My CEO wife has a habit of rewarding top-performing employees with a private dinner.

After seven years of being secretly married to her, I finally pushed myself to the limit—working around the clock for an entire month, nearly coughing up blood—just to land the number-one spot and finally earn that public dinner date with my own wife.

But Alexia gave the spot to an intern instead.

"Caleb just joined the team. He needs some motivation and encouragement. As my husband, you need to be understanding. Next time, if you close over ten million in sales, I'll definitely give you the spot—and I'll even throw in a diamond wedding ring worth a million."

For the sake of the company and our marriage, I let it slide.

Then I closed a ten-million-dollar deal and showed up at the restaurant we'd agreed on. She never came. No calls, no texts.

I was about to head back to the office to find her when I saw Caleb's post on social media: a candlelit dinner with my wife, and on his ring finger—the very ring she'd promised me.

His caption read: [Family keeps asking when I'm getting married? Don't worry—my girlfriend, the CEO, showed up with a ring to save the day.]

Coworkers flooded the comments with excitement. I calmly left a comment of my own.

My wife, who had been MIA for six hours, immediately called me in a panic.

"Don't get the wrong idea! It was just a dare—he lost a game, that's all. You're still my husband. I just loaned him the ring for a minute. Once the game's over, I'll get it right back to you."

But I don't want the ring or her anymore.

"Don't bother. Let's get a divorce."

As soon as the words left my mouth, my wife Alexia Holt's voice turned cold.

"Just because I didn't take you to dinner and loaned a diamond ring to Caleb to save him from embarrassment, you want a divorce? Over something this small?"

"Yes."

I had a thousand things I wanted to say. But if my feelings were just a small matter to her, then no matter how much I said, she would only see it as me whining without reason.

I was about to hang up when, suddenly, from the other end of the line, I heard the intern Caleb Foster's voice.

"Alexia, the fireworks show is about to start. Don't keep working."

Alexia's voice turned soft as she responded to him, "Okay."

Then she snarled at me impatiently, "How many times do I have to explain this to you? Caleb is a high-end talent I spent a lot to recruit. Taking him to dinner, helping him complete a game punishment, having his back—I'm just trying to strengthen his sense of belonging to the company.

"You're my husband. You should think like me and put the company's interests first. How can you throw a tantrum every day and hold me back?

"If you put all that messy emotional energy into your work, the company would have broken into the top ten national firms a long time ago. Reflect on yourself. I have work to do. I can't talk anymore."

With that, she hung up quickly.

I tried to smile, but it came out bitter. I sent Alexia a message: [The company shares are yours. Give me the house.]

After a long time, Alexia sent a reply: [Still throwing a tantrum? You just want an explanation, don't you? Fine. I'll give you one.]

I didn't know what kind of explanation she had in mind. But scrolling through my social media feed, I came across Caleb's unique apology letter.

[The post from earlier was just a punishment for losing a game. It wasn't real. Thanks to the boss for playing along and for sending over that big diamond ring. However, I shouldn't have posted those photos online, causing malicious people to target them and file complaints, which created negative influence for the company and the boss. I am deeply sorry. Finally, I want to emphasize again: my boss is not my girlfriend. Everyone, stop spreading false rumors. Be careful not to provoke someone's dark revenge.]

My coworkers all figured out that the "someone" Caleb was talking about was me. They immediately flooded the comments section, cursing me out.

[Everyone in the company knows Elliot has a crush on Alexia. Just because he has a strong performance, she turns a blind eye to his crush. He doesn't really think that just because Alexia won't respond, it means she agrees, does he?]

[How shameless. Anyone with eyes can see that Alexia likes Caleb. What right does a mere employee have to interfere with the boss's private life?]

Even my work friend tried to talk sense into me.

[She's given the reward to Caleb twice in a row. Anyone can see they're together. Why are you trying to force your way in? Give it up. Alexia was never into you.]

When we got married, Alexia said that to fight the office culture of flattery and favoritism, we needed to keep our marriage a secret and avoid any appearance of favoritism.

But now, an intern like Caleb Foster was using her influence to turn the entire company into his personal fan club. And she did absolutely nothing about it.

Who she truly loved was obvious.

I sighed and texted my friend: [Yeah, I'm giving up. I'm leaving.]

My friend said he was glad to hear it.

Just as we were chatting, Alexia called. I meant to ignore it, but my thumb slipped and hit answer. Her cold, no-nonsense voice came through, "There's a mistake in a contract. Fix it. I need it now."

I looked at the contract she sent. No surprise—it was the one Caleb was responsible for.

She kept saying Caleb was a top-tier talent who would take the company far. But for all his overseas doctoral degree, he'd been here less than three months. He showed up late and left early every single day. Even the simplest tasks were riddled with mistakes. I was the one cleaning up his mess.

Fine, I did the work. But even the commission that should have gone to me—Alexia had it redirected to Caleb under the guise of a "subsidy."

Before, I bought her excuses. I believed her when she said promoting Caleb was good for the company. I told myself a peaceful marriage was more important. So I kept swallowing my pride.

But now that I saw through her real motives, I wasn't going to keep selling myself short.

