Lonely Wife

Chapter 3

A long time later, Ethan finally came back, carrying that same damp, fishy odor with him.

I wrinkled my nose and shoved him toward the shower.

He didn't get angry. Instead, he smiled as he picked up a change of clothes, muttering to himself, "It's fine. Just a little longer. It's almost ready."

I lay in bed, furious.

For the first time, I wondered if Ethan had been unfaithful.

But then I thought about it. He spent nearly three hundred days a year aboard ship. Where would he even find the chance?

Unless there was something on that ship, something that could satisfy urges no ordinary life could.

The thought made me remember the strange thing he had dragged into our home.

Could it really be a mermaid?

While Ethan was showering, I crept to the bathroom and tried to open the door.

It had already been locked from the inside.

Over the next few days, Ethan pulled me into his strange bedroom games every single day. Each time, just when I was too dazed to think clearly, he would take out a small bottle and collect what he wanted.

Then, like a man hiding a terrible secret, he would carry it into that locked bathroom.

I was almost driven mad.

No matter how I argued, no matter how I resisted, it didn't change anything. For the sake of those bottles, Ethan grew more obsessive by the day, coaxing me, distracting me, and pushing past every boundary I tried to set.

Halfway through his shore leave, Meridian Offshore Services, his company, called and told him to end his leave early and return.

All the anger and humiliation I had swallowed over the past few days finally exploded.

I drew up the divorce papers and threw them in his face.

"What kind of job is this? I don't see you for most of the year, and when you finally come home, you act like a madman. Now they're cutting your leave short too? Go back and spend the rest of your life on that ship."

Ethan tried to comfort me with his usual patience, but I had already reached my breaking point.

"Either you resign, or we get divorced. Choose."

At last, Ethan gave in.

He picked up the divorce papers and tore them to pieces.

"I'll go handle my resignation."

Before he left, he warned me again and again not to open that bathroom door.

No matter how curious I was, I had to wait until he came back.

I agreed carelessly.