C18
"More than anything, why am I your ex-husband? I am Ethel's husband."
"Oh, excuse me. You told me earlier that you were going to get a divorce soon."
"You...!"
The atmosphere grew tense.
"Tay, don't start a fight. If the conversation goes on too long, I get tired."
I stopped Terence halfway and faced Leandro.
"If you have something to say, say it quickly."
Leandro asked me, looking at Terence.
"Does being an escort mean he always stays by my wife's side?"
"That's how it is when I'm out."
Otherwise, how would an escort be?
"How can you do that?!"
A wave of surprise spread across Leandro's face.
"No matter how much you want to divorce me, you are a married woman until you get divorced."
"I know. But what does that have to do with this?"
"How can someone who has a husband spend so much time with a man who is not married to her? What if others misunderstand?"
Yes. I thought it would be a story like this.
"What's wrong with that?"
"...Do I really need to say such vulgar things out of my mouth?"
"You have to tell me for me to understand."
Although he was the one who actually spoke, Leandro stammered his response.
"That... Doubting my wife's modesty..."
As if he didn't even want to voice those thoughts.
"Oh, you mean leaving my husband and having an affair with another man?"
"Wife...!"
"That's what you mean. Don't pretend you don't believe that."
Leandro hurriedly denied it.
"No. I trust my wife. It's others..."
What do you mean by trusting me?
If you openly doubt me, I will be very angry, so you're just making excuses.
"I only need you, my husband, to trust me, okay? I don't care what others think."
"What if my wife's reputation goes down?"
"I'll take care of my reputation."
And.
"Leandro, I didn't suspect you, so there's no way you would suspect something like this, right?"
Leandro didn't understand immediately.
"What do you mean? I've never done anything suspicious."
Instead of answering his question, I looked around.
"So, Chris didn't come with you?"
Chris is Leandro's secretary.
Leandro, who bore the heavy burden as the lord's representative, was always accompanied by Chris when he came to the capital to visit his family.
"Chris is doing business at the mansion. But why are you suddenly mentioning Chris...?"
"What is Chris's gender?"
"....?"
Leandro responded, wondering why I was asking such a thing.
"She's a woman."
"That's right. She's a woman."
Yes. Although "Chris" is usually a name given to men, Leandro's secretary is a woman.
Chris, whom Leandro always takes with him and spends more time with than his wife, is a woman.
Leandro, who realized a bit late what I meant, jumped up.
"Do you really doubt Chris and me?"
"No. I have no doubts. I just..."
I simply raised a corner of my mouth and smiled.
"You and Chris are like that, do you really think people won't misunderstand?"
"Is this case the same as my wife's?"
"What's the difference?"
"Chris and I have a strictly professional relationship."
"Our relationship is strictly professional. This person's job is to escort me."
At that moment, for some reason, Terence's shoulders next to me trembled.
However, there was no time to pay attention to Leandro as he continued to argue.
"We're just working!"
"I'm just doing my job, and this guy is simply following me!"
In fact, I knew better than Leandro and Chris had nothing to do with each other.
Because that's what the novel says.
But I still found it hard to welcome the relationship between Leandro and Chris.
Honestly, it was a bit uncomfortable.
I may see my husband for ten minutes a day or not at all, but the other woman spends the entire day with him.
Aside from suspecting infidelity, how many wives would like this?
One day, when I talked to him about it and asked him carefully to spend more time with me, Leandro's response was spectacular.
"Can't you understand that for someone who comes back from working outside?"
After that, I never asked Leandro for such a favor again.
The sadness, humiliation, and loneliness I felt at that time turned into a storm and swirled inside me.
"I told you before. Please dedicate at least half the time you spend with Chris to me."
My breath became agitated due to overwhelming emotions.
To calm down, I consciously tried to keep my attention in the present and not in the past.
"You answered. 'Can't you understand that for someone who comes back from working outside?'"
"Well, I was so tired back then that I made a mistake...!"
Leandro tried to make an excuse.
He had a desperate expression on his face that he never showed until I asked for a divorce.
Unlike in the past when he used to treat me with a stiff or tired expression.
The past is the past, the present is the present.