She Sent Horror Gifts, I Quit Him

It was our fifth wedding anniversary, and my husband hadn't shown up for ages, so I headed straight to his company to find him. His 99th secretary, Vera, greeted me with a sugary smile and offered a little explanation, "Mrs. Colton, Mr. Colton was so tired after staying at my place last night. I felt bad for him, so I turned off his alarm. Let me make this up to you, yeah?" With that, she held out a bouquet of "roses" made entirely out of condoms, her eyes glinting with open challenge. Every single person around held their breath, waiting for the dramatic show of me tearing this scheming homewrecker to shreds. After all, everyone knew how grand and over-the-top Terrence's wedding to me had been. He'd stood up in front of the whole city and sworn he'd love me for the rest of his life. But none of them knew the truth. Just the day before, I'd caught this very girl shaking like a leaf, sobbing her eyes out. Terrence had grabbed the sugar arrangement contract right out of her hand without a second of hesitation, ripped it into tiny pieces, and kissed her lips over and over to soothe her. "Okay, okay, it's not a sugar arrangement. We're a proper, equal couple, yeah? Stop crying, hmm? You know I can't stand seeing you upset like this." They'd clung to each other before they even finished taking their clothes off, panting and tripping into the attached suite. When Terrence finally dragged his feet showing up, he was dead sure I'd never make a scene in public. He wrapped an arm around my waist and cooed in that soft, coaxing voice of his. "Romina, relax. We're the ones married. No one's ever gonna get one over on you." But he had no idea. The previous night, Old Man Colton, the head of the entire Colton family, had already promised to "let me leave" with a clean break. From that moment on, my tears, my smiles, none of it would ever have anything to do with him again. When Vera pressed that condom bouquet into my hand, she could barely hide the excitement sparkling in her eyes. She'd been waiting for this moment for far too long. For six whole months, she'd skulked around like a rat in the sewers, sending me all kinds of messed-up stuff nonstop. First, it was Terrence's personal underwear, then hotel room key cards, and finally, a grotesque, blood-soaked aborted fetus. I was pregnant back then. The second I laid eyes on that thing, my legs gave out. I tumbled down the stairs and lost our baby. The old man, Colton, didn't even bother asking for details. "You hurt the Colton family's descendant. That's your failure as a wife." The old madam just sighed and muttered that I was useless. They paid astronomical hush money and brought in the top doctors in the country, acting like they'd gone above and beyond for me. When Terrence rushed home, he glanced at me twice, then smiled like nothing serious had happened. "Once you're all healed up, we can just have another one." He didn't say a single word about punishing Vera for what she'd done. I just stared at him blankly back then, too shocked to even cry. "But she killed our baby…" "Enough!" He slammed a water glass down so hard it crashed, shattering into pieces all over the floor. He continued, "She already had a miscarriage, too! What more do you want from her? Your baby was mine, but so was hers! "You're only happy if I make her pay that stupid breach of contract fine, right? Romina, you came from nothing too. Why can't you have a little sympathy for her?" That was the first time Terrence had ever yelled at me. And it was the first time I fully realized that the man who'd once loved me more than life itself didn't have a single spot left for me in his heart. But right now, facing Vera's obvious provocation, my face was dead calm, so calm it probably looked terrifying. She was caught off guard for a second, then sneered and dragged a sausage slowly across her lips deliberately. "Mrs. Colton, my boyfriend was so sweet to me last night. He loves feeding me nice things. Especially this one." She shoved the greasy, stringy sausage right up in my face as she spoke. "Want a bite? I bet you're already used to eating secondhand stuff anyway, huh?" I knew full well the "boyfriend" she was talking about was my husband, and I'd originally planned to just ignore her petty crap. But if she was dead set on causing a scene? I wasn't about to coddle her little entitled ass. I turned to face Terrence and asked coolly, "Secretary Vera has a boyfriend but still sleeps with you. Are you trying to be the other man here?" Terrence froze mid-motion, eyes widening in disbelief. He'd never expected me to take a shot at both of them with one sharp double-meaning line. You could've heard a pin drop in the whole office. After all, our relationship had been so loud and unapologetic back in the day, everyone in New York City's elite circles called us the last great fairy tale romance of the city's old money scene. My words made Vera sway on her feet. She turned those big, teary eyes on Terrence, looking like a wounded little deer. "Hubby..." One single tear was all it took to send the usually unflappable man completely off the rails. He grabbed my wrist and started rambling, voice tight with frustration. "Romina, you're getting on in years, so you don't get that it's normal for young girls to have a desire to share things. She didn't mean anything by it. "I'll apologize for her, okay? Stop making a big deal out of this, go say something nice to her. Otherwise, she'll cry the entire night to me." I pressed my lips together and let out a sharp, cold laugh. "Yeah, see, I don't like sharing. So, this shared, used-up trash? I don't want it anymore." Terrence's eyes practically bugged out of his head. "What did you just say?"