What She Rides

On my birthday, Hazel Mosley posts about preparing a surprise for me that night on social media. However, I see a photo of her taken that afternoon. She is riding a horse with her assistant, Cecil Wilcox. In the photo, her clothes are fluttering, revealing red finger marks on her waist. Cecil's caption read, "My first ever experience is thanks to her." The comments section is full of teasing remarks. "You've got bold intentions, young man." "That position is hard to maneuver." Unbelievably, Hazel likes that comment. My heart sinks to my stomach. I always think she's just more open with me, but I never expect that it could be anyone. I personally wash the horse to wipe away every trace of intimacy. Then, I transfer the entire ranch to her. "You can give the rest of the horses to whoever you want. Feel free to pick." Looking at how overjoyed she is, I agree to the marriage arranged by my family. Chapter 1 I arrived at the stables at exactly 3:00 pm. After parking my car, I caught sight of a man and a woman riding horses not too far away. It was my wife, Hazel Mosley, and her male assistant, Cecil Wilcox. Hazel's clothes rode up to her chest so much that I could see the marks on her waist even from a distance, and those were fingerprints that a man would have left on her while doing some "exciting" activities. Anyone who wasn't blind would have immediately caught on to what they'd been doing earlier. I took a photo and sent it to Hazel. She abruptly turned around and looked back when she saw her phone, frowning when she caught sight of me. Cecil then helped her off the horse after coming to a halt, whispering in her ear in a low voice. At once, Hazel's expression lightened up again as she grinned and replied to him. She was still smiling even while coming over to me. I saw how intimate they were with each other and felt that I was the unnecessary third wheel after all. It wasn't until then that I realized I had just been lying to myself all along. The person she'd been meaning to surprise hadn't been me at all. I then recalled how I'd prepared so eagerly for her so-called surprise since morning, postponing all my meetings and cancelling all prior appointments just for her. I'd even gotten the maids to clean the entire villa and bought all of the luxury handbags that Hazel had been eyeing. After all, it wasn't just my birthday today, but also our dating anniversary. Yet, she seemed to have forgotten all about it. She didn't just forget about it. She even let another man ride my prized and most beloved horse without telling me. Could it be that even she didn't belong to me anymore as well? I clenched my fists tightly and suppressed the violent urge in my chest. Cecil strode over and moved in front of Hazel to apologize to me. "Mr. Blanchard, one of the company's potential clients is a huge fan of horseback riding, and Hazel only brought me here to train my riding skills. You won't get mad at me for that, will you?" He pretended as though everything he did was for the good of the company, and if I didn't agree to whatever he said, I would be made to look like the asshole instead. I just found it amusing. I hadn't met anyone who dared to talk to me like this for a long time, after all. "Of course not. But if you can't secure that contract, then you'll just have to resign from your position." Cecil was stunned. "But Mr. Blanchard, it takes both parties to agree to the contract before the client can be secured. I'm not the only one affecting the decision." I sneered. "So, what's the point of you coming here after all?" "I—" I swept my cold gaze past him and said, "You looked like you knew a thing or two about riding earlier. Have you taken lessons before?" Cecil didn't know what I was playing at and replied, "I've ridden a few times when I was younger." Since he was so skilled at riding, that meant he knew more about horses than he let on. He would most probably be able to tell that my horse was a thoroughbred racehorse, one that I'd bought at an auction years ago for 20 million dollars. I was just about to question him further when Hazel couldn't bear to watch anymore. She came up to me and put her hands around my arm, tugging me to the parking lot. "That's enough, Dylan Blanchard. I was the one who brought him here to train. Stop making a mountain out of a molehill. "Also, you've only been taking care of these horses without ever riding them. We only rode them for an afternoon. I know you'd never mind." I stopped in my tracks and withdrew my arm from her hold. "I mind," I said. "I bought the horse when it was still a young foal, and I'd been painstakingly taking great care of it since then. I couldn't even bring myself to ride it, which meant Cecil doesn't even have the right to touch it at all! "You didn't