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Divorcing the Husband Who Chose Her
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
At my mother-in-law's birthday banquet, my husband Karl Abbott stood up in front of everyone and thanked Janice Fox for staying by his side through the hardest years. And me, the wife who'd been legal...
Chương (4)
第1章
1: 1
At my mother-in-law's birthday banquet, my husband Karl Abbott stood up in front of everyone and thanked Janice Fox for staying by his side through the hardest years.
And me, the wife who'd been legally married to him for five years, was seated at an overflow table by the door.
I thought that was as humiliating as the night could get.
Then he took out an old jade ring and slid it onto Janice's finger with his own hand.
I knew that ring.
Years ago, when his business failed and creditors were pounding on our door, I was the one who took it to the pawnshop and turned it into the money that saved him.
He'd gripped my hand and cried as he said,
"Autumn Acevedo, once I've got money, I'll buy it back for you. I'll give you a real wedding."
But now Janice sat there with red eyes, voice catching, saying she'd grown up without a mother and had never worn anything so precious.
I stood up. I made him answer.
"Karl, didn't you say once you bought it back, you'd give me a proper wedding?"
He stepped in front of Janice, brows drawn together.
"You already carry the Abbott name. Why are you fighting a girl over this?"
And I suddenly remembered the day my mother died. All he'd said was,
"Work's busy. I can't make it."
In front of the whole family, my mother-in-law Silvia Dickerson sneered.
"Can't even have children and still hangs on to the spot. Doesn't she think that's bad luck."
No one knew I'd wrecked my health working through the night, drinking in Karl's place at his business dinners, covering for him.
As the banquet was winding down, Karl told me to go help in the kitchen.
"Janice isn't well. She can't stand the smell of cooking. Go lend a hand."
I smiled, slid off my wedding band, and dropped it into my mother-in-law's box of birthday gifts.
Since the whole family's so nicely gathered.
Then I won't be in your way.
......
"Janice is just being taken in as a goddaughter. You're already Mrs. Abbott. Why fight a girl over a little face?"
"Exactly. The young one doesn't know any better, and a wife should be gracious about it."
The relatives' murmuring cut into me like a row of blunt knives.
I stopped at the door of the banquet hall and turned to look at Janice.
She stood behind Karl, the jade ring my mother left me sitting on her finger.
Inside that band was a tiny character carved into the metal. "Autumn."
My mother used to tell me a girl didn't have to lean on anyone in this life, but she should have one thing that was truly her own.
Later, when Karl's business ran dry, I'd taken it to the pawnshop, my hand shaking so hard I could barely hold the pen.
Now it was on another woman's hand.
"That was the dowry my mother left me."
I stared at Janice.
"Give it back."
Janice's eyes went red at once, and she fumbled to pull it off.
"Autumn, I really didn't know it meant so much to you. If you'd said something, I never would've taken it."
I smiled.
"You posted a photo yesterday. That 'Autumn' carved inside the band, you couldn't see it?"
Her hands froze.
The voices around us dropped low.
The ring had been too small for her to begin with. She'd forced it down to the base of her finger at the banquet, and now her finger was red and swollen, and it wouldn't come off no matter how she pulled.
Karl caught her by the wrist.
"Stop pulling. You'll hurt yourself."
He turned to me, his voice pleading.
"Mom decided out of nowhere to take Janice as a goddaughter, and I hadn't prepared anything for the recognition ceremony. All I had on hand was the ring I'd just bought back. One night. Tomorrow I'll take it back myself."
"You're my wife. Be reasonable. Don't make her lose face in front of the relatives."
I looked at him, and he felt like a stranger.
"She loses face without a gift, so she props herself up with my dead mother's ring. And me, sitting down there watching you put it on her, I'm not losing anything?"
Karl's face darkened.
"I never said I was giving it to her. Don't blow this up."
Five years ago, the day we got married, he'd been so broke all he could buy was a pair of plain ninety-nine-dollar bands.
He'd slid one onto my finger with his eyes rimmed red and said,
"Autumn, I'm making you settle for this now. One day I'll give you a real wedding. The ring, the guests, all of it. You won't be missing a single thing."
Back then I'd smiled and said I didn't need a grand wedding. Just don't forget.
Now he really had bought the ring back, and there was a hall full of guests.
But the ring was on Janice's hand.
