I Ate the Assistant's Leftover Cake, My Wife Demands Divorce

Justin Fox had once been a poor student Lucia Sanchez put through school. Later, after he graduated, he used the gap while everyone was taking graduation photos. Out on the field, he leaned down and kissed Lucia, and I caught him doing it. I hit him across the face right there. And I left him with a warning. "We gave you money to help you study, not so you could learn how to shamelessly seduce women and take shortcuts." "If you've got that kind of crooked ambition, you'd be better off figuring out how to break into the Fortune 500." That falling-out turned two men who'd been like brothers into open enemies on the spot. Everyone knew we were finished with each other from then on. So when Justin happened to get accidentally locked inside an office. Missing an important interview and losing his shot at a Fortune 500 company. He wept and said it was my doing. And Lucia believed him without a shred of doubt. "Edward!" Lucia came storming to me, furious. "Justin is just a kid fresh out of school. He thinks of me as an older sister, and he's grateful because I helped him." "That kiss was only his way of saying thank you." "Why did you have to be so cruel?" "Why did you have to ruin his job?" That was the first time the two of us, always so loving, fought with heat in our faces. Back then my career was climbing fast, and I was riding high. I wasn't about to accept someone pinning that kind of label on me. So I threw it back at her coldly. "I ruined his job?" "Lucia, open your eyes and look properly. He's just some poor student. Is he really worth me going that far?" Lucia didn't catch what I was actually saying. She only heard the contempt in my tone. "Edward, now that you're pulling in seven figures and think you're something, you look down on a guy fresh out of college, is that it?" "Fine. Let's see if you can stay this arrogant to the end." Lucia threw that at me and turned and walked out. The next day, she made a call herself. And Justin quickly became her male assistant. Twenty grand a month, easy work, pouring tea, running odd errands. The whole company whispered that the two of them had something going on behind closed doors. They even said Justin had been kept by Lucia back in college, and that was why he got such an easy, high-paying job. Hearing it made my blood boil, and I warned Lucia about it more than once. She didn't care. "A clear conscience needs no defending," she said, and that was the end of it. But I knew that from that kiss on the field, there was nothing clean between them. For the sake of the company's name, and to keep the stock from dropping too hard. I went to Lucia's office for the first time. And I saw it with my own eyes. Justin, using the same spoon, digging into the cake Lucia had already been eating. I fired him on the spot. Lucia tried to stop me, but I was too angry. I even said that if he wasn't fired, we'd divorce, things like that. The company in our hands was one the two of us had built together. It couldn't run without her, and even less without me. So Lucia had no choice but to give in. She could only sign the termination notice. Until later, when I left the company for certain reasons I couldn't bring myself to explain, and became a househusband. Only then did Lucia bring Justin back. Thinking back on all of it now, I closed my eyes in despair. "I'm sorry." When you're under someone else's roof, you have to bow your head. Even if I once had every reason to stand up straight. But now, in a corner this tight. The one who had to apologize first could only be me. "Sorry now, after all this? Too late." Lucia stared at me coldly. She pushed the divorce agreement toward me again. "Sign it." "Sign it, and then I'll see whether your apology actually means anything." In that document, those glaring words, walk away with nothing in the divorce, stung my eyes. I gripped the pen tight. "Can you not make me walk away with nothing?" "You can keep every cent, just let me stay and take care of you, all right?" "Because." I lifted my head and forced the words out. "You're pregnant..." Lucia didn't so much as blink. "No." Someone slammed a hand on the table and shot up, furious. "Lucia! Do you have to be this cruel?" "Didn't you hear Edward say you're pregnant? He wants to stay and take care of you. What a good man he is." "It was one bite of cake. It's not some huge thing. Why blow it up all the way to divorce?" Lucia suddenly leaned back against her chair, glanced up lazily, and gave a mocking little smile. "The husband is mine." "But the child, is it really yours?" For a few seconds the air went dead silent. The people who'd been speaking up for me traded uneasy looks. My eyes went red, hard. I was almost trembling as I got the words out. "Lucia, what do you mean?" Lucia's smile turned even more scornful. "Edward, when you sent those thugs to ruin Justin, did you never once think of today?" "A man with a heart that vicious." "How could he deserve to have me bear his child?"

