I glanced over at Elsie’s tense face and gave a faint smile. “No. Why? Did something come up today?”

“N-No, I was just checking if my friends texted me. If not, it’s nothing.”

She scrolled through her phone on her own. The smile never left her lips.

I held back from asking who Aaron was and instead reminded her of something else. “The food’s getting cold. Let’s eat first.” We still have to go to my parents’ place to pay them a visit. I’ve already prepared everything. We can leave right after.”

She was stunned for a moment. “Why do we still have to go? Didn’t we already visit before New Year's?”

She had never liked interacting with my family. Over the years, I had gone home less and less because of her.

This time, I did not budge. “We haven’t spent the holidays with them in five years. It won’t be right if we skip it again.”

Her expression darkened, but she did not argue. She just lowered her head and ate in silence.

Suddenly, I felt exhausted. To be with her, I had nearly cut ties with my family. Yet she never once tried to share the burden with me. She only ever pushed all the difficulties onto me to deal with.

Caught between them, I felt like I could barely breathe anymore. I was not going to give in this time.

Even after we got in the car, Elsie ignored me, glued to her phone. Halfway into the trip, she suddenly spoke up. “Pull over. I’m getting out.”

I frowned and stopped the car by the side of the road. “What’s wrong? Why do you suddenly want to get out?”

She unbuckled her seatbelt and said in a cold voice, “I’m going to my friend’s place. You can go back by yourself!”

That was how it always went. She would pull this same move, waiting for me to soothe her. Only after I coaxed her into a better mood would she agree to come back with me.

However, I did not this time. I only asked her one last question, “Are you really going to do this?”

She was startled for a moment. Back then, I would have rushed to soothe her right away, but not this time. That only made her angrier. “Yes. This is exactly what I’m going to do. If you want to go back, go by yourself. I’m not going back.”

I nodded, said nothing, and drove off.

She did not expect me to actually leave her there. She immediately erupted into a string of furious curses.

“You bastard! Leaving your wife on the roadside during the holidays. Are you even a man?!”

I ignored her. Was this not what she wanted? I was just doing exactly as she said.

For some reason, I did not go far. I parked a short distance away and watched her make a call.

Not long after, a car pulled up in front of her. A man with bleached hair got out. Their body language was unmistakably intimate. They got into the car together, and I followed behind.

About ten minutes later, the car stopped in front of a hotel. They got out hand in hand.

I calmly took out my camera and snapped photos, then followed them all the way to their room. As I stared at the gold-plated room number on the door, I suddenly lost the courage to knock. From inside came the muffled, suggestive sounds of a man and a woman.

I knew exactly what was happening. My wife was in the room with another man.

However, I also knew that the moment I opened that door, our marriage would be over. The evidence I had was not enough yet. I wanted her to leave with nothing, not a single cent.

Hence, I stayed outside, listening in silence throughout the night. I did not leave until dawn, just before they came out.

For an entire week, Elsie did not say a single word to me. Ever since she came back that day, she had been locking herself in the room and rarely came out. Even though we were living under the same roof, we barely crossed paths.

In order to gather more evidence, I hacked into Elsie’s computer. As expected, I found a large number of chat records with other men, spanning nearly three years.

The most frequent name was a man called Aaron. Their conversations were explicit, and the number of hotel bookings was shockingly high.

I stood frozen for a long time before slowly coming back to my senses.

I searched everywhere for the video my friend had sent me but could not find it on her computer. There were no other videos either. It seemed like she had saved it somewhere else. I carefully went through every record I could find.

It was not until after we got married that I truly saw another side of her.

She was a gentle and dutiful wife in front of me. In front of friends and colleagues, she was generous and well-liked.

I never imagined that she could be involved with so many other men behind my back. The thought that I had shared her with them all this time made my stomach turn.

To avoid alerting her, I simply took photos of the evidence and restored everything to its original state.

After that, I went to the hospital for a full check-up. After all, with how many men she had been with, there was no telling whether she had contracted anything.

Fortunately, we had always used protection since she did not want children, so the risk of infection should have been low.

Just to be safe, I went for a full medical check-up. Fortunately, all the results came back normal.

Meanwhile, Elsie had been waiting for me to give in and coax her. After a few days of silence from me, she started to panic. For the first time, she actually spoke to me first.

“Why aren’t you coming to comfort me? Don’t you know I’m angry?”

Just looking at her made my skin crawl. I could not even pretend anymore. “I didn’t know.”

