He Took Me For Granted, I Divorced Him

Chapter 2

The moment I set foot in the door, a text arrived from Hector.

Hector: My sister is throwing a party at home with her classmates around seven tonight. Make sure you clean up and prepare the place beforehand.

This was classic Hector, offering his version of an olive branch.

He was always perched high on a pedestal, routinely issuing domineering commands as a signal that he had magnanimously forgiven me.

It was as if he hadn't just blocked my number, locked me out in the freezing cold, and left me to suffer completely on my own a few nights ago.

Had this been in the past, I would have immediately rushed into action, meticulously scrubbing the floors and decorating the living room.

Now, however, I merely glanced at the screen with indifferent eyes and tossed the phone aside.

I was halfway through packing my luggage when the sound of the front door swinging open echoed down the hallway.

"Relax, that old woman hangs on my brother's every word! She's definitely got everything set up and decorated by..."

The loud, boastful voice of Hector's younger sister, Betty Fuller, drifted in clearly, only to cut off abruptly mid-sentence.

My hands never stopped folding the clothes in my lap.

I could already picture the stunned disbelief on Betty's face, rapidly twisting into pure rage.

Because the house wasn't decorated at all—it wasn't even fundamentally clean.

My phone began ringing loudly on the nightstand.

A second later, Betty burst into the bedroom, glaring at me with eyes wide and screaming at the top of her lungs, "Selene Buckley! What on earth is wrong with you?! Didn't you know I was bringing my friends over tonight?!"

I set the folded clothes onto my knees and calmly raised my head, locking eyes with Betty.

All these years, her college tuition, living expenses, and pocket money had been paid out of my salary.

I barely bought myself a few new clothes throughout the entire year, yet I indulged her every whim.

Perfumes costing hundreds of dollars, luxury shoes priced in the thousands...

When she complained that I didn't check my messages fast enough to send her money, I even authorized a supplementary credit card linked directly to my account for her to use.

I had been with Hector for seven years, and for seven straight years, I gave her my absolute all.

In the end, all it got me was being referred to behind my back in front of outsiders as "that old woman."

It felt as though ice water had been poured directly into my chest—heavy, bitter, and freezing cold.

A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over me, rendering everything utterly pointless. I let out a soft, mocking laugh, my voice carrying a cool detachment she had never heard before. "I knew. So what?"

"This is between your brother and me. What right do you have to barge in here and yell at me?"

Betty had never experienced this side of me before. She stood paralyzed in total shock, unable to squeeze out a single word.

The classmates standing behind her picked up on the agonizing awkwardness in the air, exchanging uneasy glances.

"Betty, maybe... maybe we should come back another day?"

Only then did Betty snap out of her stupor, throwing a venomous glare in my direction.

"Let's go! We're going out for steak, my treat! Anything is better than staying home and enduring someone's nasty attitude!"

The front door slammed shut behind them with a deafening crash.

I pulled out my phone and, without a second of hesitation, froze the supplementary card linked to Betty.

Since they treated my sacrifices with such blatant disrespect, there was no longer any reason for my hard-earned money to fund her life.

That evening, I took an early shower, locked the bedroom door from the inside, and fell fast asleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night, a furious pounding on the bedroom door shook the frame, sounding like thunder.

Woken from a deep sleep, I knit my brows in irritation and pulled the door open.

Betty stood in the hallway, her eyes wild with rage as she shrieked at me, "Selene, what the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you freeze my card?! Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was for me earlier?!"

A surge of anger from being rudely awakened welled up in my chest. I stared back at her with an icy, piercing gaze.

"Get one thing straight: that card belongs to me. Why on earth should I pay for your lifestyle?

"I've been supporting your brother, supporting you, and even paying for your grandmother all these years. Are you truly that blind to reality?

"What right do you think you have to stand there and raise your voice at me?"

Hit by my relentless barrage of questions, Betty was left completely speechless, her face turning the color of a bruised beet.

"Just you wait! I'm telling my brother to divorce you!"

Throwing down that desperate threat, she spun on her heel, stormed back into the guest room, and slammed the door shut behind her with a loud bang.

Silence settled over the apartment once again, but my sleepiness had vanished entirely.

Picking up my phone, an unread text message caught my attention.

It was a payment reminder from the high-end nursing facility where Hector's grandmother, Mary Fuller, was residing, informing me that the renewal fee was due in seven days.

Back then, Mary had specifically demanded to stay at this elite facility, which cost twenty thousand dollars every single month.

My monthly salary was only around thirty thousand, while Hector preferred to act like a hands-off prince who took zero responsibility.

Yet Mary had insisted, threatening to make a scene or starve herself if she didn't get her way.

Left with no alternative, I swallowed the burden and gave in to her demands.

The remaining thousand dollars of my income had to cover all household expenses as well as Betty's endless spending, leaving me with practically nothing at the end of the month.

As for Hector's salary, he kept it entirely to himself, never contributing a single dime to our shared home.

Looking back now, I was the only person in this entire family living on a tight, suffocating budget.

Without a moment's hesitation, I canceled the automatic bank deduction and adjusted the settings so I would no longer receive any further payment notifications.

I was thoroughly sick and tired of this entire family of ungrateful parasites. I was done catering to them!