On my first day back at work after giving birth, I unexpectedly saw my husband giving his secretary a bottle of perfume.

I immediately contacted a lawyer and sent him a divorce agreement.

When my husband received the divorce papers, he immediately drove eight hundred miles to pull me out of a meeting.

“You’re a mother now. Can’t you control your temper? Divorcing me over a bottle of perfume? Is that even worth it?”

I broke free from his grip, disgustedly brushing off his sleeve where he had touched me and calmed my tone.

“Isn’t a bottle of perfume enough?”

——

On my first day back at work, I got stuck in traffic. When I finally rushed to the office, the meeting I was supposed to attend had been cancelled.

The secretary stood before Felix Borgia with an expectant look on her face. He smiled faintly, took a bottle of perfume from behind him and held it before her.

The young woman was clearly surprised and immediately wrapped her arms around Felix’s neck and hugged him tightly.

“I just mentioned it offhand, but I didn’t expect Mr. Borgia to actually remember it. The scent is even my favorite!”

The blinds were open and the young women, who had read too many romance novels, immediately looked at me with envy at this scene.

“You know what? Secretary Gwen and Mr. Borgia really make a great couple. He’s handsome and she’s beautiful. It’s like a teenage romance novel coming to life.”

“Secretary Gwen is so kind. She’s nothing like the previous Mrs. Borgia, who made us revise a proposal three or four times. If Secretary Gwen becomes the president’s wife, I can’t even imagine how happy we would be.”

“Once a woman has children, few remain beautiful. Some turn into hags, others into fairies. Mr. Borgia knows how to choose.”

Every word the employees said echoed in my ears and my heart felt like it was being squeezed by a rusty hand. The pain was so severe that it caused me to struggle to breathe.

I leaned against the wall to steady myself, barely managing to avoid losing control.

After a moment, I calmly walked into Felix’s office.

Gwen Courtet followed my gaze towards Felix’s office and smiled, then asked, “You must be the boss’s wife, right? I saw your ID photo on the staff roster. I never expected you to look so different from the photo!”

I feel scoffed. “Are you implying I’m ugly? You have no taste at all. I wonder who was blind enough to hire you.”

Gwen immediately reached out to grab my hand like a child who had done something wrong, but I dodged her.

Her eyes welled up with tears, which fell like pearls on a broken string.

“I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. You can hit me or scold me, but please don’t take it out on Mr. Borgia.”

Felix blocked her behind him. “You’re almost thirty. Don’t get angry with a young girl.”

I looked at the bottle of perfume on the table. Felix followed my gaze and explained, “During my business trip to Kyiv City, Gwen helped me a lot. This bottle of perfume is a reward for her. Don’t think too much about it.”

I sneered and sat down on the sofa.

“You just bought it on a whim and it’s the same as Gwen’s. You and Gwen really are on the same wavelength.”

I remembered the year I graduated from university. I bought a custom-blended perfume for myself at a cultural and creative store for sixty dollars, intending to surprise Felix.

But he pushed me away, as if he had smelled something disgusting.

“It’s too overpowering. Go wash it off.”

“You’re really something. We’re trying to save money to start a business. If you keep going this way, when will we even have our own studio?”

“Helena Walpole, when did you become so materialistic?”

I was so shocked. I couldn’t even remember walking into the bathroom and turning on the shower.

All I remember was crying for a long time that day, tears mixing with the shower water as I curled up into a ball and cried silently.

Even though he pushed me away that night and banged my wrist on the hard corner of the table, I couldn’t bear to see him blaming me for my crying.

I cried once and then cried again. Although it usually only took me twenty minutes to wash up, that night, I spent two whole hours.

When I finally calmed down and stepped out of the bathroom, I found Felix had already fallen asleep. At that moment, I made excuses for him, perhaps he truly didn’t like perfume.

From that day onward, I never bought perfume again. Even now, though Felix and I’ve taken our company public, I haven’t purchased a single bottle for myself.

Yet despite his dislike for perfume, he could precisely choose the exact fragrance Gwen wanted.

It was not that he didn’t like perfume; he just thought I was not worthy of it.

Hearing this, Gwen looked at Felix pitifully, as if seeking help.

Felix, as always, couldn’t argue with me, so he took it out on me instead.

“Helena, can you stop being so suspicious? I already have a daughter with you now; what else could I possibly want from anyone else?”

It sounded like I was using my daughter to bind him.

I didn’t want to argue about something irrelevant, so I threw the folder on the table.

“Felix, we had a meeting scheduled for a week and you canceled it just like that. You owe me an explanation.”

Felix’s throat tightened and he rubbed his temples, as if I were being unreasonable again. He was utterly exasperated with me.

Gwen suddenly walked out, lowering her head and speaking softly, “Mrs. Borgia, I’m sorry. I forgot to print the documents. I got drunk last night during a business dinner. It’s my fault. Whatever punishment you give me, I’ll accept it. Just don’t take it out on Mr. Borgia.”

Felix immediately shielded her, pulling her behind him. “It’s not Gwen’s fault. I was the one who got drunk. She drove me back to the hotel and that’s why she forgot to print the documents needed for today’s meeting.”

