My wife, Ava Dankworth, is a CEO. She's the true epitome of beauty, wealth, and intellect. My mother was extremely proud of this fact.
However, after seven years of marriage, the love we shared had gradually dissipated.
My mother, hospitalized and terminally ill, longed to see my dignified CEO wife and my son before she passed away, but that last wish of hers was never fulfilled.
Instead, I held my mother's funeral on my own in her hometown. Once it was all over, I called my wife to propose a divorce.
When the call connected, it was my wife's ever-present shadow that picked up. "Sorry, Mr. Dankworth," her assistant said smugly. "She's exhausted and is now asleep at my place. Please stop disturbing her."
It wasn't until the dawn the next day that she responded. It was a terse text message that read, "Do whatever you want!"
A few days later, she returned from her business trip.
I watched as she walked in, but did not greet her with my affection like I used to. Instead, I turned back to the TV.
"Go pick out a nightgown for me. I'm exhausted," Ava commanded me as she always did before undressing to take a bath.
Since no one was home, she took her clothing off and dropped them casually on the floor, revealing her stunning figure and flawless skin.
My past self would've crumbled at the sight. I would've clung onto her and tried to please her by washing her back.
But now, I remained unfazed.
She walked out of the bathroom after her bath,then frowned slightly when she saw I was still sitting on the couch watching TV. "Why didn't you get my sleepwear? How about wearing your favorite cartoon one?"
"When do we get divorced?"
I asked emotionlessly.
"Stop it already. It was late when you called that night. I was asleep."
Ava continued indifferently, "It's natural that Philip would answer my calls. He's my assistant. I've already told him not to do that again, so please stop being jealous."
"Jealous?"
She thought I was jealous, like how I used to get.
She didn't know my love for her was long dead.
"Alright, go bring me my pajamas. I'm really tired. We'll rest early and visit your mother in the hospital tomorrow," Ava said.
Her words were like thorns, piercing deeply into my heart.
I turned to look coldly at her. "Visit my mother? Where will you go to visit her?"
"The hospital, of course."
Ava continued matter-of-factly, "Oh, while I was on the business trip, I heard there was a good hospital in Parkland. I could move your mother there, since their medical facilities are better..."
"My mother is dead!"
I couldn't help but yell out before she could finish her sentence.
Ava stopped with a tremble, startled by my cry.
She looked at me in disbelief, as if suspecting that I was lying to her.
"Your mother is... Why didn't I know about this?"
Ava asked.
"That's not important now, is it?"
I responded, giving her an icy stare."All my mother wanted when she was alive was to see you and her grandson, but that never happened. Now you want to meet her?! Do you find this funny or something?!"
My outburst silenced her.
She walked quietly out of the bathroom and retreated into her closet.
She came out shortly after, wearing my favorite cartoon-character pajamas. She stood at a distance and muttered, "I'm sorry, I really didn't know."
With that, she turned and walked back to her room.
A wave of pain gripped my heart again…
We first met in high school. It was a funny story, actually. We were classmates. She was the class president, and I was the vice class president.
She was always the top of the class.
Until one day, my total exam score was only one point short of hers.
She approached me with a challenge. "I'll always be better than you, even if it's only by a single point. Just like how I'm the class president, and you're the vice class president!"
I don’t know why she provoked me like that.
Still, she ignited my competitiveness.
I devoted more time to studying every day, often messaging her late into the night at eleven o'clock to ask if she had gone to bed.
This greeting was not meant to show concern for her.
I just wanted to know how hard she had been working.
I had to work one minute harder than her, then surpass her by a point! I had to prove myself!
She seemed to think the same way at the time, texting me back to ask if I had gone to sleep. She may have been a girl, but she was extremely competitive.
We would even stay up until the early hours of the morning, each trying to outdo the other by working just one minute more.
However, everything had a limit. Our fierce competition, combined with insufficient sleep, led to us feeling lethargic during the day.
It was manageable for a day or two, but over time, it became unbearable.
Eventually, she reached her limit and approached me again. "Let's make a pact to sleep at 10:30 every night. We're not allowed to study for even a minute more after that!"
I looked at her skeptically. "I'm fine with that," I said. "I'm just worried you'll cheat!"
"Hmph!"