even ask me for permission before bringing someone else to my stable. Do you even know what respect is? "And what's that on the horse's body? Should I collect it and send it to a lab for testing?" Chapter 2 The atmosphere suddenly became tense. Cecil lowered his head and apologized. "I'm sorry, Mr. Blanchard. It was my fault. Hazel, please don't fight with him over me. It's not worth it." He could tell that I was angry because of jealousy, but he quickly steered the conversation toward our status gap instead, and I had to admit that he was smart. I looked at his reddening eyes and couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud. "You like horseback riding, don't you, Cecil Wilcox? I can give one to you, and you'd be free to ride it whenever you want." Cecil stared abruptly at me with an incredulous look in his eyes. I continued coldly, "But you had better know your place. You're just an assistant. You should never accept what doesn't belong to you." Hazel could tell that I was genuinely angry this time, and she hurried over to calm me down. "Come on, Dylan. We're sorry. It's our anniversary and your birthday today." She then stood on tiptoe and whispered in my ear. "But I didn't prepare a birthday gift for you this year. I thought… I thought of giving myself to you as a present instead." She bent over slightly to show me the ribbon on her neck. I had known Hazel for ten years, and we'd dated for eight of them. This was what she would always do every time she forgot my birthday, and it had happened seven times in the past eight years. I thought that it was going to be different this year because it was the final year of dating before getting engaged, as we had promised each other. But as it turned out, I was just overthinking it after all. From the start till the end, I was the only one who gave anything at all in this relationship. … I remained silent for the rest of dinner. Hazel would still try to coax and comfort me at first, deliberately chatting with me and trying to make me laugh. However, she quickly lost her patience after a short while. It wasn't until we got back home that she finally regained her usual cheerfulness. After kissing me on the lips, she said, "I'm going to wash up. Just wait here to open your present later." I followed her into the bedroom and saw that she had laid out a bunch of adult toys and props on the bed. Obviously, she was planning on using them later on, and this was also the main reason why I'd stayed devoted to her for years. She always knew the right way to calm me down after pushing my buttons. My eyes dimmed as I grabbed some underwear and went to wash up in the guest bathroom instead. However, I'd only taken one step in when I realized something amiss at once. There was a single men's disposable underwear in the trash, and it wasn't mine because I never used them. My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. I ended up sitting by the bed, waiting for Hazel to come out. She was wearing a thin gauze-like material on her body, and she grabbed the cat-ear headband from the bed before putting it on. "Wanna help me put my tail in, Dylan?" I held the tail, but I didn't move afterward. Instead, I asked, "Why is there a men's disposable underwear in the guest bathroom?" Hazel was stunned. Panic rose in her eyes. "About that… I-I don't know either. Let me… Let me ask Kelly tomorrow if she was the one who accidentally threw it there." Kelly Hill was our housekeeper. "Kelly's already 60 years old. Why would she have men's disposable underwear on her?" I countered. "I…" Hazel got up from my lap in a fluster, wanting to explain herself, but she just couldn't think of a suitable excuse for it. Her phone rang all of a sudden. She answered it and listened for a short while before her expression fell at once. Then, she yanked off the ears from her head, put on a coat, and headed for the door. I grabbed her hand. "Where are you going?" "Cecil got into an accident on the way back. He doesn't have any relatives or friends here. I'm going to check on him." I still refused to let go. "Tell someone else from the company to check in on him. You don't have to personally see to this yourself." Hazel's face turned dark at once. "Dylan Blanchard! Can you stop thinking about yourself for once? Don't you know how hard he has it here, working in a foreign city all on his own? I'm just trying to help him out here. Why must you get jealous about something as minute as that! You're so immature!" The way she rushed out of the door in a rage made me feel like my attempts were just pathetic, and the last sliver of hope died out in my heart, turning into disappointment instead. I watched her leave the villa. Then, I dialed Dad's number. "Dad. I'll agree to the arranged marriage." Chapter 3 