Chapter 3

One day a week later, I finished my work early at the office and had nothing else to do, so I fell asleep in my office. I slept very deeply, as I had indeed been quite stressed lately.

That night, having rested for a long time during the day, I wasn’t sleeping as deeply. I vaguely woke up to find my wife wasn’t in bed.

I initially thought she was in the bathroom and didn’t think much of it, preparing to go back to sleep.

But suddenly, I heard hushed whispers coming from outside the door.

Could my wife be on the phone with someone?

A wave of unease washed over me. It was so late, my wife wasn’t in the room, and she was secretly talking to someone in the living room. Was there something wrong with our marriage?

I rushed to the door, pressing myself against it as if I wanted to merge into it. My wife’s voice drifted in.

“Hailey, please just help me out again. Your company hasn’t paid you in months, right? If you help me, I’ll give you an extra thousand, no, how about two thousand?”

So, she was talking to Hailey! The knot in my stomach loosened a bit. But then, Hailey’s voice chimed in. It wasn’t a phone call; she was right there in the living room with my wife.

“No, no, Chloe. Even if I’m desperate for money, I can’t agree. Your husband almost found out last time…”

I froze. Found out what?

My wife continued, “It’s fine, that was an accident. Don’t worry, I promise something like that won’t happen again.”

“Look, if you agree, not only will I give you an extra two thousand, I’ll also get my husband to arrange a position for you at his company. The salary will definitely be higher than your old company.”

Hailey seemed to fall silent.

I was completely baffled. What extra money? What did Chloe want Hailey to agree to? And it even involved me? What was going on?

After a long while, prompted by my wife, Hailey seemed to waver, but she said, “Ugh, Chloe, I really don’t know why you’re doing this. It’s clear your husband loves you so much. Why don’t you two just have a baby? Maybe that would make you change your mind.”

My heart, which had just settled, leaped back into my throat.

Chloe’s voice wasn’t loud, but I could hear a hint of dismissiveness in her tone.

“I don’t want to become a total mess because of a baby. I want to party it up for a few more years, you know? I’ve been secretly taking birth control pills after every time I’m intimate with my husband.”

“I can’t live without the strong bodies of those younger guys outside!”

When I heard that, I almost collapsed onto the floor. So, my so-called full-time housewife was secretly going out to party it up behind my back every day. And that "can’t live without" line was just an excuse.

And the fact that we hadn’t had a child all these years? It was all her secretly pulling the strings behind my back.

Resentment, pain, and fury instantly surged through my head. I wanted to rush out, slap her hard a few times, and demand to know why she was doing this.

But just then, she spoke again, pleading with Hailey.

“Alright, Hailey, my husband has been under a lot of stress for a while now. He sleeps like a log every night. You could put a corpse next to him, and he wouldn’t wake up!”

A lightning bolt flashed through my mind. A disbelieving suspicion formed in my heart.