She disdainfully retorted, "Do you actually think I'd need to do that? I'm going to beat you, and I'll do it fair and square!"
I didn't stick to the agreement.
We texted each other at 10:30 P.M. every night to tell each other to honor the agreement and stop studying.
However, I secretly studied for an extra half hour. It was only an extra thirty minutes, but I believed that even an extra minute of hard work would make all the difference in the end.
Then, the results of another test came out.
It was as I expected.
I scored two points higher than her!
She was livid. When classes ended, she told me to wait for her at the bubble tea shop outside school.
As soon as she entered the bubble tea shop, she tore the test paper up in front of me, then threw the scraps at my face, accusing me of secretly studying past our agreed time!
Under her interrogation, I felt somewhat awkward and admitted that I was studying for an extra half hour each day.
I thought her anger would intensify upon hearing this, but to my surprise, she just left without uttering a word.
She was still not able to surpass me by the next mock exam. She cried in the classroom, tears streaming heavily down her face. The teacher and my classmates comforted her.
In the evening, she asked me to meet at a small park nearby.
She once again accused me of studying in secret. I admitted that I had been studying for an additional half hour each day.
Hearing this, she once again broke down in tears.
That was when I found out she was crying because she had been studying until 1 o'clock in the morning, yet I kept beating her.
We were both naive back then. I just watched her cry as she vented, not knowing how to comfort her.
Soon, there was another exam.
I deliberately got two questions wrong so that she could win.
However, I made it too obvious that I got the two answers wrong on purpose. My teacher berated me in class, and I even got called to the teacher's lounge for a serious talk.
While I was away, Ava used the opportunity to look at my paper and realized I lost to her on purpose.
She asked me out for the weekend.
However, when it came time to meet up, she didn't show up and didn't respond to my calls. I looked around and eventually found her being cornered by two hoodlums in a small alley.
I rushed over to help her without any regard for my safety, and got beaten up and hospitalized.
During the few days I was in the hospital, she visited me every day to show me her class notes. We studied and did homework together.
This went on until we both got into the same university.
She was the one who confessed her feelings to me.
It was only after we got together that I discovered she was actually the heiress to a wealthy family...
We decided to get engaged on our graduation day, but her family was vehemently against it.
Her younger sister in particular looked down on my commoner status. She was sarcastic when she spoke to me, and openly mocked me as a gold-digger trying to climb up the social ladder.
Only Ava and I knew the truth.
We had a pure friendship that evolved into love. I was not aware of her wealthy background at any point when we were just friends.
That was one of the lowest points of my life.
Ava, in a move to comfort me, eloped with me in secret despite her family's disapproval.
Her parents spiraled into a rage when they found out what we did, but finally relented when Ava presented them with a positive pregnancy test.
Still, they looked down on me. I constantly found myself in a situation where I was treating them warmly, but was met with nothing but coldness. No matter how enthusiastic I was, I was always mocked and sneered at by her family.
Ava used to comfort and encourage me in the beginning.
But, as time went on, especially after the birth of our son, she gradually became indifferent and distanced herself from me, even developing a strange relationship with her assistant.
I tried time and again to fix things. I became more proactive, more caring, more gentle.
Nothing seemed to work. On the contrary, it annoyed her. She started finding fault in everything I did, and would sometimes even compare me to her assistant, saying how useless I was.
My mother dying in the hospital was my last straw. It completely broke me.
It was only then that I finally understood that the pure feelings we shared had long since faded with time. That special bond we had no longer existed.
This relationship had deteriorated. There was no longer any need to stay.
Night fell. I had become accuustomed to going to bed at eleven.
I did not return to our shared room, deciding to separate myself from her by sleeping in the opposite room.
At this point, our goals in life were different even if we were physically together.
The next morning, Ava and I opened our doors almost at the same time.
She paused when she saw me. “Why didn't you come back to sleep last night?"
"Would there be a point in that?”
I asked.
Ava said, displeased, "You're always so petty. You've never tried to understand me!"
"Yeah, I don't understand you."
"I didn't understand you when my mother was in the hospital, and all she wanted was to see her grandson one last time!"
"I didn't understand you when your assistant told me you were asleep in his house!"
"I've been thinking, and thinking, and thinking. How can I understand you? How can I forgive you?! I still haven't found an answer!"
