My Wife's Exclusive Passenger Isn't Me

Early in the morning, I'm doubled over with unbearable stomach pain, so I ask my wife, Mandy Sanchez, to drive me to the hospital. Downstairs, just as I reach for the passenger door, she presses her hand against it, stopping me before I can pull it open. "The passenger seat is Sam's. No one else sits there," she declares. I just stare at her, wondering if I heard her right. I paid 300,000 dollars for this car. And now she's telling me I can't ride shotgun because that seat is reserved for another man? Mandy pulls open the back door and shoves me inside. "What difference does it make where you sit? Your stomach hurts, right? Let me just get you to the hospital." Somehow, the cramping in my gut doesn't feel as sharp anymore. No amount of physical pain can match the ache in my heart. The moment we pull up to the hospital, Mandy gets a call from her childhood best friend, Samuel Carter. She walks away, leaving me behind without a single backward glance. As I watch her go, I suddenly come to my senses. Chapter 1 On the way back from the hospital, I was still sitting in the back seat. A faint trace of perfume drifted over from the passenger seat, where a new sign made from Perler beads had been stuck. "Reserved for Extraordinary Sam. No Bastards Allowed!" Mandy caught me staring at it and offered a guilty explanation. "Sam can be childish sometimes. Don't take it personally." My voice went cold. "He's 28, and he still gets to act like a kid? Does being childish give him the right to call me a bastard?" Samuel Carter was Mandy's childhood best friend. He was 28, two months older than me. From the day I met Mandy, the two of them had been inseparable. Even our dates had always been a three-person affair. I'd naively believed that once we got married, they'd learn to respect boundaries, and Mandy's attention would slowly shift to me. But I was wrong. After the wedding, they didn't rein it in at all. They only got worse. Mandy's expression darkened. "Don't make everything about you. Sam was just talking about whoever sits in the passenger seat. As long as you don't sit there, what's the problem?" "I bought this car," I shot back. "Every inch of it belongs to me. Why shouldn't I be able to sit up front? What gives him the right to slap a sign on it and call it his reserved seat?" Mandy frowned. "It's just a sign. Do you really have to make a big deal out of something so small?" I laughed in disbelief. "It might be small to you, but it isn't to me." I ripped the sign off and threw it out the window. Mandy slammed on the brakes and snapped at me. "Sam spent four hours making that by hand! How can you just throw away someone else's stuff?" My expression stayed calm, but anger surged inside me. "If it's his, tell him to keep it himself. I don't allow anyone else's stuff in my car." Mandy shoved the door open and got out. "You're being completely unreasonable. Fine, take your car. If you're so capable, drive it home yourself!" She walked into the middle of the road, picked up Samuel's Perler-bead sign, flagged down a taxi, and left. As I watched the taxi disappear from my sight, I couldn't hold back my tears anymore. She knew perfectly well that I'd been in a car accident and was too traumatized to get behind the wheel again. Yet she still left me and the car stranded on the side of the road. With trembling hands, I called my best friend, Frank Quinn. "Frank, help me draw up a divorce agreement." Frank heard the crack in my voice and knew something was wrong. "What happened?" Choking back tears, I told him what had just happened. When I finished, he immediately tried to comfort me. "Liam, don't cry. Call a driver and come to my place first. We'll talk through the divorce and figure out how to protect your interests as much as possible." With Frank's reassurance, I slowly calmed down and called a driver to take over. Chapter 2 I spent the afternoon at Frank's place going over the strategy for my divorce from Mandy. When we finished, I took a taxi back to my apartment complex. But when I stood at my front door and punched in the code, the keypad flashed an error. I tried it several more times. Nothing. It took me a long moment to realize Mandy had changed the passcode. I pulled out my phone and called her. "Mandy, I'm locked out. Did you change the code?" Mandy's voice was sharp and clear. "Yeah, I did. I bought the apartment, so I get to decide whether you're allowed in." My heart sank. So she was getting back at me for what happened this morning. She had bought the apartment before we got married, and only her name was on the deed, but I'd chipped in 300,000 dollars for the renovations. Thinking about what Frank and I had discussed this afternoon, I forced myself to swallow my anger. "Mandy, what happened this morning was my fault. I'm sorry." Mandy snorted. "Oh, so you finally admit you were wrong? But I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. You owe Sam an apology." "It was my fault," I said, going along with it. "I shouldn't have thrown his Perler-bead sign out the window. Why don't you invite him over tonight? I'll cook a big dinner to make it up to him." Mandy paused. "Well, at least you're showing some remorse. I'll let it slide this time. But if it happens again, don't ever expect to set foot in my house." "Mandy, don't worry," I promised quietly. "There won't be a next time." Our marriage would be over soon enough anyway. There wouldn't be a next time. She gave me the new code, and I finally made it inside. The very first thing I did after getting inside was contact a home security company and arrange to have hidden cameras installed in every room. … That evening, Mandy came home with Samuel. The second he walked in, he took his own pair of slippers from the entryway closet with practiced ease and changed into them. Then he flopped onto the couch, watching me bustle around the kitchen. "Liam really knows his way around a kitchen," he said casually. "Mandy, you're lucky to have a husband like him." Mandy spread blue cheese onto a cracker and held it up to his mouth. "All right, hurry up and eat. Not everyone gets to spend all day slacking off and enjoying life like you." Samuel winked playfully and bit the cracker right out of her hand. I shut the kitchen door tight on instinct, trying to keep the pungent, funky smell of the blue cheese from drifting in. Mandy always remembered that Samuel loved blue cheese more than anything. Every time he came over, she