I watched her draw back her fist and make a striking motion at her own belly. The rage tore whatever sense I had left clean out of me. I snatched up the ashtray and hurled it straight at her forehead. "Lucia! You're not even human!" "That's our child. Do you have any idea how hard we fought for that baby?" She didn't dodge. Blood ran straight down from her forehead, and she only watched me, cold. "Edward, you really are a madman." "But even a madman has to pay the price." Right there, Lucia pulled out her phone and called the police. "Assault. Attempted murder." "Edward, you want to bet I can put you away for life?" Meeting the hard resolve in her eyes. My head dropped again. In the end the officers lectured me at length before they left. With the cut on her forehead, Lucia looked like the perfect victim. She walked away with barely any consequence at all. And me, I was ordered by the police to sign the divorce agreement as soon as possible. "Fine. You win." I closed my eyes in despair. A bitter, self-mocking smile pulled at my mouth. "I give up." If this marriage had already lost all meaning. Then why keep tormenting each other? I was about to pick up the pen and sign my name. But a hand suddenly pressed down over mine. I looked up into Justin's amused smile. "Mr. Stephens, how can you give up this easily?" "Tsk, tsk." "The Mr. Stephens who once ruled the business world, who could burn through a million in ten seconds without so much as blinking." "And now, over twenty thousand dollars." "You're one step from getting on your knees to beg. Pathetic, isn't it?" "A man who's ended up like you, that really is something to be ashamed of." I didn't argue. I lowered my head. Before the marriage, I was the willful young heir who could summon wind and rain at a word. After the marriage, I was the powerful, unrivaled business tycoon. But Justin was my undoing. From the moment he showed up, taking over Lucia's attention piece by piece. Sowing division, bit by bit. And I fell from the clouds into the mud. I looked at him, my eyes empty. "I've already given up. I'll sign, just as you want." "What more do you want?" He didn't want me giving up so fast. To him it was a cat playing with a mouse, and there had to be a game first. The fun only came when the mouse was worn down to nothing. Lucia waved a hand and sent everyone out. Until there were only the three of us left in the room. Then she frowned, and slid an arm around Justin's waist. "What is it?" "A moment ago you wanted to watch me get divorced. Changed your mind so soon?" Justin's eyes curved with his smile. "I just think getting it this easily is no fun." "Besides, Edward's already willing to walk away with nothing in the divorce." "That means he's got nowhere left to go." Justin's fingers drifted over Lucia's face, suggestive. "How about this." "We turn up the difficulty on the game. What do you say?" I gripped the hem of my shirt, a bad feeling settling in. The memory of being tricked into a basement and locked in for three days came flooding back, and the terror with it. Face pale, I looked to Lucia. Hoping she would say the words. That's enough. Instead, a trace of a smile touched the corner of her mouth. "It's your call." "So how do you plan to keep playing this game?" It hit me like a bucket of cold water dumped over my head. With Lucia backing him, standing behind him. Justin grew even more pleased with himself. His gaze drifted slowly down to the swell of Lucia's belly. "Since you're pregnant, and it's Edward's child." "Then why don't we let him watch, with his own eyes." "Watch how he loses this child, step by step?" Justin stroked his own flat stomach, and something bitter and envious flashed through his eyes. "Let him find out too, what it feels like to never be able to father a child." At the mention of never being able to have children. Lucia's expression turned suddenly dark. "Fine. We'll do it that way." "It's the debt he owes." The plea rose again, and again I forced it back down my throat. I closed my eyes. Another memory surged up. It was what happened after the cake incident, after I fired Justin. Justin had coasted through college on the money someone sponsored him, living well. A few years of work after that, kept on a generous salary by Lucia, and he never picked up any real skill. What he did pick up was a habit of extravagance and waste. Once he lost that easy, high-paying assistant job. To keep himself afloat, he went looking everywhere for work and quick money. And blundered into a dinner party that was anything but respectable. He became some wealthy woman's plaything, and after one night he'd been used until he lost the ability to have children. None of it had anything to do with me. But Lucia still laid the blame at my feet. And so Justin had been scheming for a long time, waiting all along for today. Waiting for me to be broken and disgraced. To fall into his hands. And then to watch me suffer a fate worse than death.