She choked, clearly sensing my cold attitude, and her anger flared up again. “What’s wrong with you? What did I do to deserve this? Why are you treating me like this?!

“I didn’t want to go to your parents’ place in the first place. You forced me. I did nothing wrong! Let me tell you this. If you keep acting like this, we’re getting divorced!”

Every time we argued, she would always threaten me with a divorce. I always gave in for the sake of our relationship. However, I was not going to do it anymore. I would rather end this marriage as soon as possible.

“Fine. Then let’s divorce.”

She fell silent instantly. Her expression flickered with uncertainty.

I did not want to waste this chance. “What, changed your mind again? You’ve been bringing up a divorce all these years, and now that I've agreed, you’ve got nothing to say?”

After a long pause, she finally stammered, “I-I just wanted you to comfort me. If you had just lowered your head, I would’ve forgiven you. Why can’t you just spoil me?”

I let out a cold laugh. Who decided that men are the ones who must always apologize when the one in the wrong was clearly her?

She continued boldly without a hint of guilt, “That’s just how women are nowadays. Look at how other men treat their wives, and look at you.”

Did I treat her badly? In reality, I earned over ten thousand dollars a month, and nearly all of it was spent on her.

Whenever she wanted something, I would buy it for her right away, but even then, it was never enough. She was constantly involved with different men, using them to get whatever she wanted.

I suddenly calmed down and looked at her evenly. “And you? How do you treat me?”

Under my piercing gaze, Elsie immediately panicked. “I-I love you! How could I treat you badly? I gave up a whole world of options for you, didn’t I?”

However, her final words lacked confidence. It was obvious she was guilty.

I had nothing left to say. So I laid everything out, placing her chat logs with other men right in front of her.

“Then how are you going to explain all of this?”

Elsie stared at the documents in front of her. When she finally looked up, her face had already gone completely pale. Instinctively, she tried to deny it, “I-I don’t know what this is. It has nothing to do with me!”

After a moment, she suddenly calmed herself down. The panic in her eyes faded. “I don’t know where you got these things to frame me, but I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m clean, so no matter what you say, I won’t admit it.”

She knew the best strategy now was denial. As long as she insisted it was fabricated, I would have no way to prove anything.

However, she underestimated what I had. I pulled out another set of hotel records.

“Then explain this.”

Line after line clearly documented her hotel bookings with different men. Her face appeared in the surveillance captures. It was clear and undeniable. She could not make an argument.

She could not even find a way to deny it. Silence filled the space between us, and for a moment, neither of us spoke. The silence was broken by her phone ringing. She glanced at it, rejected it immediately, then looked back at me.

“You went through my computer.”

It was not a question. With this level of detail, the only place it could have come from was her own devices.

Before I could answer, she continued on her own, “So, when did you find out? I always thought I hid it well. Turns out you saw through it a long time ago.”

My gaze darkened as I asked the question I most wanted answered. “Why? I gave you everything I could. I did everything for you. Why would you still do this?”

It all started three years ago. That meant she had not always been like this. The so-called work she used as an excuse was nothing more than a cover for meeting those men.

Our life had not been hard. There were no real crises. I could not understand why she needed to do this.

She fell silent for a long time before finally speaking. “I didn’t want to. But I needed money, a lot of money. And you couldn’t help me.”

I was a little confused.

“What do you need that much money for? And if you had a problem, why didn’t you tell me? If you had told me, we could’ve figured it out together. What problem is really impossible to overcome?”

Her eyes reddened slightly, and her face was even paler now.

“I-I can’t say. And even if I did, you wouldn’t agree. This was my choice. I’ll handle it myself.”

A wave of irritation surged through me. I felt completely thrown off by her.

“How do you know I would’ve said no? You didn’t even ask. You just sentenced me without a word. That’s not fair.”

Her lips moved, as though she wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. “It’s fine. Since it’s come to this, do whatever you want. If you want a divorce, then divorce. I have nothing else to say.”

The way she said it made it sound like I was the one at fault. It was as though I were the one forcing everything apart.

“Don’t act like I’m the villain here. This divorce is happening. I don’t know what your reason is, but I can’t accept what you’ve done.”

She tilted her head up, holding back her tears. “Just do whatever you want. I don’t mind.”

She still believed I would soften, like before, and that I would give in. She thought that I would not really leave her.

This time, I did not say another word. I took out the divorce agreement from my bag and placed it in front of her.

“Sign it. We’ll go to the courthouse tomorrow morning.”