Goodbye Innocence, Hello Revenge

Chapter 4 My Cheating Husband

As we turned the corner at the top of the stairs, we heard voices coming from one of the upstairs rooms. The sound was unsettlingly familiar. Angela and I instinctively slowed our pace.

"Why do you even want to keep this house? You should sell it, and we can buy something bigger. This place has such bad energy," an unfamiliar woman's voice said.

"This house is in a prime location. It's one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the area. Its value will only increase over time. We should hold onto it. If you don't want to live here, we can stay somewhere else," a man replied.

The moment I heard this voice, I stopped in my tracks abruptly. It was unbelievable! This man's voice was exactly the same as Will's!

Could it really be him? What was he doing here? And who was this woman?

A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, but I couldn't grasp any of them. A sense of dread overwhelmed me, and I couldn't bring myself to move forward and confront the truth.

"Daddy!" Angela shouted excitedly and ran past me, dashing up the stairs.

"Angela, wait!" I reached for her, but it was too late.

The door to what had once been our bedroom was open. Will was sitting on the bed with a woman dressed in a striking red dress. They were both holding wine glasses, and the deep red liquid inside matched the color of the woman's lips—bright and vivid.

That red—so sharp and glaring—it felt like it burned my eyes.

"Will?" I managed to whisper, though no sound came out.

Will stood up, his face cold as he stepped out of the room, completely ignoring Angela.

"Well, since you've caught us, I guess it's time to talk," he said, his voice void of any emotion.

I had never heard him speak to me in such a distant, icy tone.

"What do you want to say?" I asked, though deep down, I already knew. I was clinging to the smallest shred of hope, refusing to believe it fully.

Will shrugged, clearly impatient. He loosened his tie and said, "Let's get a divorce."

I stepped back in disbelief. "Why?"

"You really don't see it? I stopped loving you a long time ago. After everything that's happened, there's no point in staying married."

"So now you love her?" I asked, glancing toward the bedroom.

Will didn't even turn to look. The woman in the red dress remained seated on the bed, raising her wine glass toward me with a smug smile.

How ridiculous. As someone with an advanced education, I had always looked down on the idea of two women fighting over a man. I used to believe that such a scene would never play out in my life.

I could accept that Will no longer felt the same way about me. But after ten years of marriage, after everything we'd built together, after raising a child—wasn't love supposed to transform into an unbreakable bond of family?

Yet here I was, facing the irony of it all.

Ten years of marriage, undone by fleeting passion.

"Enough with the pointless chatter. Here's the divorce agreement. Luckily, we have no assets to divide, so it'll be quite simple. Just sign."

Will thrust a piece of paper toward me. He had everything prepared, long before today.

I looked down at the paper, the words blurring and clearing as tears fell onto the page, spreading into dark circles. I couldn't even read it.

Losing patience, Will shoved the paper into my hands. "I've already signed. Just sign it. Dragging this out is meaningless."

His rough push sent me stumbling back, nearly knocking me off my feet.

I forced myself to stay calm, searching for some semblance of rationality amidst the storm of emotions. My fingernails dug into my palms as I held back my tears, finally bringing myself to look at the document closely.

There really was nothing left to divide. We had lost everything, and it was all because of me. The divorce agreement clearly stated that.

But when I reached the final section, I froze. "No. Angela's custody stays with me!"

"You really think you can give Angela a decent life?" Will's voice was dripping with contempt. "You have no job and no savings. Even if we went to court, the judge would grant custody to me."

I shook with anger. Losing custody of Angela was far more terrifying than losing love.

"The mother has priority," I said firmly. "With my degree and experience, finding a job won't be hard. And the government provides benefits for single mothers."

I fought back, reminding myself of the trust fund I had set up for Angela. That money would help us get through the rough times ahead.

The woman in the red dress finally put down her wine glass and walked over to Will's side. She glanced at Angela with disdain and said, "Honestly, why are you even fighting for custody? Kids are such a nuisance."

Will frowned but said nothing.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. Will didn't care about Angela—he was after the trust fund. That was why he wanted custody!

If he couldn't bear losing any money, why had he agreed to empty our savings to save her before?

"When did you start cheating on me?" I asked suddenly, my voice surprisingly calm.

"What does it matter now?" Will replied.

"It matters to me. I want to know how long you've been pretending to be this loving husband and father," I said with a sneer.

Will seemed taken aback. He had never heard me speak to him with such sarcasm.

In our ten years together, I had always been the gentle, understanding wife, never raising my voice, never showing anger.

Now, the irony of it all was unbearable.

Apparently, Will wouldn't just sit aside and let me mock him in disdain. He quickly regained his composure. "If you must know, I lost interest in you a long time ago."

The woman in the red dress smirked. "A woman who spends all day thinking about housework? It's no surprise you bored him."

"So it started when I got pregnant, didn't it?" I said.

Will didn't answer.

"I see what you are now," I said, trying to keep my tone cool and detached, even though my heart was being torn apart.

Even after ten years of marriage, even after love had morphed into something more like family, I realized in that moment that I still loved this man—right up until the moment I opened that bedroom door.

Flashes of our life together rushed through my mind—how we met, fell in love, got married, and raised a child.

Will and I had been college sweethearts, meeting in a sophomore elective class. We had fallen head over heels for each other and spent two passionate years together before getting married right after graduation. At the time, Will was interning at a major company, and I juggled grad school with part-time finance jobs to help pay the bills.

We were poor back then, renting a cheap apartment in the north end of the city, scraping by as we paid off student loans and kept up with day-to-day expenses.

Eventually, Will's job stabilized, and his salary skyrocketed. I graduated and landed a high-paying job in finance. We moved out of the north end and into this house, ready to start a happy family of three.

Those days felt like pure joy, the kind that blinded me. It made me willingly get pregnant and leave my job to become the boring, house-obsessed woman I had become.

How laughable.

After I got pregnant, Will had started traveling for work more often. He was away most of the month. While I adjusted to life as an expectant mother, I also made sure to keep the house in perfect shape for when he returned, providing him with a comfortable home to come back to.

Little did I know, he had already begun cheating on me back then. The woman standing beside him now probably wasn't even the first because she clearly didn't have the patience to wait that long.

How many times had Will cheated over these ten years? I stared at him, feeling like I was looking at a stranger.

"This is getting boring. I don't have time to drag this out," the woman said with annoyance. "Will, stop being soft. Let's wrap this up."

Before I could comprehend what she meant, Will picked up Angela and walked over to the railing at the top of the stairs. He placed her on the edge and said coldly, "Sign the papers. You wouldn't want Angela to accidentally fall, would you?"