I took a good look around the villa that I'd lived in for the past five years after Hazel left. I had given this villa to her as a gift after the company went public. The reason was that I wanted to build a real home with her here instead of other random places. I had fallen in love with her at first sight, and I pursued her relentlessly for two years before she finally agreed to be my girlfriend. So, after graduating from college, I severed ties with my family for her sake and refused Dad's request for me to return to my hometown and take over the family business. I'd never gone back home since. I left all of my friends and family behind and chose to start a new life with Hazel here, away from the place I'd grown up in. She told me just now that Cecil didn't have any friends. But neither did I. Yet, after giving eight years of my life to her, all I got in return were just her lies and a distance between us that seemed to grow bigger and bigger each day. I wasn't allowed to lay a finger on anything pertaining to my family business after the fallout with Dad, so I didn't have a choice other than to switch to the entertainment industry instead, which I was completely unfamiliar with. In the early days of our business, Hazel and I supported each other, cracking our heads together every day to come up with solutions to keep the company afloat. That had also been the time when our relationship was at its peak. Soon, the company was publicly listed, and everything seemed like they were finally falling into place. Hazel began meeting more people, and her ambition kept growing too. Eventually, she began looking down on my suggestions to just maintain our stability, thinking that I was holding the company back. Since she thought that was the case, I wasn't going to continue holding her back any longer. I spent the whole night packing up my things and only received a test message from Hazel in the morning. "Cecil's leg is injured. I'll be staying at the hospital for a period of time to take care of him." I only replied with a single word. "Whatever." The next day, I arrived at the company and started checking the accounts. I also contacted a lawyer to handle the equity division of the company's shares. Back when we first started the company together, I originally intended to give her all of the shares. However, she said that she didn't want to take advantage of me, so she insisted on signing an agreement instead. The agreement said that the shares could be divided equally between both of us in the future, and all decisions would be entirely my responsibility without needing her consent. So, I signed my name next to her signature from eight years ago. At that moment, time seemed like an illusory arrow, flying past the last eight years straight into my heart. I was busy until 2:00 pm and suddenly realized that I hadn't even had any breakfast in the morning. Hazel happened to walk in then, with Cecil behind her, on crutches. She set down the food on the coffee table and told me to come over and eat. "I heard from Wilbur that you'd been busy with work all day without having any time to eat. Why are you doing this to yourself again?" Wilbur Dorsey was my secretary. Hazel then looked at me playfully and said, "Didn't you promise me that you would take better care of yourself?" I stared at her. "Isn't he supposed to be at the hospital?" Hazel grinned. "He said that the company's been very busy lately and he felt bad taking time off to recover, so he insisted on coming to work. He even managed to close a project with a client this morning. "Cecil is really very amazing, Dylan. Stop holding yesterday's grudge against him anymore." I got up from my desk and walked toward the coffee table. "Fine." I was leaving anyway. It didn't matter whether I held a grudge against him or not anymore. While walking past Cecil, he suddenly grabbed hold of my sleeve. "Mr. Blanchard, I know that you've always been dissatisfied with me, but don't worry. I'll always know my place from today onward. "So, can't you please rescind my punishment today? Everyone keeps talking about me behind my back." Hazel frowned. "What punishment are you talking about?" Cecil opened an email on his phone and showed it to her. "HR said that I deliberately skipped work yesterday." Hazel immediately took out her phone to give the HR department a call. "It is a fact that he skipped work yesterday," I said. "If you call HR now, you're only inviting even more gossip about him." My words struck a nerve in Hazel. "Why are you doing this to him?" "He skipped work yesterday. I'm just enforcing company rules." Hazel suddenly rose to her feet. "Don't you dare use company rules as an excuse, Dylan Blanchard. You are the boss! You're the one who gets the final say about it! And you know