After Lucia withdrew the divorce papers. She never brought up the divorce again. Even when I was the one chasing after her. "Please. Give me the papers. I'll sign." She only laughed, cold and contemptuous. "You already stripped down to nothing and made a public fool of yourself out there." "Justin says so." "This time you have to truly understand what you did wrong." Understanding what I did wrong. It just meant tormenting me worse than before. I asked Lucia to end the pregnancy. Justin made me sit with her and drink two cases of liquor. "Once you've gotten Lucia drunk enough to land in the hospital," "the baby's gone on its own, no need for an abortion. Right?" My living allowance was cut off completely. I had to earn each day's meal money doing housework. The lowest point. Was the time I washed Justin's shoes for ten dollars' worth of breakfast. Justin sat in the office chair in Lucia's study, watching me with a sneer. "Mr. Stephens, if you'd known things would come to this," "would you still have strutted around like you owned the world?" He said it with such hatred. He'd had a good job, once. And it was because of me that he'd fallen into that hopeless nightmare. He'd never once meant to fight me over Lucia. But after that. He set his heart on settling the score with me, one way or another. I lowered my head and stayed quiet a long time. "Assistant Fox, do you actually know why I've ended up like this?" Justin blinked. "Why else? It's your comeuppance." "You thought if you slaved away at home, gave Lucia a child, you could tie her to you." "What a joke." "She never loved you. Of course she'd never love your child either." Everyone thought I'd chosen to be a househusband. No one knew what it had cost me. Back when Justin was fired. Lucia acted as if nothing had happened and made up with me. It was like we were falling in love all over again. Every night she clung to me, whispering in my ear. "Eddie, I hate watching you work so hard every day." "Let's have a baby." But Lucia had ovarian failure. Conceiving naturally was all but impossible. Back then, for the sake of that child. I gave up my career outright and stayed home full-time, studying how to cure her. From the medical literature to the practical theory. It took me two years to make her well. I thought Lucia would understand what I'd given up. Instead she looked down on me, same as everyone else. And what I hadn't known. Was that from the very moment I agreed to be a househusband. I'd already walked into their trap. Justin's laughter echoed in my ears. And tangled through it, Lucia's cold, pitiless voice. "Edward, if there's anyone to blame for all this, it's only yourself." "If it weren't for you," "Justin would never have been fired." "He wouldn't have taken a desperate gamble after losing his job." "He wouldn't have lost his ability to have children, poisoned by someone at a business dinner." "You did all of this." "So you're the one who has to pay." Those words followed me like a nightmare, clinging to me every waking hour. I never had one good night's sleep. Then one day, Justin's kite snagged in the branches of a tree. He forced Lucia to climb up and get it down. "Isn't this the perfect chance to torment Edward?" "Lucia, you'll play along with me, won't you?" She obeyed like a good girl. And I was tied up beside her, forced to watch. Nearly dropping to my knees to beg. "Lucia's still pregnant. Please, she really can't climb a tree..." But Justin's word was final. He even called over a few security guards to stand watch and force her up. Halfway up, Lucia's face twisted in pain. Her foot slipped, and she came crashing down. A rush of heat between her legs. "Justin, please, call an ambulance, my baby..." "What are you screaming for?" Justin flung my hands off, cold. "Weren't you the one who wanted to abort it, who didn't want this child?" My head was roaring. "You made her climb that tree on purpose. You wanted her to lose it?" Meeting my stunned eyes. Justin only sneered. "Don't be so delicate. You think climbing one tree is enough to get rid of a baby?" I froze. "What do you mean?" Justin didn't answer me. He looked at Lucia instead, his voice soft, smiling. "Lucia, why don't we end the game?" "Let's just tell your husband a little secret." "His child was lost because you willingly ate that piece of cake he gave you with his own hands." "And in that cake, I'd mixed in crushed abortion pills." "Care to guess how he'll react?" Lucia's face was still twisted in pain, but her eyes were cold as they fixed on me. "Edward, I never wanted to carry your child at all." "This time, getting pregnant by accident," "the only reason I didn't get rid of it was to make you taste this kind of pain for yourself." Hearing it from Lucia's own mouth, everything inside me turned to ash. I stayed silent a long while, then lifted my bloodshot eyes. And looked at Lucia. "Then I have a secret to tell you too."