I walked past her, then turned around when I was at the front door. "Will you be hiring the divorce lawyer or should I?"
Ava stood where she was, staring quietly at me. "It's up to you."
The weekend came.
I went to a law firm and had a lawyer draft up the divorce agreement.
I went home when that was done.
However, I hesitated when I got to the front door and pushed the key into the slot.
I didn't want to be there anymore.
I took out the key and decided to go back to my mother's place instead.
The house was empty. I was the only one in here, now that my mother was gone.
I dug out some old photos from a few years ago from the drawer.
There was a photo of me, my mother, and my son. In the photo, my mother's face was adorned with a radiant, tender smile, but my son was sulking, clearly displeased.
My mother was overjoyed when my son was born.
Ava's family, however, were insistent that they should be the one to take in my son, telling my mother that he would not have a future with her, and demanded that he took on their last name, not mine.
The responsibility for my son's upbringing and education fell on them, and my mother was only allowed to visit him once a month, even though she was her paternal grandmother.
My mother was disappointed in the beginning, but she grew to look forward to his monthly visits.
However, as my son grew under their tutelage, he grew to resent the poor and treated my mother with disdain.
Because of this, I once lost my temper at his behavior and slapped him.
That caused Ava's family to gang up on me, insulting and cursing me with every word they knew.
Even Ava berated me. "You're making a mountain out of a molehill," she had said. "It's natural for him to feel distant from his grandmother because he didn't grow up with her!"
By then, my son's mind had been warped beyond repair, thanks to her family.
As the old saying went, one is colored by one's company. Their indoctrination even turned him against me.
Perhaps by then, in his heart, he resented not only his poor grandmother, but also his poor father.
There was once a time when my mother had been delighted that I was married to such a well-educated, wealthy, and beautiful wife. She used to gush about it to anyone who would listen.
But since the arrival of her grandson, she, who should have been even happier, no longer felt that joy.
Perhaps it was because of the years of silent suffering, but it didn't take long for her illness to claim her from this world...
It was now one o'clock in the dead of night.
Ava, noticing that I hadn't returned home, gave me a call. "Where are you? Why aren't you home yet?"
"I contacted a lawyer to draft a divorce agreement today," I said instead of answering her.
Ava fell silent for a moment before asking, "Can we not divorce?"
Her words once again stabbed a painful thorn into my heart.
I had thought I would be indifferent to her words.
Yet, how could years of affection vanish just like that?
Humans were complex creatures, full of contradictions.
I didn't respond and simply ended the call.
She left me alone for a few days.
However, the peace was short-lived. She called me again, mentioning that it was her mother's birthday and that she wanted me to attend.
Initially, I didn't plan on going.
But after looking at the divorce agreement in my hand, I changed my mind. One way or another, I had to put an end to this farce of a marriage.
Once again, I arrived at the Dankworth residence.
In the past, just being near this villa instilled in me a sense of dread.
That feeling was gone now.
Perhaps the divorce agreement in my hand had freed me. I was no longer bound to them!
I was late to their party.
There was already a large gathering of guests chatting happily with each other. Everyone was celebrating Ava's mother's birthday, handing her their gifts and talking about how great she was as kids crowded around her.
Upon my arrival,
the crowd parted to make way.
I walked up to Ava's mother, divorce agreement in hand.
Ava and her sister stood behind their mother, and Ava's beloved assistant was also present.
My mother-in-law's expression twisted into a scowl at my late arrival.
As always, she chastised me arrogantly. "Why are you so late?" she barked. "I'm your mother-in-law! I deserve respect!"
Ava, who stood behind her mother, fell into her usual role as the mediator. "Calm down, Mom," she said with a laugh. "I'm guessing Tony was late because he was preparing a gift for you. He wanted to surprise you, that's all."
Hearing these words, my mother-in-law's face softened slightly. "What's your gift?" she asked aloofly.
With a light smile, I handed her the divorce agreement and declared, "I daresay this is the best gift I found. I know you'll be happy with this one."
Seeing the words “Divorce Agreement” printed boldly on the paper, my mother-in-law’s expression drastically changed.
The surrounding guests and relatives all fell completely silent. They stared in disbelief at Ava and me.
The colour drained from Ava's face...
