The Wife He Took for Granted

"Honey, My Buddy Swears This Position Is Amazing—Just This Once, Please Humor Me?" Elena Carter's hand trembled as she stared at the Japanese adult video star her husband Ethan Hale had sent her. Her jaw clenched as she clicked 'order'. The day the package arrived, the usually composed Elena shoved down her embarrassment and reluctantly slipped into the nurse's costume. That night, she indulged Ethan, letting the cold stethoscope explore intimate places. Her lips pressed tight as she played along, the taste of blood sharp on her tongue. When it was over, Ethan kissed away the tear at her eyelid, his fingers gently massaging the red marks on her wrists. "You must be exhausted," he murmured. "I'll draw you a bath." The bathroom door clicked shut, and Elena finally exhaled. Lately,Ethan kept suggesting steamy new experiments—each one bolder than the last. And every time, she couldn't refuse, not when she imagined the disappointment in his eyes. She flopped onto the mattress, limbs heavy. Seven years of marriage needed some spice. He just wanted something fresh. Then Ethan's phone buzzed urgently on the nightstand. Thinking it might be work, she reached for it. They'd registered each other's fingerprints long ago, but trust meant they rarely snooped. A new message glowed from his WeChat's pinned chat—labeled Lila. "Ethan, did you try my suggestion tonight?" "How was it? Still as boring as before?" "If you're not satisfied, you know where to find me~" Elena's fingers froze. The wrist he'd just soothed began throbbing again. So this was the 'buddy' he meant? Her thumb scrolled up on its own, each text carving deeper into her heart. "Ethan, why won't you try it with me?" "Come on, Lila, you're better than that. You're not some casual fling." Then who was? Her? The screen's glare blurred into the past—seven years ago, when she'd first believed he'd save her. Back then, she'd clutched her college acceptance letter, her faded clothes standing out among the designer-clad students at Westbrook University. Local classmates had mocked her accent, tossed her textbooks into the flower beds, sneering, "Orphan trash doesn't belong here." That was when Ethan stepped in. He picked up her mud-stained books, squaring his shoulders between her and them. "Elena isn't someone you can treat like this." The sunlight lit him up like a golden shield that day. Watching his broad back, she'd felt, for the first time, that she wasn't alone. Later, he'd fought his family for her, gripping her hand as he vowed, "What's mine stays mine." When she got into a top foreign university—her ticket to the future—he was on the phone, arguing with his mother. Listening to his exhausted voice, she'd shredded her visa application, her dreams dissolving like paper. To earn the Hale family's approval, she'd braved the bone-chilling wind outside their corporate tower all day, clutching her painstakingly prepared business proposal like a sacred offering. She'd mastered his mother's favorite sweet-and-sour squirrel fish dish, her arms blistering from splattering oil. When Ethan cradled her raw, weeping skin, his tears burned as they fell while he whispered, "Elena, I'll never let you down," repeating it like a prayer. Their wedding buzzed with whispers about how she wasn't good enough for him. Yet when he slid the ring onto her finger, his voice broke. "Marrying you is the greatest blessing of all my lives." The liquid shimmer in his eyes made her vow silently—she'd stand by him forever, as long as he needed her. Now those same words, "You're not someone to be treated carelessly," glowed on the screen like a dull, rusted knife sawing through her heart. The same tender devotion he'd once showered on her now belonged to some girl called "Lila". The woman he'd cherished had become a plaything to be picked up and discarded at will. The shower's rush of water ceased as she carefully set the phone back exactly as she found it, her fingers trembling violently. Before she could straighten, the device buzzed again—urgent, insistent—against the nightstand. The phone's sudden vibration startled her breathless.