When we're in a meeting during an overtime shift, Jazmine Garcia's secretary, Alvin Bauer, whisks a powerbank from her bag, as if it's the most natural thing to do in this world.

Jazmine merely glances at him. She opts not to comment anything and just continue the meeting instead.

The next morning, I hand over a divorce agreement that I've just printed. Jazmine chucks it into the trash can impatiently.

"All this just because Alvin used my powerbank?"

I nod for a moment before shaking my head.

"It's because he never told you that he wanted to use your powerbank, and yet he took it from your bag in a natural manner. On top of that, you didn't stop him from using your powerbank, too."

Jazmine shoots me a nasty glance at my words. Then, she drops her signature onto the divorce agreement before throwing it at my face.

"You really have too much free time on your hands! All you do is pay attention to such menial matters and picking fights with me over them!

"I've already signed the divorce agreement! I'll have you know that since you have the guts to bring up divorce, you should be ready to suffer from the consequences! I will never go back to you!"

Jazmine and I are childhood friends, and our relationship has spanned for more than 20 years. She refuses to believe that I'll give up on our relationship over such a petty matter in such a short time.

But the straw that ends up crushing the camel is never the final straw.

Jazmine Garcia slammed the door behind her as she left and ignored all of my calls and text messages. She was certain that I would be the first to give in and compromise.

That was why she kept acting as arrogant and high-and-mighty as ever, planning only to accept my apology if she was in a good mood.

However, all I wanted was for her to sign the asset division settlement.

Since she refused to talk to me, I sent the agreement back home instead to let both our parents talk it out.

I thought that we wouldn't be crossing paths again after this. However, that evening, HR came to me and said, "Colin, there's a dinner tonight, and Ms. Garcia said that everyone in the company is to attend.

"She specifically mentioned your name and said that you were not allowed to excuse yourself. Otherwise, all of your sales bonuses will be cancelled for the year."

I didn't want to put my wallet on the line, so I just packed some of my things up before driving over to the dinner venue. Yet, before I'd even stepped in, I heard Jazmine playfully saying, "Sure. If you can top the sales for next month, then I'll fulfill one of your wishes. It can be anything."

"Anything?"

I saw through the glass in the door to the private dining room that Jazmine was sitting in the corner, her cheeks slightly flushed like she was tipsy, right next to her personal assistant, Alvin Bauer. He was gently kneading her hands at that moment, tucking strands of her hair behind her ear carefully as he looked at her endearingly.

The other colleagues didn't dare to watch and just focused intently on the food on the table.

I sat down in the farthest corner from them and asked simply, "I haven't seen any large sales coming in. What's this dinner celebrating?"

"This dinner is specifically to celebrate and commemorate Alvin closing his first-ever sale," Jazmine said, suddenly getting up and raising her glass of red wine while scanning the room.

When her eyes landed on me, a hint of impatience surfaced in her eyes. Then, she announced loudly, "Alvin has shown a lot of improvement over the past few months ever since joining the company. Although the sale was only worth a few hundred bucks, it's still worth celebrating and encouraging!

"Now, everyone, you will send your heartiest congratulations to him in the form of cash transactions. As previously stated, nobody is allowed to give less than 1,000 dollars."

My jaw dropped. The rest of the colleagues also looked shocked and reluctant.

Jazmine's gaze then found me again. She pointed at me and said, "As for you, Colin Whitaker. You're the Deputy CEO. You should give him a bonus of 20,000 dollars. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

In the past, she used to give encouragement to our company interns who managed to close the deal on a huge sale. And back then, I thought that since Jazmine and I were married, we moved as a unit, and therefore, I didn't want to let her down.

So, I would always back her up for these dinner celebrations, making the reservations, doing the preparation, and even forking out a 1,000-dollar bonus from my own pocket just to encourage them.

Our other business partners heard about our little program and decided that Jazmine was a very good and trustworthy boss, so they gave her even more business, which improved our company's sales.