damn well that I was the one who brought him out yesterday. "How could you do this to him now? You're deliberately making it difficult for him!" I replied casually, "I apologize for the collateral damage." "You!" Seeing the tense atmosphere between us, Cecil hurriedly apologized. "I'm sorry, I'll just take the punishment instead. Mr. Blanchard, please don't get mad at Hazel—Ah!" He suddenly swayed hard and fell straight onto the coffee table, spilling all of the food and drinks onto the floor in a huge mess. "Mr. Blanchard! Why did you push me?" Chapter 4 Hazel shoved me aside at once, her face filled with terror. She crouched over Cecil carefully and asked, "Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere? "Dylan Blanchard! If you're mad at me, then take it out on me! Why must you involve someone innocent?" I was caught off guard when shoved aside, and I fell onto a broken glass on the floor. "I never pushed him." Hazel glared at me fiercely. "Are you telling me that he fell himself?" I gingerly avoided the broken glass on the floor as I pushed myself up into a sitting position, blood dripping down my palm onto the white rug and quickly turning into a huge puddle. Hazel was shocked. However, she was just about to say something when her attention was drawn toward Cecil's cries of pain. "My leg hurts, Hazel." She panicked and called the ambulance at once. "I'll get you to the hospital as quickly as possible. "Just you wait, Dylan. I'll be back to settle scores with you later on." When the ambulance arrived, she instructed the doctors and nurses to take Cecil away and refused to let them stay even a minute longer to bandage my hand. "But Hazel, Mr. Blanchard is hurt too…" Cecil started. She scoffed coldly. "It's just a small cut. He won't die from it. He brought it on himself. None of this would have happened if he had never pushed you." I quietly closed my eyes. When I opened them again, the last of my deliberations vanished. Leaving was for the best. … Hazel never came back home for the rest of the week, but she also never appeared at the hospital. She only sent me a text message on the day Cecil was discharged. "Cecil's fracture turned into a broken leg because of you. I never knew how cold-blooded you could be, Dylan Blanchard. You're already making me doubt if I made the right decision to be with you." I had already been prepared to leave for a while, but I still felt a pang of hurt in my chest when I read her text message. She firmly believed that I was the one who hurt Cecil just because of something he said. She didn't even think about verifying it by checking the cameras or any other means. I slowly typed out my reply to her. "If that's the case, then let's just break up." However, I didn't receive another reply from her, and checking the status only told me that she never even received it. She'd blocked my number. I tossed my phone to the side and officially began the equity transfer process. My portion of the company's equity was worth at least ten billion dollars now, and I wasn't going to leave that money lying around. So, I transferred them all out to my closer friends instead. Before signing their part of the agreement, they kept checking back with me repeatedly. "If you really give us all your shares, then you won't have anything to do with Hazel anymore. You've loved her for so many years, and you were also already preparing to propose to her this year. Are you sure you can bear to do this?" I signed my name without any hesitation. "It doesn't matter to me anymore." I wasn't the only one who wanted to end this relationship. Even Hazel didn't want me anymore. I'd seen tons of stories on Cecil's Instagram over the past few days. Most of them were black backgrounds with only some text. "Her soups are amazing, but it's just too tiring for her. I hope that I'll be the one making her food next time." "It must be hard on her to care for a sick and injured person. I won't let myself get hurt or sick anymore next time because I don't want to see her like this." "She looks so pretty when she's sleeping." The last one was from last night, and this one had included a photo as the background, to my surprise. The photo was of Hazel nestled in his arms while asleep. Although her face had been blurred out, I could still recognize it as her because of the necklace next to the bed. It was the one that I had personally made for her when we celebrated our first anniversary together. She had never taken it off for anything ever since putting it on. But now, she had taken it off for another man. I thought for a while before posting something on my own Instagram stories. "Who knew it would be this easy to leave a place you'd lived in for a decade?" After that, I headed straight for the airport without looking back.