house. He wore my clothes without asking, used my razor, and countless other 'small things' that piled up.
What started as a two-person marriage turned into a three-person circus.
And I was the one left out.
I let out a deep sigh and looked her squarely in the eye. “Since this marriage has caused so much pain for both of us, why don’t we just sign the divorce papers and be done with it?”
She furrowed her brows, pushing the papers aside.
“Enough. Stop making a scene, Austin! Apologize to Chris, and we can consider this mess over. We can still be friends in the future,” she added, her tone now colder than before.
Hearing the word 'friends' again from Jane sent a surge of anger through me. It brought up all the painful memories I had buried.
I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
"I would rather spend the rest of my life alone than call someone who once bullied me a friend."
I’ll never apologize to him. Not now, not ever.
Back then, in my attempt to fit in with my classmates, I hid my family background. Little did I know that would make me an easy target for Chris.
On the first day of school, he threw my books and backpack into a filthy pond behind the school, then slashed my uniform pants with a knife. Later, under pressure from my family, the school forced Chris to apologize publicly and even expelled him.
It was Jane who persuaded me.
"Austin, it's better to resolve conflict than let it fester. He knows he was wrong. Just let it go."
Because I was so in love with Jane, I swallowed my pride, shook hands with Chris, and even let the school keep his enrollment.
Looking back now, I see it for what it was—her favoritism toward him started right then. But I was too blinded by love to see it.
Chris’s expression darkened, and tears began to well up in his eyes.
“I was wrong. I overstepped. I shouldn’t have tried to act like a friend based on our past as classmates. I forgot that now I’m just a lowly employee in your company. I deserve nothing. I’ll leave now.”
Jane’s eyes instantly filled with tears. She stepped in front of him, her protective instinct kicking in.
Then Jane snapped at me, "I made you the husband of Reynolds Group's CEO, not so you could go around acting like this!"
She turned and gently patted Chris’s trembling shoulder, her voice softening. “Chris, don’t put yourself down. I’ve never seen you as just another employee.”
Her gaze softened as she looked at him, glowing with a tenderness I had never seen directed at me before.
"You’ve always been the most special person to me."
I stood there, stunned, watching my legally wedded wife pour her heart out to another man. It didn’t make me fly off the handle like it would have before. Instead, it sent a cold chill through me.
Given that Chris had graduated from a low-tier foreign university, he was utterly unqualified to be the president's assistant. But it was Jane who fought through every objection and insisted on keeping him.
She not only gave him an obscene salary but also showered him with special treatment. The level of special treatment was so extreme that even I, her legitimate husband, had been pushed aside.
Chris calls her 'Ms. Reynolds' because of her position as the president of Reynolds Group, but when it comes to me, he uses my first name, claiming it's because we’re close.
But, the truth?
I see right through it. Chris doesn’t think I deserve the title of Jane’s husband.