"If he's such a talent, let him fix his own mistakes. Don't ask me. I'm busy."

Alexia was unhappy with my response. Her voice turned sharp.

"Caleb already apologized. What more do you want?"

I laughed coldly. "Was that an apology? Have you even read the comments?"

Caleb was clearly taking a dig at me. It was so obvious, but she pretended not to see it.

Alexia brushed it off. "I can't control what other people say. Besides, if you hadn't made a scene, I wouldn't have had to force Caleb to apologize, and people wouldn't be speculating. This is all because you're too jealous. What right do you have to get angry at me?"

She didn't care about the gossip because I was the one being mocked and put down.

When Caleb first arrived, people said he only got in through connections. Alexia heard about it and lost it. She personally demoted and docked the pay of every single employee who had spread rumors about Caleb. After that, no one dared say a word against him.

It wasn't that she didn't know how to protect people. I just wasn't worth protecting.

"I've already sent you the contract. If you refuse to fix it and the company loses money, you'll be the villain. Don't drag everyone else down because of your tantrum..."

Seeing that she was about to go on and on scolding me, I hung up without a word.

She was the one who proposed the reward. She was the one who backed out. So how was any of this my fault?

She was clearly favoring Caleb at every turn. I got upset and protested, so she promised to make it up to me with a public date.

But since we were keeping our marriage a secret, she suggested making the dinner an award for top performance. That way, even if coworkers saw us together, they wouldn't get the wrong idea.

We'd been sneaking around for seven years. I was used to it. I honestly thought her idea was pretty good. So I worked my tail off and secured the number-one spot again.

But she gave the reward to Caleb instead.

"Performance ranking isn't the only way to define a great employee. The 'most improved' award counts too. Caleb showed up on time every single day this month and clocked a full attendance record, so I'm giving him this reward as encouragement."

No one was surprised by the outcome. Thinking back to how hard I had worked, my coworkers looked at me like I was some kind of clown.

I had gone to Alexia furious, demanding an explanation. After hearing her out, I believed her one more time. I even did what she asked and closed that ten-million-dollar deal.

But she broke her promise again and gave Caleb the diamond wedding ring she had promised to buy me. On top of that, she hid behind "what's best for the company" and tore into me for not being the bigger person.

Living like this was just pointless.

She thought I was joking about the divorce. What she didn't know was that the last time she gave the reward to Caleb, I had already tricked her into signing the divorce papers.

I was going to give her one more chance, for old times' sake. But she didn't appreciate it.

Fine. I didn't want a disloyal wife like her anyway.

After I hung up, Alexia didn't contact me again. Not even a single text.

I knew she was angry. She was giving me the silent treatment. She didn't come home that night, either.

I was used to this. Every time something didn't go her way, she protested by staying out all night.

In the past, I used to worry about her safety. I'd always cave first, reach out, apologize, and beg her to come back. She'd take the out, give me a little grace, and we'd move on.

But not this time. I didn't give in.

I saw the videos on Caleb's social media feed—them clinking glasses at a bar. I ignored it and went to bed, sleeping like a log.

When I woke up, I saw that Alexia had called me ninety-nine times. I ignored those too. I took the divorce papers and went straight to the courthouse. While I waited, I submitted my resignation.

"You may come around tomorrow to collect your divorce license, sir."

I said thank you and headed home.

I thought Alexia would stay away for days. But to my surprise, she was home. She had an apron on and was carrying plates of steaming food to the table. She greeted me like nothing had happened.

"You're back. Wash your hands and eat. I made all of this for you."

I looked her up and down, suspicious.

Alexia had a bad temper. Every time she got mad, she'd ice me out for ages. She also never cooked.

For her to suddenly make me a meal, I almost wondered if she'd put something in the food.

Just as I was thinking that, Caleb walked out of the bathroom. He saw the food on the table and lit up.

"Alexia, these are all my favorite dishes! I've never told you what I like. How did you know?"

Alexia put her hands on her hips, proud of herself.

"That's easy. You take more bites of the food you like. We've eaten together twice. I have a good memory—how could I forget?"

Listening to them joke around, I leaned over to look at the table.

I was allergic to seafood. And eight out of the ten dishes on that table had lobster in them.

She'd known Caleb for only three months, and she already had his eating habits memorized.

But we'd been married for seven years. Last month, I almost died from accidentally eating seafood and had to be rushed to the emergency room. She had completely forgotten.

Her memory was fine. It's just that things about me didn't matter to her.

Seeing that I wasn't saying anything, Alexia suddenly remembered I existed and handed me a set of cutlery.

I waved my hand. "Not hungry."

Caleb saw this and started apologizing in that pitiful voice of his.

"Elliot, did I do something wrong again? Did I make you mad? Whatever it is, just take it out on me. Don't let me come between you two."

Alexia had been trying to stay calm and make things right, but hearing that, she lost patience. She said a few words to soothe Caleb, then turned to me.

"If you're not hungry, then do me a favor. Caleb made a small mistake, and I need you to help him out. Just say you did it. Say it has nothing to do with him. He's young, and he's the talent our company is betting big on. We've poured too many resources into him. He can't afford to have a stain on his record."