But now, I could see that she was basically on the verge of kissing Alvin on the mouth, and I couldn't care less. I just replied perfunctorily, "I don't have any money."

Jazmine slammed her glass on the table and sneered coldly, "All he did was use my powerbank for a bit. I didn't even cheat on you. Why the hell are you still making such a huge fuss about getting divorced?"

The red hickey hiding under her collar would occasionally pop out to greet me from time to time. However, we hadn't slept together in a very long time ever since Alvin appeared.

"I'm not making a fuss. I'm really divorcing you."

Jazmine was stunned when she met my stern, determined gaze.

Alvin got up just then and held her by her shoulders, patting her gently as he smiled at me.

"It's my fault for taking Jazzy's belongings without asking her first. It's just that it was an urgent situation back then, and I didn't think much about it. Obviously, I also never thought that Mr. Whitaker would continue holding it against me for so long.

"Jazzy, I think we should just stop showing up in the same places to give Mr. Whitaker peace of mind in the future."

Alvin then let go of her shoulders with a hurt look on his face. However, Jazmine immediately grabbed his hands and pulled them back around her shoulders as she explained frantically, "No, it was never your fault!

"It's Colin's fault for being petty. He's the one not bringing in any sales because all his time is spent on watching my powerbank to make sure no one else can borrow it!"

Alvin looked at her shyly and acted hesitant about it.

"Mr. Whitaker might be extremely jealous and possessive, Jazzy, but he is still your lawfully-wedded husband. You should be more considerate of his feelings. It doesn't matter if I get wronged in the process."

Jazmine cast me an ugly look and immediately began clarifying things as if we weren't the least bit related to each other at all.

"Colin and I are only married in name! If he never set up that scheme to freeze my family's finances to force me into marrying him, I would never even have looked at him twice!"

Her lips curled up slightly as she continued to provoke me on purpose.

"Mr. Whitaker, you should never have done that in the first place. You were the one who forced Jazzy to marry you. So, you should cherish her even more than ever! How could you keep getting into arguments with her?

"Also, she is not your possession. It only makes sense that she also has friends in her own circle!"

I smiled emotionlessly. "So, do you mean that I, as her lawfully-wedded husband, shouldn't even bother or do anything about it that she's friends with a 'boyfriend' like you who's obviously trying to steal someone else's wife?"

He didn't think that I would expose him so directly in public. He just pointed a finger at me and stammered for half a minute without being able to get a word out.

Jazmine immediately shielded him behind her and screamed at me with a finger in my face.

"Colin Whitaker! What the hell do you think you're saying?"

"What do you think I'm saying?" I countered. "Well then, would you dare to show everyone how you saved his contact in your phone? Is the heart emoji still next to his name? Or, would you prefer to show them your daily transfer records with dozens of hearts in the transfer descriptions?"

Jazmine's face was red with anger. I pulled out my phone and tapped on a chat window from an unsaved number that sent me tons of her lewd photos in bed.

"Or, would you prefer instead to show everyone who the people in these photos—"

"Shut the fuck up!"

She threw the entire bowl of fruit punch in my face, and she also snatched my phone before flinging it onto the ground in fury, where it shattered into pieces.

The other colleagues wanted to stop us, but they didn't dare to move from their seats. They just cast pitiful looks in my direction.

Jazmine panted heavily as she grabbed Alvin's hand and announced loudly, "That's right! I'm doing all that because I'm planning to marry Alvin!

"I dare you to actually sign your name on the division settlement, Colin Whitaker! Once our divorce is finalized, I am going to take Alvin straight to the town hall to register our marriage! And everyone at the company will be invited to our wedding then!"

Alvin's eyes lit up with a gleam of wild joy. He intertwined his fingers with hers and whispered endearingly in her ear as they left the room hand in hand, without looking back.

The two interns I'd brought up quickly came up to me and handed me a bunch of napkins to pat myself dry. They also tried to advise me to give in to her.

