After His Birthday Snub, I Chose Divorce

Chapter 4

Jeremy stared at me, eyes wide with sheer disbelief.

He frowned, confused. "You're making a fuss over something this trivial?"

I plucked a fully bloomed rose at random, then brought it to my nose for a soft sniff.

A faint, sweet scent drifted into my nostrils.

My sense of smell had been dull for years, and I later found out it was caused by nasal polyps. After the surgery, it seemed to have recovered a little.

That was why, right now, I could clearly pick up the perfume clinging to his clothes.

And I never wore perfume.

I spoke in an even, steady tone. "Gifting a pair of size 40 shoes is trivial. Forgetting our wedding anniversary is trivial. Losing our wedding rings is trivial. Hanging out with your female college junior when I was in the hospital for surgery is trivial too?" I gave him a cold, hard stare, then repeated what I'd said earlier to make sure he understood I was serious. "Just what counts as a big deal to you? Let's get a divorce. Clear your schedule and come with me to the civil affairs bureau this week."

He rubbed the space between his eyebrows and sighed. "Baby, don't be ridiculous."

I held his gaze, every word serious. "I'm not messing around. I mean it."

I thought for a second, then added, "I know your company is gearing up to go public right now, and a divorce would hurt your public reputation. I can wait until after the IPO to finalize the divorce, but I'm moving out in the meantime."

He grabbed my wrist before I could move, his face full of unwillingness. "I need to know why."

"Why?" I let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "Because you can't give me anything I actually want." I wrenched my hand free from his grip and turned to leave.

This was a remote villa area, but I'd already laid my cards on the table. There was no way I was staying another night.

I grabbed my things and left with dignity, no extra drama.

But the second I stepped outside, I was kicking myself. I should have driven here today, of all days.

He followed after me, offering to drive me home, but I turned him down flat.

"I want some time to myself to think."

Halfway down the long, winding road, I was already regretting it. If he'd called out to me just one more time, I would have dropped the stubborn act right there.

Suddenly, a car honked behind me. I spun around, assuming it was Jeremy, and yelled his name out in frustration.

But as the man in the driver's seat leaned out the window, I immediately saw that I was wrong.

Instead, a familiar man looked at me with a half-smirk. "Sorry to disappoint. It's just me."

It was Anthony. He was wearing a casual sweatsuit and black-rimmed sunglasses today, looking for all the world like a young college guy.

For a split second, I was thrown off balance, memories flooding in before I could stop them.

"Fight with your husband?" he guessed.

I blinked back to the present, frowning. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to a friend's place for dinner. Where are you heading? I'll give you a ride."

I hesitated for a moment, then figured I had no choice anyway, and climbed into his car.

The car was dead quiet at first. Anthony clearly picked up on the fact that I didn't feel like talking, so he thoughtfully turned on some music without pushing the conversation.

Ten minutes later, I realized the playlist sounded weirdly familiar.

I'm a pretty nostalgic person, and I never change the things I like, even after years go by.

I recognized the songs right away. Every single one of them was from the custom playlist I'd saved to his phone ages ago.

I turned to stare at him for a long beat. "You like my taste that much? You've actually hung onto this playlist all these years?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Yep."

I then spotted the colorful candies sitting in his storage compartment, and curled my lip in mock disdain.

"You're all grown up and still eating these? So childish."

As soon as the words left my mouth, a memory hit me.

Back in the day, I used to get low blood sugar all the time, so Anthony always kept candy with him. Turns out he'd kept that little habit all these years, too.

He only snorted.

We'd been head over heels for each other back then, and still ended things so abruptly and messily.

All those old memories came flooding back, and I started to wonder if I was just bad at making relationships work. Why else would I be getting divorced now too?

The thought of Jeremy cast a dark shadow over my eyes.

Tiny raindrops slowly beaded and streaked down the car window, and that was when I noticed it had started raining outside.

Anthony's voice abruptly cut through the quiet.

"Do you regret it? Breaking up with me to marry that guy out of the blue?"