Instead of celebrating our wedding anniversary, my wife celebrated her 28th anniversary of friendship with her childhood sweetheart at my very own resort. Even worse, she also posted a message on her Instagram story.
[We agreed to spend the 28th to 82nd year together!]
I couldn’t help but like the story and commented on it, saying that it should be the 99th anniversary.
After that, the Instagram story my wife just posted vanished within seconds.
She immediately called and yelled angily, “Why were you everywhere? We were just hanging out normally. Why were you being so sarcastic? It was just me with my friend!”
Soon enough, she boldly changed her Instagram profile photo to match her childhood sweetheart.
If this were in the past, I would retort by making a scene until she changed her Instagram profile photo back. However, I only sent her a calm message instead.
[$15,000 per hour. Don’t forget to transfer the money to me.]
——
It was already early morning when Monica Pesci returned home.
I was staying up all night as I was working on revising the company’s plan for her. As soon as I heard her voice, I looked to see a sarcastic sneer she made with her lips. It was the same expression that she would show every time she got upset in the past.
Back then, I would have treated her like someone I had to make up with and immediately put down my work to soothe her. But tonight, I only buried myself deeper in work without giving her attention even once.
After quite a while, she then got out of our bathroom with a basin of icy water and dumped it over my head before I could react.
“Fine! If you want to act cold, I’ll let you!”
“It seems that you can still enjoy your life after ruining other people’s moods. So, you just wanted money, right? I’d burn it for you, okay?”
“You need to remember that you were supported by me now, but you somehow dared to embarrass me all day long! How could you?”
Soon enough, there were sparks quickly thrown at the notebook I just wrote. I quickly moved back. Not long after that, my high-end laptop was quickly ruined. Just like our ridiculous marriage, it was unfortunately impossible to repair at all.
And then she tossed the basin aside and strutted off with her head held high like a triumphant rooster.
When I saw the lavish dinner and the glowing red candles on the table, I froze for a moment.
Yesterday had been our fifth wedding anniversary. In fact, Monica even had repeatedly reminded me not to forget it. But she had forgotten and held a party with her childhood sweetheart, Zane Anderson, at my resort to celebrate their 28th anniversary.
When she tried to explain with a gloomy expression, but she couldn’t even form words, I stood and headed into the bathroom.
As soon as I peeled off my wet clothes, she slammed the bathroom door shut.
“Michael, what did you mean? Who were you showing disdain to? Get out of here!”
“Wasn’t it just one anniversary I didn’t spend with you? We celebrated it every year. Would you die if I missed it this year?”
“Both Zane and I grew up together and we celebrated it for 28 years and you ruined it. But you didn’t feel guilty at all.”
Seeing that I couldn’t bathe in peace without her words stabbing me, I suddenly pulled open the bathroom door.
“Did you forget that you said you would celebrate our anniversary?”
I didn’t know whether Monica was startled by the sudden door opening or by my question, but she instantly went silent.
I rubbed my eyebrows as I was feeling really exhausted with her tirades.
“So, can I take a shower now?”
Her lips twitched, but she eventually said nothing.
Seeing that, I closed the bathroom door again before I carefully removed the soaked gauze from my abdomen. I couldn’t help but sigh at the pale scar revealed beneath.
After I took care of the wound and put on a waterproof patch, I finally sank into the warm water of the bathtub before letting out a quiet breath.
When I returned to the bedroom, Monica sat on the bed’s edge while she was still staring at me coldly.
“Since you’re finally done, let’s have a proper talk.”
She claimed she wanted to talk, but when she spoke, she had nothing but putting a blame on me.
“Yeah, I forgot the anniversary. But couldn’t you remind me? And you had to arrange it on the same day as Zane. Weren’t you deliberately embarrassing me?”
“I knew it. You actually thought there was something between him and me, so you had to compete with him, right?”
“Think about it yourself, wasn’t that too childish?”
As she spoke, she unlocked her phone, sent me an envelope full of money and said in a condescending tone, “Fine, I’ll give you the fucking wedding anniversary today, so you’ll have some sense in the future.”
After that, she stood and left arrogantly. I picked up my phone and opened the envelope. It was only $1.50. In the past, I had never cared about the amount, only about the meaning behind that special number and I had even felt proud of it.
But now, such numbers felt unbearably glaring. She would transfer $150,000 to Zane, yet she was only willing to give me $1.50 as compensation. The difference between the numbers probably showed exactly where Zane and I stood in her heart.
