9
This city was a hotbed of rich and influential people. I knew about those special “training classes.”
I had someone gather information on Ben. It was a 99–page PPT presentation. I sent it to the training school.
I didn’t really want them to do anything. But if they wanted to, I wouldn’t object.
I just wanted to make Tiffany freak out.
Once she’d panicked, I could get my divorce
<
sooner.
Because…
The security camera footage from the day of
the accident was gone.
It was just Ben and Tiffany, and one random
person who said they had seen nothing.
Even if I sued them, I didn’t have any evidence.
Ben was capable of anything.
Later I heard that Ben had been rear–ended
nine times in three days.
Each of them was a beautiful, gorgeous woman
who had wanted to pay for dinner.
Tiffany was losing her mind. She felt like that money was hers.
So, she went at Ben. And Ben was so fed up with her. He sued Tiffany, making her pay back the money and everything he had given her. She couldn’t prove that they were gifts, so the
<
court made her return everything, one item at a
time.
Tiffany just snapped and started following a girl
that Ben was close with, and rammed into her
car.
The girl was banged up pretty bad.
The girl called Ben, yelling at him for Tiffany’s behavior.
Ben snapped as well, and rammed into her car.
These two, they were meant to be.
They started this mess together, and now they
were out to kill each other.
An eye for an eye, when will it end?
I shook my head, and talked with Sarah for a bit
before hanging up.
A soft breeze swept past me, and I was
listening to the waves crashing.
The sky was blue, and the future looked bright.
く
I was finally free.
I was finally free.
That day I went for a run and found Ben
standing by my front door.
He was looking a bit rough around the edges.
There were cigarette butts on the floor. He looked up at me like a lost puppy.
He said, “Jo, you changed the password, I can’t get in.”
I tried to walk past him, but he kept following
me, talking my ear off.
“Jo, you have no idea how unlucky I’ve been. All
those girls keep rear–ending me, they won’t leave me alone.”
“But I didn’t pay attention to any of them. I only
love you. Can we make up? I don’t want a divorce.”
“I’ll go with you to New York to see the
<
Manhattanhenge after your vacation.”
I had been talking about seeing the sunset in
Manhattan for years, and now he wanted to go?
He had always told me how he couldn’t be
bothered to go because he was so tired from
work.
Actually I knew the real reason. My vacation was around the same time as Tiffany’s and he was planning on spending it with her.
I didn’t reply.
He continued, “Jo, I know you sent those women after me.”
“You still care, don’t you? Otherwise you
wouldn’t have sent those women to try me.
Don’t worry, I broke up with Tiffany for good.” “Is that so?”
I looked at him with a hint of amusement.
I showed him a picture that Tiffany had just
<
sent to me.
Just half an hour earlier, he was with her.
Seeing his face turn pale, I kept scrolling
through my phone until another picture came
- up.
A few hours later, and he was with another girl.
I asked him, laughing, “Does your ‘childhood
sweetheart‘ know about this?”
Ben’s face kept changing, he was panicking.
“Jo, I can explain. Tiffany said it was the last time she would bother me. I said yes to appease her.”
“And that other girl, she just looked like you,
and I was drunk, and when you’re drunk, things don’t happen.”
I gave him a look, full of disdain.
There was something that was clearly not
acceptable on the bed.
Unless I was blind.
He saw that I wasn’t having it and kept going.
“Jo, I’ll take you to that house by the river, okay?”
I stopped. “What did you say?”
The house by the river was my grandma’s.
We had never been able to buy it back because the owners were never willing to sell it.
Ben’s eyes lit up when he heard me respond: “Jo, I knew the owner’s son couldn’t find a job, so I promised that I would get him a job if they sold me the house. I closed on it yesterday and it’s all in your name.”
I followed Ben to his car, and was about to
open the back door.
Ben stopped me and opened the front
passenger seat.
“Jo, sit in the passenger seat.”
“We said that that seat was all yours, right?”
What a loser.
<
But I didn’t say it. I wanted to see my
grandma’s house again.
I didn’t notice that the blade on the door handle
had been removed.
The house was well–kept, it was clear that the
new owners had loved it as well.
I was feeling pretty good, and gave Ben a direct path:
“Ben, sign the divorce papers, and I’ll forgive you.”
Ben didn’t say yes, so I turned around and left.
Even if he didn’t want to divorce, it didn’t affect
- me.
I could go to class when I needed to, or I could practice my perfumes and mix drinks.
I was good enough to start working at Zach’s bar now.
Ben kept bothering me, but I didn’t care.