And a hall full of guests was watching me be the joke.
"Coming through, hot soup!"
A server, distracted by the commotion, slipped, and the whole tureen of dessert soup came straight at us.
Almost on instinct, Karl yanked me behind him and took most of the scalding soup himself.
A few drops caught the back of my hand, burning it red.
"Are you burned?"
He rushed me to cold water right away, got the burn cream, and bent his head to bandage my hand.
But the moment the gauze was wrapped, he closed his hand over mine.
"I'll have the driver take you home. Before you go, tell Janice this wasn't her fault."
That little bit of warmth went cold all the way through.
I drew my hand back, bit by bit.
"Every time you're good to me, do you have to use it to squeeze something out of me for somebody else?"
Karl looked displeased.
"Her hand's bruised purple and she never once blamed you for forcing her to take the ring off. Today is Mom's birthday. Do you have to embarrass me?"
Silvia came over with her long, sour face.
"Karl put the cream on you, he's not making you do any work. What more do you want? Janice isn't half as delicate as you."
Karl only cut in with one line.
"Mom, that's enough."
He didn't argue with any of it, the part about me being barren, useless, taking up a spot.
He fetched a coat and draped it over my shoulders.
"Nine o'clock tomorrow, I'll come get you and we'll visit your mother at the cemetery. I'll take care of the ring too. Just let it go."
I looked at him for a long time.
"Don't make me wait tomorrow. All right?"
As the cab pulled away, through the window I saw him go back to Janice's side and wrap an ice pack around the hand with the jade ring on it.
I looked down and touched the mark on my ring finger.
Five years had worn it into the skin, still faintly there.
I used to think being poor wasn't the frightening part.
As long as the promise was real.
Everything else could be endured.
But I forgot that people's hearts change.
I opened my phone and pulled up a message from three days ago.
It was from Linda James, my supervisor five years back when I worked as a housekeeping manager at the hotel chain.
The day I quit, she'd said to come find her anytime I wanted to come back.
The message read,
*The reinstatement slot closes tonight. If you still haven't decided, I can hold it for you one more day at most.*
I replied.
*Hold it one more day.*
第2章
2: 2
At eight-thirty the next morning, Karl parked the car downstairs right on time.
The white chrysanthemums, the honey almond cake, the offerings for the grave, all packed. There was even a fresh tube of burn ointment on the passenger seat.
He crouched at the entryway to change my dressing, then tucked a thermos into my bag.
"It's windy up on the hill. Don't go on an empty stomach."
I looked at everything he'd prepared, and something in me softened.
It wasn't as if Karl had never been good to me.
When my mother first got sick, he was the one who ran to the hospital with me, paid the bills, picked up the medicine.
The car had barely cleared the complex when his phone rang.
Janice's crying came through.
"Karl, the ring's cutting off my finger, it's turned purple. The jeweler says they have to cut it off right now or I could lose the finger."
Karl slammed on the brakes.
"We'll go to the jeweler first. Cut it off and we're gone, it won't take long."
He started to turn around.
I pressed a hand on my seatbelt.
"Have your mother go with her. I don't want to see her."
Karl frowned, agitated.
"I'm the one who took the ring out. Whether they cut it or pry it off, she won't dare decide alone. Take a cab to the cemetery first. I'll deal with this and be right there."
I looked at him, and the disappointment settled.
"Karl, you promised me you wouldn't make me wait today."
He reached over to straighten my scarf, his face all helpless resignation.
"Janice's finger has already gone purple. If your mother were still here, she wouldn't want us fighting over something like this."
I said nothing more, pushed the door open, and got out.
He was using my dead mother to talk me into going easy on Janice.
He'd forgotten that today was the anniversary of her death.
The wind at the cemetery was strong.
The honey almond cake went cold and hard fast.
I sat alone in front of the headstone, wiping the dust away bit by bit with a tissue.
I don't know how long it was before Karl came running, out of breath, and draped his coat over my shoulders.
"The store held me up. I'll come here with you again tomorrow."
The coat slid to the ground.
"My mother's memorial day doesn't get pushed to tomorrow just because you're busy."
I looked at his empty hands.
"Where's the ring?"
His eyes darted away.
"They cut it off."
"Then give it back to me."
After a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke.
"Janice hurt her finger. Mom felt bad about it, so she had the store re-set it to Janice's size. Call it a make-up gift for the recognition ceremony."
