Outgrowing Love

After I had helped our law firm win nine hundred and ninety-nine cases in a row, my husband, who had kept our marriage hidden for years, finally agreed to hold a wedding and make our relationship public.

However, I waited until nightfall, and he never showed up. Instead, I saw a photo of him and his female assistant kissing in front of everyone at their wedding on Instagram.

Her caption read, [I was just being mocked by my coworkers for being a bachelorette no one wants, and then my lawyer hero came to save me. From now on, I’ll be his perfect employee during the day, and he’ll be my loving husband at night.]

In the photo, the wedding rings on their ring fingers were impossible to ignore.

For a moment, everyone expected me to break down and make a scene. However, I simply smiled and left a comment under the post.

[When are you two having a few kids? I’ll be sure to send over a big gift.]

The very next second, my husband, who had been unreachable all day, finally called me.

“Brit got pregnant out of wedlock, and the man who did it abandoned her,” he said coldly. “Her parents are extremely traditional. If this gets out, they’ll kill both her and the baby. As a lawyer, don’t you have any compassion for her at all?

“Delete that comment right now. Apologize to her personally,” he continued. “Once she gives birth to the child and everything settles, I’ll hold another wedding with you.”

I looked down at the divorce papers in my hand. Then, I let out a soft snicker.

“No need,” I said. “Mr. Larson, just wait to receive our divorce case.”

As soon as I said that, there was a brief silence on the other end of the call. Then, my husband, Sean Larson, spoke again, his tone edged with impatience.

“Andrea, can you be a little more rational? I told you, the wedding with Brit is just for show. Besides, I promised I’d make it up to you later and hold another wedding. Can’t you be patient? Can’t you wait a little longer?

“Do you really want to force things into the open? If people find out Brit got pregnant before marriage and was abandoned by some man, they’ll mock her and call her a tramp. Am I supposed to stand and watch as her parents kill both her and the baby?”

Listening to his self-righteous rant, I stood at the court entrance and let out a sarcastic laugh. Sean and I had registered our marriage seven years ago, but we never held a wedding and never made it public.

Back then, he had just poured everything he had into starting his law firm. He couldn’t afford a house or a car, and he couldn’t give me a real wedding. All he gave me was a promise of a future filled with happiness. So, we got married in secret, like thieves, hiding it from both our families.

For seven years, I waited for him to make a name for himself and finally give me the wedding he promised. And he did indeed throw himself into his career. Eventually, his client base grew, and his reputation grew.

Meanwhile, I had picked out the venue, the dress… everything. All it would take was one word from him, and we could have the wedding anytime. However, every time I brought it up, Sean always had another excuse and another speech, telling me to give him a little more time, wait for the law firm to stabilize, or wait for him to train the new recruits.

Just like that, I waited for seven years until last week. I worked day and night, barely sleeping, organizing case files and winning the law firm its nine hundred and ninety-ninth lawsuit. This time, he had no more excuses. He finally agreed to hold the wedding with me as a reward.

That entire week, I slept less than four hours a day, personally handling every detail of the wedding. The night before, I was too excited to sleep at all. However, on the day of the wedding, I waited until the sky turned dark and the guests had all left, yet he never showed up. All I saw were the pitiful looks people gave me.

If I hadn’t happened to see Brittany Donovan’s post, I might still be in the dark. And he still had the nerve to say I wasn’t patient? At the end of the day, he just didn’t want to have a wedding with me. He didn’t want to admit to the world that I was his wife.

Snapping back to the present, I didn’t back down like I used to. Instead, I let out a cold laugh and shot back, “You’re right. A wedding is just for show. But tell me, why is it that Brittany sheds a few tears, and you rush to her side immediately, while I waited seven years, and you couldn’t even spare a single day for me? You didn’t even bother to come up with an excuse. You just turned off your phone and disappeared.

“If we can’t even pretend to care anymore, then what’s the point of continuing this marriage?”

On the other end of the line, Sean fell silent. It was clear he hadn’t expected me to push back like this and tear off the facade we had maintained for seven years.

After a moment, he sighed, sounding helpless. “Andy, can you stop bringing up divorce every time something happens? I’m busy with the law firm and dealing with Brittany’s parents, and now I have to explain everything to you again and again. I’m exhausted. You’re part of the firm, too. You know how much we invested in training talents like Brittany. I’m doing all this to build a better future for you and for our future children. Is that wrong?”

There it was again, the endless lecture and the righteous justifications. For the past seven years, Sean had always been like this. He had acted as if he was always right and everything he did was for my sake, using love as an excuse to make me compromise.

However, no matter how he dressed it up, he couldn’t hide the fact that Brittany was incompetent. As the assistant he had personally chosen, her professional ability was practically nonexistent. She couldn’t even grasp basic legal knowledge, and she had angered several clients.

If it were anyone else, they would’ve been fired long ago. Even a minor punctuation mistake or a vague legal phrase would have been enough for him to dismiss a newcomer. Yet, when it came to Brittany, no matter how many mistakes she made, he never punished her. He spoke to her gently, never once raising his voice.

He always said she was just a fresh graduate still adjusting to work, but he seemed to have forgotten that this was already her second year at the law firm. She was no longer a newcomer. His favoritism toward her had long crossed the line of a normal mentor-mentee relationship.

So, when she posted publicly about her wedding to Sean, no one was surprised. In fact, people joked in the comments, saying they had seen this coming all along, congratulating them on finally going public.

At the thought, my voice turned cold. “You’re right. You’re not the one at fault. I am.”

Thinking I had once again been persuaded, Sean nodded in satisfaction. “That’s more like it. Andy, as long as you realize your mistake, then I–”

Before he could finish, I cut him off. “Sean, do you know what my biggest mistake was? It was me not listening to my family and secretly marrying you seven years ago. And by the way, my divorce lawsuit has been accepted. I’ll see you in court tomorrow.”

I didn’t give him a chance to respond and hung up immediately.

Right after, I tried to send him the digital copy of the court hearing notice, but a red exclamation mark popped up on my screen. It meant he had deleted my contact.

I wasn’t surprised. Over the past seven years, every time I refused to obey him, he would cut off communication like that, change the door password, freeze my bank cards, and then emotionally abuse me to submit. However, this time, I wasn’t playing along. I didn’t want to continue this meaningless game anymore, and I didn’t want to continue this marriage.

Just as I was about to turn off my phone, Brittany suddenly tagged me in the firm’s client group chat and sent a message. The next second, the previously quiet chat exploded, and messages flooded in nonstop.