"What about Wilbur then?" I had asked.

Chuckling lightly, Ruby had replied, "Wilbur doesn't really understand these things. Besides, he's my assistant. Even if he does know, it doesn't matter."

For a moment, I almost thought she had really changed.

But when I watched her leave the house and saw Wilbur, who had clearly been waiting outside for a long time, smiling as he took the suitcase from her hand, I finally understood something.

It wasn't that she had suddenly started trusting me. It was just that, compared to that agreement, there was someone more important waiting for her.

I had submitted the divorce application a month ago. So, the waiting period was up.

After checking the documents, the female courthouse staff asked me, "Where's your wife? Why didn't she come?"

I showed her the Instagram post Wilbur had published not long ago and replied, "She's with her new family."

The staff member's expression stiffened slightly. When she looked at me again, there was a trace of sympathy in her eyes.

"We have protocols, sir. We need to mediate between both parties first and confirm that the relationship has truly broken down before issuing a divorce certificate. Could you contact her and ask her to come in for mediation?"

Not wanting to make things difficult for her, I gave Ruby a call.

But the phone barely rang once before the call was declined. I tried again, and the same thing happened.

A few minutes later, Ruby finally sent a message. "Francis, if you don't delete your comment and apologize to Wilbur, I won't answer your calls. Stop calling me. I won't pick up."

I knew exactly what this meant. Ruby was going to give me the cold shoulder again.

It had happened many times before. Whenever Wilbur accused me of something, Ruby never bothered to verify it first. She would just demand that I apologize right away.

And if I refused, she would deliberately give me the silent treatment.

The worst time was when, during one of those standoffs, I suddenly had a severe heart attack from overworking late at night. I was rushed into the emergency room. When the doctor called her to sign the treatment consent form, she told them that they could just let me die if I didn't apologize.

I told the staff member everything truthfully and asked, "At this point, there's probably no need for mediation anymore, right?"

She sighed helplessly and nodded. Then, she took the divorce agreement from me and went to process the paperwork.

I sat on a bench in the courthouse for half an hour.

Unexpectedly, Ruby called me.

"I heard you didn't go to work. Where are you?" she asked frostily.

I didn't answer. From her tone, it was clear she didn't really care where I was.

When I stayed silent, she spoke again in an icy voice. "According to company policy, being absent without notice means a two-day pay deduction. Do you accept it?"

Before I could say anything, Wilbur's gentle voice came from beside her. "That's not necessary, Ruby. Francis might have something urgent to deal with."

Ruby snorted coldly and said, "What could be so urgent? Playing on his phone during work hours or scrolling through Instagram? He never offered a single apology. And now, he skips work after being reprimanded a little!"

I couldn't help but laugh when I heard that.

Ruby and I had founded the company together. In the beginning, I worked on projects until the early hours of the morning every day to secure hundreds of key contracts—big and small—for our company.

Well, I never expected her to go out of her way to thank me for my contribution. But never had I imagined that she would dock my pay and bonuses just because I was a minute or two late to work.

She said she had to observe and implement the company policy strictly.

Ironically, Wilbur could scroll on his phone in front of her all day and post on Instagram during work hours. Sometimes, he would suddenly not show up to work for a day or two. Ruby never deducted a single cent from his pay. She even took it upon herself to make excuses for him.

Once, he had gone off to fool around somewhere and failed to show up for a deal that was worth tens of millions of dollars. Not only did Ruby not punish him, but she even comforted him afterward and pushed the blame onto me.

Astonishingly, she had complained that there was something wrong with my proposal.

"Francis, do you accept your punishment for skipping work?" Ruby asked coldly again.

I nodded and said, "Sure. I was wrong."

Wrong for not seeing her for who she really was sooner. Wrong for putting up with all this for so long just because I couldn't bear to let go of a seven-year marriage.

Ruby didn't let me finish speaking. After I admitted my mistake, her mood clearly improved.

She said, "It's great that you know you were in the wrong. I'll let it go this time, but you'll have to make up for it. I sent you the details of a project. Look through it carefully and get the proposal done before the end of the holiday."

As soon as she finished speaking, my phone chimed with a new notification.

I glanced at the screen for a second and opened the message. As expected, it was another business deal Wilbur had messed up.

Over the years, Ruby had often forced me to clean up Wilbur's mess. For the sake of the company, I worked tirelessly to salvage the ruined negotiations. I had to endure the other party's judgmental and contemptuous looks while getting the deals finalized.

But eventually, I realized something.

If I handled things well, Wilbur would take credit for securing the deal, and he would get the bonus. But if things went badly, it meant I was incompetent, and I had to compensate by paying a penalty. Funnily enough, the bonus still went to him.

I let out a faint laugh and said calmly, "I can't do it."

"What did you say?" Ruby asked, bewildered.

She hadn't expected me to refuse. She was stunned for half a second before opening her mouth, ready to lose her temper and lash out at me.

But I didn't give her the chance. I hung up immediately.

Just then, the courthouse staff walked over and handed me a stamped document.

"Your paperwork has been submitted," she said. "Please come back in three days to collect the divorce certificate."

I nodded and silently counted the days.

This long holiday would end in three days, so Ruby would likely be back by then. I wondered how she would feel when she saw the divorce certificate.