I laughed out loud.
"It fits her perfectly, then. And did you ever once think about how I feel?"
Karl's tone turned impatient.
"It's just resizing a ring. You can have it changed back anytime. I already rushed over here. Are you determined to wipe out every good thing I've ever done for you?"
I laid the white chrysanthemums in front of the grave.
"My mother always used to put in a good word for you. She probably wouldn't blame you."
Back at the marital apartment, I froze where I stood.
A few rain-soaked cardboard boxes were stacked in the corridor.
My mother's clothes, her photo albums, her old radio, scattered all over the floor.
After I gave up my old apartment, I'd stored her things in the guest room for the time being.
Silvia had the door code to the apartment, and to make room for Janice to stay, she'd cleared everything out on her own.
The albums had swollen from the water. The last photo of my mother, taken while she was hospitalized, her face had blurred into a smear.
Janice came walking over under an umbrella, her face full of surprise.
"Autumn, I honestly didn't know these were your mother's things. She's gone now. Keeping all this around, doesn't it just hurt to look at?"
I slapped her hand away.
"Wearing my ring, living in my room, throwing out my mother's things. You get to grab every last benefit, and then say you didn't know. Is that fun for you?"
Karl came up the stairs at that exact moment, saw the scene, and his face fell instantly.
He scolded Silvia to her face, then crouched down to wipe off the old radio, and after that called a photo shop about restoring the pictures.
He worked at it in earnest, like he truly ached for me.
Once he'd taped the boxes shut, I asked only one thing.
"Is Janice still staying here tonight?"
His hands stopped.
"Her rental has a leak, she's only staying three days. I'll get the photos fixed and move the things back. Stop clinging to this."
I was fully awake now.
He would always come to clean up the wreckage, but he'd never make the person who caused it leave.
That night, I called a moving van.
My mother's things, my documents, a few boxes of clothes, all sent to the storage unit Linda had helped me arrange.
Karl stood in the doorway, thinking I was only afraid Silvia would touch those things again, and even taped the last box shut for me himself.
After the van pulled away, I went back to the empty guest room and opened the reinstatement page.
No hesitation.
I pressed confirm.
第3章
3: 3
On the company's fifth-anniversary open house, Karl invited me himself.
Before we left, he looped my scarf around my neck with his own hands.
"Mom was wrong yesterday. Today I'll set the record straight. We built the first store together. No one gets to take your credit."
I brought along the album from our startup days and photocopies of the old orders.
This was my last handover before I left.
The founders' wall in the main lobby was ringed with people.
It listed the deliveries made before dawn, the apologies given at customers' doors, the collections chased down. My name was nowhere on it.
The second half was crammed with photos of Janice training the stores.
A new employee handing out water mistook me for Karl's sister.
I took the paper cup.
"I'm his wife."
Janice happened to walk up just then and smoothed it over for the employee with a smile.
"Autumn's been at home all these years. The new hires have never met her. It's just a mix-up over a title, don't take it to heart."
One of our early suppliers recognized me and brought it up in front of everyone, how back then I'd made three trips in a single day begging for grace on the payments, how I'd even used my mother's pension to keep things running.
The employees around us whispered.
Karl heard the stir and came over, glancing at the photos on the wall.
"The company's first two years, Autumn saw me through them. Without her, there'd be no first store."
He turned to admin.
"Take down the photos of just Janice. Put up the group ones."
In that moment, the little scrap of hope in me that had been on the verge of dying lifted its head again.
Outside the doors, the key clients were arriving.
Janice leaned in to his ear at once.
"Karl, tearing down the wall right now, the clients will think the company's unstable inside."
Several executives chimed in.
Karl hesitated, then took it back after all.
"Cover it with flower baskets for now. We'll redo it after the event. We can't let the clients laugh at us today."
I laughed coldly.
"In front of the suppliers you said you'd give me justice. The clients show up and I get pushed to the back. The shelf life on your promises keeps getting shorter."
He didn't answer, just turned to go greet the clients.
The display area was busy.
Janice was in charge of checking the document folders. I sat in the rest area, flipping through the old album I'd brought.
Inside it was one original payment-confirmation slip, a photocopy bearing my mother's own signature.
The original had always been kept in the company archives.
Ten minutes later, a cry went up from the display area, Janice's.
