A simple 'sorry' from customer service brought tears to his eyes.
When I was by his side, he never cherished me. Now, he treated those irretrievable memories as treasures, how laughable.
Jaden saw me smile and his panic turned into relief. He wiped the corners of his eyes and tried to pull me into his arms for a kiss. "Are you feeling sick?" he asked.
I watched him approach calmly, observing as he shifted the kiss meant for my neck to my lips to hide the trembling in his pupils.
I was certain he wouldn't dare to kiss me for real and sure enough, he clenched his fists, wrestling with his thoughts. Luckily, his phone's ringtone saved him.
He glanced at the caller ID, sighed in relief and deliberately answered impatiently, "Even if the sky falls right now, don't bother me. I'm spending time with my wife!"
The next moment, a message popped up on my phone: [Richelle, if I were you, I'd find some deserted place to quietly die instead of shamelessly clinging to someone else's man!]
The sobbing voice on the other end of the call made Jaden frown with concern, though he pretended to cut off the call in annoyance.
Or maybe it wasn't an act, after all, he had sincerely despised me for ten years. That expression had long become second nature to him.
Seeing me staring at my phone, he leaned closer with a look of deep affection, "Richelle, what are you looking at?"
The cloying scent on him, one that didn't belong to me, made my stomach churn.
As I ran to the bathroom, vomiting so violently the world seemed to spin, he panicked, sweating profusely, "Richelle, don't scare me! Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"
I said, "Stay away from me. The smell on you is revolting."
Just as he was about to call the doctor, he froze in place, staring at me in disbelief, "Richelle, what did you say?"
The hurt expression on his face disgusted me once more, "I'll go change my clothes right away!" Sniffing himself, Jaden fled to the bedroom to change and then brought me a cup of warm water.
During those five minutes, Lizzy sent over a screenshot of a bank transfer made three minutes earlier: [He gives you the responsibility, but the love, sex and money are all mine. How much longer are you going to keep clinging to him?]
I turned off my phone and pushed away the kiss he intended to use to comfort me.
Annoyance briefly flashed in his eyes, but the next second, he was back to being full of affection, gently carrying me to the couch and setting me down.
"Richelle, my dear wife, I was wrong! It's all my fault for being too busy with work and neglecting you. You can scold or hit me however you like!" With that, he took out five small gold nuggets and half-knelt before me, "Honey, your little treasure chest has grown again!"
I asked, "What are you doing?"
The guilt on his face stiffened instantly, "Richelle, did you forget? We agreed that for every day I didn't spend with you, I'd make up for it with a gold nugget. In the past, I was only ever away for three days at most. This time, I had no choice ..."
I immediately understood, every time he went to see Lizzy before, it was never more than three days. This time, it had stretched to five days.
Skillfully, he placed the gold nuggets into the collection box, even musing aloud about creating a pure gold crown for me someday. A crown of pure gold, symbolizing betrayal?
Though I no longer had memories of loving him, the sight of those glittering gold nuggets still stung my eyes. Each gram was evidence of his infidelity.
To celebrate my recovery, Jaden happily gave all his employees a three-day holiday and personally organized a banquet.
After finishing the evening's festivities, he was busy appeasing Lizzy, completely oblivious to the fact that everything belonging to me in the house had already been almost entirely cleared out.
What he didn't know was that I had already asked a lawyer to draft a divorce agreement and bought a ticket to leave three days later.
On the day of Jaden's grand banquet, he gifted me a rare sapphire necklace. As guests raised their glasses and exchanged pleasantries, everyone admired my 'fortunate' life.
In return, I presented him with a gift box in front of everyone. "Thank you for your unwavering companionship over the past ten years," I said.
Inside the box were my memory loss diagnosis report and the divorce agreement.