…

On the first day of waiting to collect the certificate, I went to the company to resign. While HR was processing my resignation, I looked toward the photo wall of our company's team-building events.

Among them was a photo where Ruby was smiling affectionately as she fed me a skewer of grilled meat. Someone must have captured it candidly. Even after six years, I could still remember that sweet moment.

Back then, Ruby had just decided to start the company. As her husband, I had emptied my savings and even given up my high-paying job to support her without hesitation.

She had been overjoyed. That weekend, she organized an outdoor outing and introduced me to everyone in the company.

We had just gotten married back then, and she took every opportunity to show her affection toward me. She fed me and kissed my cheek in front of everyone, drawing teasing laughter from the crowd. People joked that they were about to get cavities from how sweet we were.

When that photo was taken, Ruby loved it very much. So much so that she framed it and placed it right in the most prominent spot at the center of the photo wall.

But now, times had changed.

The center spot had been replaced by a photo of her and Wilbur toasting each other at the annual party. The photo with me had been moved to an unassuming corner. I had to search for a while just to find it.

After thinking for a moment, I reached up and took the photo down.

The HR executive, Paige Jones, happened to see this. She wanted to stop me, but when she saw which photo I had taken, she swallowed her words. She figured that since Ruby didn't even care about me anymore, she wouldn't really care that the photo was gone.

"Your resignation has been approved. Just complete the handover and you can leave," Paige said monotonously while tossing me a form.

I froze for a moment and subconsciously asked, "That fast? Has Ruby signed it already?"

I wasn't really thinking when I asked that question. It was just that Ruby usually didn't check her phone much, so it typically took about two hours for a resignation to be processed.

In truth, I hadn't expected my resignation to be approved so quickly. After all, Ruby was still at Wilbur's hometown at the moment.

"Ms. Irving signed it right away," Paige said with a cold smile as she looked at me. "Why? Are you regretting it now?"

"No, I'm quite happy," I replied.

In fact, it saved me a lot of trouble.

Paige didn't believe me. She looked at me with a curious expression and snorted.

The company wasn't exactly that big, so news spread fast. Before long, the whole department knew that my supposed attempt to play hard to get had backfired and that I had really ended up resigning.

Everyone was waiting, amused, to see how things would play out at my expense.

I couldn't be bothered to explain. After I was done with the handover, I packed up my belongings and prepared to leave.

A few of them exchanged glances. One coworker deliberately stretched out his leg, while another quietly turned on his phone camera, ready to capture a photo of me falling with a miserable expression.

Fortunately, I had long gotten used to their little tricks. Pretending not to notice, I walked over to the coworker who had stretched out his leg. Then, I stomped down on it with all my strength.

Ignoring his howls of pain and the strings of curses that followed, I walked out the door in a great mood.

…

On the second day of waiting, I hired a real estate agent to list the house for sale.

When Ruby and I got married, I had borrowed money from my parents to buy the off-plan house in full. Back then, she had said she didn't have money, so I didn't force her to pay anything. I handled the renovation and home appliances myself as well.

Soon, the property was ready to be handed over upon completion. I had intended to list Ruby as a joint owner. But right before the signing, something unexpected happened.

Wilbur suddenly joined our company. Without telling me, Ruby transferred the car under her name that I had paid for to Wilbur at an extremely low price.

Even when I found out, Ruby thought it was no big deal and was flippant about the matter.

She had said, "Wilbur is all alone in this city without any family. He's quite pitiful. He lives far away too. I'm letting him have the car so that it's easier for him to commute to work. That way, he can generate more profit for the company.

"Besides, that car was a gift from you to me. I'm free to deal with it however I see fit, right?"

I had been very upset. After thinking it over for a long time, I decided to cross out her name on the house title. Because of that, Ruby threw a huge tantrum at me. In the end, the conflict concluded with her swiping away more than 200 thousand dollars from my account.

The more I thought about it now, the more I felt I was a sucker.

Since I wanted to sell the property quickly, I didn't demand a high price. In less than half a day, five or six people came to view it. Eventually, I successfully negotiated a deal with a buyer.

But because of all the other projects that were being developed nearby, the final selling price was even lower. Still, the house's value had nearly doubled compared to when I first bought it. I made the calculations and found that I had still made a profit of more than a million dollars in the end.

I was quite pleased. I happily signed the sales contract and arranged the date to hand it over.

…

On the third and final day of waiting, I went to the courthouse and received the divorce certificate for Ruby and me without any issues.

At the same time, I saw that Wilbur had posted more than a dozen Instagram updates in a row. Only then did I realize that Ruby had been having a great time in Wilbur's hometown all the while.

She was normally obsessed with cleanliness, but she had gone to the zoo with Wilbur and even let him hold her hand while feeding peacocks.

She had always hated the smell of smoke, yet she went to an internet cafe with him. In fact, she didn't even like playing games, but she stayed up all night gaming with him.

She even backed him up in front of his snobbish relatives, claiming that she was his CEO girlfriend.

I figured Ruby wouldn't want to leave so soon since she was having so much fun there. She would most likely postpone coming back for several more days.

But on the very day I returned home after getting the divorce certificate, I heard Ruby's cheerful laughter coming from inside the house before I even stepped through the door.