"An original is missing from the folder!"
Admin and the staff all crowded over.
Janice went pale, her voice rushed and soft.
"That confirmation slip has a signature on the back, it's early financing paperwork, losing it is a real headache. Could everyone who touched the display case today check their things, voluntarily? I'm not suspecting anyone, I just don't want the clients laughing at us."
It was a pretty little speech.
But every eye in the place turned to me.
Because a moment ago, only that supplier had brought up, out loud, the money my mother and I had put in.
I had never gone near the display case.
But to keep from wearing the name of someone with a guilty conscience, I opened my bag myself and let a female employee check my coat.
The next second, that confirmation slip fell out of my coat's inner pocket.
The whole room went silent.
Janice was right there in an instant, her eyes reddening on command, the timing pitched just right.
"Maybe Autumn only wanted to take it back as a keepsake. Everyone, don't put it too harshly. She surely didn't mean to."
That one line, didn't mean to, nailed the charge in tighter.
I lifted my eyes to her.
"Pull the security footage."
Janice sighed.
"The circuit tripped during setup. Nothing was saved for that stretch. Autumn, if you want to look, I'll go to the monitor room with you."
Karl arrived, didn't press about the footage, just held his hand out to me.
"The clients are all here. Give the original back to the company first. Anything else we'll discuss at home."
I gripped the paper tight.
"I never touched the display case. She touched the folder, and she came near my coat too. You don't question her, you question me first?"
He lowered his voice.
"The document was found in your pocket. I didn't say you stole it, but you can't hold on to the company's original like this."
I turned the slip over and pointed at the signature on the back.
"This money came from my mother's pension. You erased the two of us from the startup story, and now you won't even let me touch this piece of paper?"
Karl thought I was using the original to force the company into going public with it.
He reached to pull it away.
"You want your name on it, you want compensation, all of that's negotiable. Don't back me into a corner today over one piece of paper."
I didn't let go.
Rip.
The aged paper split along the crease, and my mother's signature was torn clean in two.
I looked at the broken name in my palm.
There was nothing but emptiness inside me.
I set the startup album I'd brought into the display case.
"The five years you want, I'm giving them all back to you."
Karl sensed something was off and started after me.
Janice cut in.
"Karl, the partner's rep is on stage. They're waiting on your remarks."
He stopped, and in the end left me with just one line:
"Go home first."
I walked out the doors and heard him tell the security guard,
"Don't let her back in today. I don't want her clashing with Janice again and putting off the clients."
The sunlight stung.
I took out my phone and opened the reinstatement system.
A prompt popped up:
【Once a cross-state inspection assignment is confirmed, mid-assignment withdrawal is, as a rule, not permitted for the duration of the task.】
I pressed confirm.
第4章
4: 4
After leaving the company, I went straight to the hospital for a follow-up.
The doctor read my report, and his face was grave.
"The stomach damage is worse. No more alcohol, take your medicine on schedule, and stop pushing through it."
I nodded, then pulled up my exam records from five years ago.
The doctor added something.
"Fertility is something a couple should test together. Mr. Abbott's results back then weren't great either. There was no reason for you to carry all that pressure alone."
Five years ago, afraid of hurting Karl's pride, I never told Silvia.
I carried the shame of being called barren by myself, for five years.
Back at the marital apartment, the living room was full of relatives and company staff.
Silvia was in full swing, spraying spit as she said I was jealous of my husband's success and had gone to the company to steal documents.
Janice still had that resized jade ring on her finger, yet her mouth was busy speaking up for me.
"Autumn just felt her contributions had gone unseen and acted on impulse. Everyone, please don't treat her like a real thief."
She shoved me back into the mud all over again.
The relatives pointed and muttered.
"Living off Karl all these years and still eyeing company property. How shameless."
"Can't even have kids, and this petty on top of it. The Abbotts really got unlucky."
I didn't argue.
I just opened the video on my phone.
There was a phone in the corner of the company showroom filming behind-the-scenes footage of the exhibition setup, running on time-lapse the whole day.
Before I left, I'd gone to get the photo album, and while I was there I copied that footage.
The picture wasn't sharp, but you could make out the lounge area.
After going through the file cabinet, Janice had walked over to my coat, said she was fixing my collar, and let her hand rest at the pocket for a good two seconds.
The living room went silent.