"Mr. Whitaker, I think you should go and talk to Ms. Garcia. If you both really get divorced, then Alvin's going to replace you immediately."

"Yeah, and you're going to regret it forever if that really happens."

I wiped off the bits of fruit pulp on my face and shook my head.

I knew very well that she would never agree to the divorce if I just ran out after her now and apologized or tried to make it up to her. After all, I had always been the one going after her, apologizing, and making compromises for her over the course of our marriage.

That was also the main reason why she was so arrogant and conceited and even dared to twist the truth about our marriage situation back then.

But I was exhausted, and I didn't want to play her games anymore.

I just apologized to everyone present and went to get the bill.

It was almost wintertime. The chilly wind felt like blades to my face and stung like a bitch. Yet I realized I didn't regret it one bit after ending things with her myself. In fact, I felt a little liberated.

Maybe it was because she'd been suppressing me for far too long.

I lit up a cigarette and sent a text message to Mom and Dad.

"I'm fine with settling abroad. Let's just leave as soon as possible."

It would be even better if we never came back for the rest of my life.

After discussing and agreeing on a departure date with Mom and Dad, I went back home and started packing.

I'd been with Jazmine for quite a long time, and there were quite a lot of my bits and bobs around the house. For instance, there were the 999 love letters she'd written to me when she pursued me back then that I safely kept away in a box.

There was also the pair of handmade rings we made together at a workshop on our first date, filled with scratches that were proof of our love for each other.

On top of that, there was also the stack of plane tickets from her secretly coming to see me when we were in a long-distance relationship due to studies, and photos of me that she secretly took while I was sleeping, and our wedding photos on the walls that were covered in a layer of dust, and even the interior of this house that we designed and shopped furniture together for…

We had been deeply in love with each other back then and wanted nothing more than to carve our names straight into the other's bones. I had believed that our love could withstand anything, so I gave up on my future abroad, rejected my parents' offer to relocate, and decided to work at her company instead.

I started from the very beginning and accompanied her every step of the way until she became a listed company.

I provided her with free technical support, positioning our company's products at the top and making the company the leader in its industry.

I remembered the day the company got listed and went public. She had gotten down on one knee and even proposed to me with a simple soda can pull tab.

"I want you to be the only man by my side for the rest of my life, Colin Whitaker. And you also can't have anyone else but me by your side."

I teared up and nodded, promising her the rest of my life.

But now, she was the one who betrayed me first, secretly holding someone else's hand halfway through.

Honestly speaking, I never noticed Alvin's existence in the first place.

His performance was mediocre, his abilities were just average, he had no outstanding qualities, and he even frequently caused trouble for the company.

In fact, Jazmine used to complain to me that the new intern was a good-for-nothing troublemaker and should just be fired.

I thought that everyone had their struggles, so I told her to just wait until after his internship was over, thinking that perhaps Alvin just hadn't gotten used to the new environment yet.

Ultimately, Alvin passed the internship and was formally made a full-time employee. I even rewarded him with a small bonus to keep him encouraged.

But his ambition was already evident then. He always looked at Jazmine with an intense and even suggestive gaze. Still, I never doubted him, assuming that he just had a good and playful relationship with Jazmine.

However, it wasn't until one night during a company social event when Alvin helped a very drunk Jazmine home late at night, her clothes disheveled, and red marks obvious on her neck, that a chill finally went straight down my spine.

I reached out to touch the marks, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me.

Jazmine, who was half-asleep, suddenly grabbed my hand and whined, "Stop it, Allie…"

I froze immediately.

She also seemed to have realized something and immediately jumped up from bed, apologizing profusely to me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't notice that it was you in the dark. Don't get mad, darling. There's absolutely nothing going on between him and me. You know very well that I hate leeches the most of all!"

She was right, in a way. She always looked down on weaker men and looked up to those with power and talent. So, she would never let someone like Alvin who even needed help working the coffee machine every single day get close to her.

At least, that was what I kept telling myself. However, Alvin just kept appearing close by her side over and over again.

