Being Third Wheel In My Own Marriage

City skirt, Dawson Villa.

Suffering a thunderstorm, the sky pure dark. Except for the glimpses of lightning. The city’s dim glow hides behind the foggy rain, seemingly warmer than usual, especially to someone who is wobbling in front of the cold iron gate of a villa.

Like Catherine right now.

She has been waiting for hours. Hugging herself tight to stop shivering, Catherine paces around to keep her numb limbs warm. She didn’t know the storm would be this bad, but then again, she would be here even if she did.

She has no other to turn to.

A sharp honk startles her. She turns, raising her hand to her eyes as the blinding car lights pierce through the water curtain right onto her face. The iron gate opens with a loud shriek and the car starts, as if it only stopped for the gate, not for her.

Ten feet. Five feet. One foot. The car moves, and the woman doesn’t.

The car stops for the stubborn woman.

The driver’s window rolls down, and the man sticks his head out, only a little.

“Throwing your socialite reputation away to be a crazy stalking Ex?” The man smirks with a careless tone, clicking his tongue, “I didn’t think you were such a cliche, Catherine.”

Catherine thought she could face the man she once loved, yet her calm mask broke by the first words out of his mouth.

“Maverick, I’m sorry but I need help,” Seeing the man is finally talking to her, Catherine hastes a step up to the side of the car, “My mom, she’s--”

Her tongue freezes. There is a woman in the car.

Maverick broke up with her. But in barely one month and he’s got a new girl? Suddenly Catherine wonders what the three long years between them mean to the man.

Following Catherine’s sight, Maverick looks over at his new girl tauntingly. He takes her hand into his own, kneading it slowly for Catherine to see.

Catherine bites her lips. Her heart stings as if thousands of needles are piercing through at the same time. Catherine is surprised that after the last hellish month, she is still not fully numb to heartache.

“Just...fifty grand, and I won’t bother you again,” Wiping the rain off her face, Catherine pulls her eyes back from the girl, keeping her tone calm.

She didn’t come to fight. She can’t afford to.

The man’s lips curve up into a taunting grin. She can’t see clearly through the rain, but she feels the despise like knives under her skin. Such a number used to be her pocket money, and now she has to grind all her pride to beg for it.

“You are here for money?” The man taunts slowly, every word lingering on his tongue as if chewing something delicious, “You have reached a new low, C.”

“Borrow!” Catherine swallows the sour gulp behind her throat, “I’ll pay you back, 10% rate--”

“How are you gonna pay me back when you are broke, princess?” Maverick reaches out to Catherine’s collar and by instinct, she covers her chest and steps away.

The man lets out a mocking laugh.

“I’m sorry, I was wrong,” His tone turns meaner, “You were renounced. You are no longer the city princess now, are you? You are no longer even a Quinn.”

“I AM a Quinn!” Catherine squeezes the words out of her chattering teeth, “Daddy gave me that name, not Mr. Quinn!”

Mr. Quinn. Not even Grandpa anymore. Smirking, Maverick tastes the cold address, his eyes trailing up and down the tiny figure in the rain. Sunk to the lowest, yet the pride in Queen C does not get extinguished. Not by anything.

“Remember how proud you once were, C?” Maverick drawls lazily, sitting in the comfortable car, watching the woman suffering outside his window, “I broke up with you, you smiled and left, not even bothering to ask a why.”

Catherine frowns, more confused than angry. He stopped wanting to her, so she left. What’s there to ask? Her pride doesn’t allow her to beg for a change of heart, no matter how much she loved him.

“That silence is exactly why,” The man says with icy cold eyes, “You are too proud. You need no one, and you never show weakness. Not even to me. A real woman knows when to bend.”

Saying those words, Maverick grabs his girl’s neck and shakes lightly. The girl giggles, leaning into Maverick’s body, pressing her chest against his body.

The image stings Catherine's eyes. That’s his why? That she is too independent? “Did you hook up with her before or after us?!” Catherine demands.

“Bend that body of yours to the right man, Queen C.” Maverick ignores Catherine, “and you will gather the money you want and more.”

His car roars and dashes forward before his words can land. Catherine dodges aside, only to fall into the mud. Twisting pain bursts out from her ankle, but she can’t tell whether her heart hurts more or her foot.

She came here to throw away her dignity, and she is left with the pretty image of her three years with him shattered as well.

She really has nothing left now.

Not far away, a black Rolls Royce Phantom took in the whole show quietly.

“Not quite the show I expected,” A man's low, rough voice breaks the silence in the luxury car, lazy like a just fed beast, “...more interesting though.”