Janice's face went white, and the tears came right on cue.
"I just touched your clothes, and that proves I planted it? Autumn, you're set on driving me out, aren't you? Fine, I'll quit. The company's yours and Karl's anyway, nothing I say will ever be believed."
Silvia rushed to shield her.
"Quit? Why should you? Some people can't keep their own hands clean and want someone else to take the fall! Karl raised her all these years and raised an ungrateful wretch!"
Karl pushed the door open and steered them out.
He poured warm water and set my stomach medicine in front of me.
"Take your medicine first. I've already handled the company matter."
He opened his laptop, the online meeting already set up on the screen.
Client reps, store managers, early suppliers, all online.
"For the briefing in a bit, just say what's in this script."
I glanced at it.
The script avoided the word "steal," but it wanted me to admit I'd lost control emotionally, taken the files without permission, and apologize to the company and to Janice.
Karl's tone softened.
"Just read it out. I'll keep the talk outside under control. I'll get the ring back, Janice moves out tonight, and this ends here."
I pushed the script away.
"She's changed her story twice, and you won't even look into it. You've already gone and confessed my guilt for me."
He pinched the bridge of his brow, the last of his patience nearly gone.
"The files were found on you. That's a fact. Janice didn't call the police, she agreed to call it a misunderstanding to outsiders, she's already backed down. Don't push your luck."
I stared into his eyes.
"So something I didn't do, I have to bow my head and own up to it, just because she's willing to let me off?"
"I'm asking you to clear up the company's trouble first. You're the boss's wife. Do you really want to see clients questioning the company over a family matter?"
I took the divorce appointment slip from my bag and pushed it in front of him.
"I won't be, from now on."
Karl's face went terrifyingly dark.
"Over a few days of this, you want a divorce?"
"My mother's dowry is on someone else's hand. You couldn't make it to her memorial. Her belongings got thrown out, her signature got torn by you. And now even my good name has to give way to your company. Which of these is a small thing?"
He gripped the slip, his voice tight.
"The ring can be recovered, the album can be repaired, the display board can be redone. Let's finish the briefing first. We'll talk about divorce once you've calmed down."
I took out the house keys, the company spare keys, and the supplementary bank card, and laid each one on the coffee table.
I left the asset reconciliation list too.
"I don't want these. Whatever needs settling, we'll settle when we file the paperwork."
Janice came out of the guest room, wearing a heartbroken look.
"You got through the hardest years, and now that life's good, you'd divorce over something this small? Isn't that a waste?"
I gave her a flat look.
"In the hardest times, he still knew I was his wife. Now that he has you people, staying here would be the real waste."
Karl blocked the doorway.
"No one leaves tonight. We finish the briefing first, everything else we talk through slowly."
I nodded.
"Fine. You wanted me to explain myself in public, didn't you? Let's start now."
The meeting opened.
I didn't read the script.
I held my phone up to the camera and showed my mother's transfer record from back then, along with the video of Janice reaching into my coat pocket.
"The company never figured out who planted the files, but it wants me to admit I took them without permission."
"This meeting today was meant to make me bow my head. So I'll ask just one thing. On what grounds?"
The meeting channel erupted.
Janice panicked.
"You can clear your own name, so why drag the clients into it? Do you feel nothing for everything Karl poured into this?"
Karl reached to shut the meeting down, then froze the moment he saw the transfer amount.
He had always thought the operating funds came only from pawning the ring.
He never knew my mother had put in her retirement savings too.
I closed the meeting and pulled up my suitcase.
Karl chased me to the elevator and clamped down on the handle.
"You blew this open in front of the clients, and now you're leaving. Who deals with the mess that's left?"
I let go and left the whole case to him.
Before the elevator doors closed, he still thought I was throwing a tantrum.
"If you leave today, don't wait for me to come get you again."
I looked at him through the narrowing gap.
"I waited for you."
"I waited the day of my mother's funeral. I waited on the anniversary of her death too."
"From today on, I'm done waiting."
Half an hour later, I stood at the ticket gate of the high-speed rail station and opened the task terminal for the first time.
The first-stop information popped up on the screen.
【Harlan City, seventy-two-hour stay. Next stop: not yet disclosed.】
I powered off my old phone and dropped it in the trash.
Karl, holding his own phone, finally realized it.
He didn't even know which city to go to, to look for his own wife.