Jazmine explained that it was because of Alvin's exceptional working skills that she promoted him to be her personal assistant at work.

However, it wouldn't be the first time I saw both of them staying back at the office for overtime work, their hands intertwined atop the computer mouse and their heads close enough that they could smell each other's breath.

When I stormed into the office in a rage, Jazmine flung her mug onto the ground and hollered angrily at me in a way that I'd never seen before.

"What the hell is going on in that perverted brain of yours all the time? Alvin was just teaching me how to make a presentation deck!"

Meanwhile, Alvin stood quietly next to her with a fake aggrieved look on his face, watching me with those smug eyes of his.

They got even more brazen after that incident.

They began going to work and leaving the office together and barely even separated from each other during break time or lunch hour. They would also always be "working overtime" at the company until very late at night with the door locked.

They joked that it was just to deter me from catching them red-handed and giving Jazmine a fright again. They kept bringing up that joke over and over again, and each time they said it, I would feel my heart getting crushed repeatedly until I'd cry from the pain.

…

Soon after, Jazmine wandered completely off the path.

The company retreat was held at the beach. I picked out Jazmine's sunblock lotion from her suitcase and was just about to walk over to her when I saw her lounging on a chaise in her bikini, while Alvin was hovering over her, practically in her lap, as he expertly applied the lotion all over her body.

I froze to the ground, not knowing the words to describe the feeling in my chest anymore.

I should have just argued with her just like how I did when I realized they ate from the same fork at lunch, or stayed behind in the office during break, or remained in the underground parking lot for hours after work.

But if I did that, Jazmine would just glare at me in frustration and argue, "He's just applying sunblock for me. Will you or will you not stop thinking perverted things about us? The entire company already knows that you and I are married!

"I really don't know what's the point of you getting all worked up over nothing. Or, is it because you don't trust me? You don't trust me! You think that I'm going to cheat on you, don't you?"

We'd then end up getting into a huge fight and then start giving each other the cold shoulder.

I sighed and reflected on myself. Maybe I really was just being too touchy and oversensitive after all.

…

It was Jazmine's birthday the next day. By the time I arrived at the birthday party with the birthday cake I baked myself, Jazmine and Alvin were in the midst of playing a game of passing pieces of paper between their mouths, with everyone watching and cheering them on. Jazmine was literally climbing into Alvin's lap, trying not to let the paper fall.

I suppressed my anger and asked them what was going on.

Jazmine laughed loudly and chided, "You're such an old fart. Haven't you even played this game at all during your college days?

"Look at you, getting all mad just because you think we're kissing each other. Good thing we're good at the game and never dropped the paper. Just imagine what you'd do if we accidentally kissed without the paper. Tear the roof down or something?" she asked with a smirk.

She thought that I would get mad at her.

However, I just stared at her for a very long time. Then I put the cake on the table and calmly wished her a happy birthday, to her shock and surprise.

"Happy birthday, Ms. Garcia. I'm tired."

I closed my eyes and took off the wedding ring on my finger, gathered up the trashed wrapping paper from opened presents, and threw everything out in the bin downstairs.

My phone wouldn't stop buzzing in my pocket. I didn't even have to read it to know that the text messages were from Alvin.

"Say, Mr. Whitaker, don't you know how to cheer a woman up when she's down? How could you lose your temper at Jazzy like that?

"It's fine, though. I'll cheer her up on your behalf. Jazzy said she's not coming home tonight, so I'll take really good care of her tonight in your stead. Ciao!"

He then sent me a video of Jazmine, now all tipsy and drunk, as she reached out to pull him into her arms while mumbling, "Colin's just a useless piece of trash… He only knows how to get mad at me… You're still the best, Allie…"

I calmly blocked Alvin's number and all of his contacts before calling my secretary, Jay Ackerman.

"Have a lawyer collect the patent fees for all the technical support we've ever provided to Garcia Group. Also, withdraw the one billion-dollar investment that we gave her last time."