I got married when I was twenty-five.The timing was neither too early nor too late, right when we were at our poorest.Back then, I couldn’t even scrounge up a hundred bucks.So I bought a fifty-eight-dollar strawberry cake, lit candles, and proposed to Chloe with it.It wasn’t just simple.It was downright shabby.Most couples who achieve their happily-ever-after have flowers, diamond rings, and romantic dinners.
We only had that cake.We squeezed into a rented apartment, eating cake, getting it all over our faces. After the cake, we were still hungry, so I went into the tiny kitchen and cooked instant noodles.The kitchen was cramped, the whole room filled with steaming vapor from the pot.Chloe suddenly walked in and said, “How about we get married?”I paused, then said, “Okay.”Just like that, we finished our noodles, and the next day we went to City Hall, got our license, and became legally wed.We had been neighbors since childhood, childhood sweethearts.My heart mirrored hers, from naive youth all the way to thirty, when we were supposed to be established.No lost loves, no sneaky rivals, no sudden interlopers.
We were soulmates, fighting side by side.Finally, at thirty, my company secured several projects through its technology, and investments poured in like a tidal wave.We rode that wave, reversing our fortunes directly to become city new money.But at thirty-one, I caught Chloe and her male secretary, Brandon, in the act.Our marriage shattered instantly.At that very moment, it was in my own home.Chloe lay on the bed, still hungover, unaware of what was happening when we burst in.I grabbed a bottle of mineral water and splashed it directly on her face.Meanwhile, Brandon Lee, wrapped in a towel, was cornered in the bathroom by my friends.With so many of my friends backing me up, he was utterly panicked, practically wanting to grovel.
“It… it was Ms. Hayes who asked me to stay with her!”He stammered, “As an intern, how could I refuse my boss…?”Is that all?My friends immediately started rolling up their sleeves, ready to throw punches.“If I’d known you had this kind of talent, I would’ve transferred you to the marketing department,”I smiled at him, a chilling smile. “Our client, Mr. Thompson, likes young guys. Since you can’t refuse people, why not take advantage of the situation and close that deal? Your year-end bonus would be more than a hundred grand!”
Brandon hadn’t expected my mind to work in such mysterious ways.For a moment, he was speechless.Seeing that I was actually planning to exploit him, Brandon could only cling to the single towel that covered him, weakly trying to argue. “I’m sincere about Chloe.”How low-level was this kept man?How stupid could one person be?At the time, I even laughed at his foolishness, but my laughter quickly died.Because Chloe wiped the water from her face, got dressed, and calmly rose from the bed, proposing divorce to me.
Yes.She was ready to divorce me.Disregarding the loss of shared assets, ignoring the company’s business operations—She was determined, resolved to take the wedding ring off my finger within three months—she even packed her things that very night and moved out of our home.I raged, I cursed, I even trashed the company office.But our marriage was already in ruins.This severely impacted my mental state, leading to me getting stabbed in the back by her trusted secretary during the divorce negotiations.In the divorce agreement, the company was no longer mine, and I would only get a third of our shared assets; even the house my parents paid for, our marital home, Chloe wanted half of.
I couldn’t believe it.But it was too late, the damage was done.Just as I finally accepted reality and agreed to the divorce, that foolish woman, Chloe, got into a car accident and lost her memory.