He was defending Gwen? He used to hate me the most. I just added a comma to the proposal and he scolded me fiercely.

He even ignored me for an entire week.

But now, because Gwen forgot to print the documents, he cancelled the meeting at the last minute, making a fool of me and the entire staff.

I scoffed at him, “You were drunk and didn’t let the driver take you home. You made her, a recent college graduate, to do it. Felix, are you trying to tell me there’s something going on between you two?”

Gwen immediately rushed out and knelt before me. “Mrs. Borgia, it’s not like that. It’s not what you think. I’m completely innocent with Mr. Borgia.”

She knelt before me, but her movements were too abrupt, causing her collar to slip down, revealing a faint red mark.

I stared at the kiss mark and mocked, “Is this what Secretary Gwen meant by innocent?”

Gwen was so flustered that she was about to cry. She hesitated for a long time before saying, “Mr. Borgia just... just thought I was you, that’s why he pulled me back. But I swear nothing else happened between us.”

I sighed, sounding slightly disappointed, “Felix, you said you wouldn’t hire a female secretary, but you forgot as soon as I got pregnant. You’ve really let me down.”

Felix immediately grew anxious, his tone sounding even more disappointed than mine, “Gwen is just a recent college graduate. She’s worked so hard. Can’t I give her a chance?”

“In just eight years, you’ve already forgotten how struggling you were when you first graduated from university. It’s true that a blind person regains sight and the first thing they throw away is their crutch. Helena, I never thought you were such a malicious woman.”

“Me, malicious?”

“Fine, then I’ll tell you what malicious means.”

I pulled out my phone and dialled the HR manager’s number.

“Gwen has an unprofessional attitude. Give her double her salary as compensation. She doesn’t need to come tomorrow!”

Slap!

Felix raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face.

The burning pain on my face felt like a mirror shattering inside me. The shards that pierced my heart, causing me to double over in pain.

“Helena, you’ve gone too far.”

He took Gwen’s hand and said firmly, “Don’t worry, I’m here. No one will blame you for leaving.”

The phone fell to the ground in the corner and the HR manager’s anxious voice came through, “Mrs. Borgia, what’s going on? Is Gwen Courtet still here?”

Felix shouted at the HR manager, “Get lost! Do you think I won’t fire you right now?”

The HR manager was stunned for a few seconds before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Felix took Gwen’s hand and looked at me. My eyes were bloodshot. 

He sneered at me, “Let’s go. I’ll take you shopping to calm down. I’ll pay for everything today.”

He pulled Gwen away and she gave me a deer-like glance.

Any man would have felt a surge of pity, but I saw it with defiance.

If she liked trash, I would give it to her. 

I didn’t know how I got home. The HR manager sent a screenshot of me turning on the shower and letting the water drip down my body.

It was Gwen’s Instagram feed.

In the photo, the two of them were holding hands, with various designer perfumes scattered on the table.

But the most striking thing was the faint red bloodstain on the white blanket in the corner.

The caption read [I’ve finally become the person I’ve been crushing on.]

The finger on that hand had a faint scar and I recognized it as Felix’s.

In my third year of junior high school, my mother passed away unexpectedly. My grandmother was so heartbroken that she ended up in the ICU and my stepfather abandoned me in a small county town.

I was orphaned and alone, so I became the target of bullies and delinquent girls.

I was surrounded in an alley by a group of girls, with the leader holding a knife and gesturing at my face.

“You think you’re so good at seducing people? Let’s see how you’ll seduce the physics teacher without your face.”

By “flirting,” she meant that the physics teacher had helped me with a few extra problems.

A group of people surrounded me in the alley, beating and kicking me.

Felix suddenly appeared like a knight in shining armour, walking toward me against the light.

His index finger was the one that had been cut by the class monitor’s knife back then.

After that, he would always follow me and stay with me until he saw me safely inside the rental house before turning away.

Finally, I gathered my courage and stopped him. “Why are you following me?”

He smiled lightly. “Princess, I want to be your knight. Isn’t it enough to protect you?”

For the next two years, he truly acted like a knight, braving wind and rain to send me home every day, until the night of high school graduation.

I invited him into my home and we sat on the roof together, watching the stars. When our fingers intertwined, he promised never to betray me.

When the college entrance exam results came out, I scored ten points lower than he did. To avoid being a burden, I secretly applied to the National University of Kyiv and started working part-time to earn tuition fees.

That day, he stared at the 40-degree sun, searching the entire county for me. He finally found me in a milk tea shop. He held me in his arms, tears streaming down his face and said, “Without you, I can’t go on living.”

Later, he gave up his spot at Kyiv Slavonic University and applied to the National University of Kyiv with me.

In our senior year of college, I sold the only necklace my mother had left me to raise the startup funds for our studio. I got 100,000 dollars and we established our own studio.

He took me to the roof again on the night the studio was founded. Just like we did on the day we graduated from high school, he kissed me gently on the lips and said,

“With a wife like you, what more could a man ask for?”

But now he has fallen in love with a younger woman and betrayed the person he once was.

Looking at Gwen’s photos on Instagram feeds, I suddenly lost myself in thought until the HR manager’s message popped up.