bought it herself, spread it on crackers just the way he liked, and fed them to him by hand. Yet she could never remember that the smell of blue cheese turned my stomach. Or maybe she did, but just didn't care. … Half an hour later, I brought out the dinner I'd made and set it on the table. Samuel suddenly looked up from his plate. "Liam, isn't this supposed to be an apology dinner? Why don't you start by taking three penalty shots?" "I can't really drink," I replied quietly. "I'll just toast with water." Samuel scoffed as I reached for the water glass. "The fact that you can't hold your liquor is exactly what proves you're sincere. Who are you trying to fool with water?" Mandy opened a bottle of whiskey and poured me a full glass. "Sam's right. If you're apologizing, act like it. You're taking these three shots." The apology was just an excuse. I hadn't expected them to be this relentless, hell-bent on humiliating me. But I had to endure it for now. I gripped the glass, lifted it, and knocked it back in one gulp. But Samuel still wasn't satisfied. "You haven't even said what you're apologizing for!" Mandy glared at me too. "Liam, what's wrong with you? Do you seriously need someone to teach you how to apologize properly?" As I watched them tag-team me, I forced the words out. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have thrown Samuel's Perler-bead sign out of the car." I choked down the next two shots. Samuel finally flashed a wide grin and slung an arm around Mandy's shoulders. "I'm not that petty. Since you're apologizing so sincerely, of course I'll forgive you. But Mandy and I made a promise when we were kids. Her passenger seat belongs to me. Even marriage doesn't change that, so don't get jealous over nothing next time." The alcohol hit me hard, making my head heavy and sluggish until I could barely get the words out. "I won't… Never again…" Then I couldn't hold myself up any longer. I slumped backward and blacked out. When I woke up the next morning, I was lying on the couch, my whole body aching. Aside from the dining table cluttered with dirty dishes and leftover food, there was no sign of Mandy or Samuel. I dragged myself up, grabbed my phone, and opened the security app. I couldn't wait another second to watch the footage from after I passed out last night. Chapter 3 On the screen, the moment Mandy and Samuel were sure I was completely passed out, they dropped the act. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap. "Mandy, you've been spending all your time with that loser these past few days," he muttered. "Did you forget about me already?" She looped her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "We just got married. If I didn't play along for a couple of days, he'd get suspicious. Don't worry, you're the only one I love," she coaxed. "If you could have kids, I never would've married him just to get my parents off my back. Once I have a baby, I'll divorce him, and we can be together out in the open." He scoffed. "Who knows if you really mean that?" A suggestive smile spread across her face. "If you don't believe me, I'll prove it. Since the wedding, I've only let Liam touch me once." He swept her up and carried her toward the bedroom. "I even bought the bed you liked best," she purred. "Come try it out with me." Before long, their clothes were scattered across the floor. The two of them tangled together on the bed, filling the recording with breathless, sickening moans. Numb, I turned off my phone. I had asked her once before—since she and Samuel were always joined at the hip, why hadn't they just gotten together? Why make me her boyfriend? Every time the three of us went out on a date, I felt like the actual third wheel. Back then, she'd held me close, her voice full of gentle reproach. "Sam and I grew up together. I've only ever seen him as a little brother. Stop imagining things. You're the only one I love." And I'd believed her sweet talk. I thought he was just a brother to her, that she loved me, and that she truly wanted to marry me. I thought that, at the very least, there was still a small place for me in her heart. Now, I finally knew she'd been lying to me from the very beginning. To her, I was nothing but a tool to give her a child. Once she was done using me, she'd kick me to the curb. My eyes burned as I called Frank. "Frank, I got the video. Mandy's been committing marriage fraud this entire time…" Frank lost it the second I finished telling him what was on it. "That cheating snake! She's going to get exactly what's coming to her!" He took a breath, switching into lawyer mode. "Now that we have concrete proof of the affair, I'll draft the divorce papers immediately and help you fight her in court." "No," I said, my voice dropping. "Wait a little longer." Frank sounded confused. "Wait for what?" "I want Mandy to feel what it's like to crash from pure joy straight into devastation," I said firmly. I hung up and wiped the lingering tears from the corners of my eyes. Something inside me went cold. "Mandy, you were the one who played with my feelings first. Don't blame me for what happens next." … For the next few days, I acted as if nothing were wrong, playing the doting husband as best I could. Then I handed her a rigged pregnancy test and asked her to take it. When the test showed two lines, she was ecstatic. She reached for her phone right away to call her parents back home and share the good news. I smiled and caught her arm. "Mandy, your parents haven't visited us since the wedding. Why don't we invite them down for a few days and tell them in person?" She praised me for being so thoughtful and called them that very night. The next day, Mandy's parents, Oscar Sanchez and Daisy Foster, arrived by train. To welcome them, Mandy booked a table at a hotel restaurant. At noon, when I arrived at the hotel with everything I'd prepared, I found Samuel already there, standing right next to Mandy. Mandy noticed my eyes lingering on him and quickly explained, "My parents haven't seen Sam in a long time either, so I invited him along." The corner of my mouth twitched into a smirk. "Of course. He absolutely needs to be here for this." After all, he was one of the stars of the show I had planned for them. Once everyone was seated, Mandy raised her glass, radiating joy. "Mom, Dad, besides having you here for a visit, we actually have some incredible news to share. It's—" Before she could finish, I pulled out the divorce papers and slammed them onto the table.