Cheating Penalty: I Get Twice the Rewards

By my second year with Michael Nelson, he had started coming home later and later. He would always say that work kept him busy.

But when I helped him with his dirty laundry, I would always catch whiffs of perfume from his clothes.

I never used perfume.

When I questioned him about it, he snapped impatiently, "It must've gotten on me by accident somehow. Don't be so paranoid."

I was only half-convinced by him, but I didn't ask any further.

This continued until a trip I took to the shopping mall. On the way back, I passed a fine-dining restaurant.

Through the window, I saw Michael and another woman sitting side by side, all cozy and intimate. He fed her a piece of steak, and she fed him a bite of foie gras.

They looked like such a loving couple.

I was dumbstruck. I didn't know what to do. What shocked me the most was the fact that the woman was Ivy Lewis, my good friend.

My hands clenched around my shopping bags until my nails dug into my palms.

It was Valentine's Day. I'd specifically gone to the mall to buy some gifts for him, that bastard! I wanted to break up with him!

At that very moment, a robotic voice rang out in my head.

"The system has detected a prospective host, Rowena Hurst. You have met the conditions for the Infidelity Cashback System. Would you like to activate it? If you do, whenever your partner spends money on his infidelity partner, twice the amount will be transferred to your bank account."

As I stared at the cheating couple who were all wrapped up in each other's arms, as if they were alone in this world, I agreed without hesitation.

"Yes. I'll activate it. I want him to pay through the nose—until he goes broke!"

…

When Michael got home that night and saw the empty dining table, he frowned. "Why haven't you made dinner yet?"

Swallowing back my anger, I faked a smile and said, "Well, it's Valentine's Day today. Why don't we go out for dinner and celebrate?"

Ever since we got together, I had always been the one who cooked for the two of us. He kept saying that eating out was expensive, and he rarely agreed to dine out with me.

Even when we did, I was always the one who paid the bill.

In the past, I was always understanding because he had founded his own company, so I knew that cash was tight for him. I also thought he was just a frugal person.

As it turned out, he was only frugal when it came to me.

When I previously told him that I wanted to have Valentine's Day dinner at the restaurant where I had seen him that day, he said he didn't like the type of food they served and refused to go.

Next thing I knew, I saw him eating there with Ivy, and forking out money for the thousand-dollar Valentine's Day couple's special, no less.

As expected, Michael shrugged and said, "Why should we celebrate some lousy holiday? I don't want to waste good money on it. Being economical is the right way to live. Hurry up and make dinner. I'm starving!"

Once he finished speaking, he lounged on the couch and started tapping away on his phone, completely absorbed in his conversation with someone. The delight in his eyes was unmistakable.

Then, I heard the system's notification going off in my head. "Congratulations. You have received 2,860 dollars.

He had just sent Ivy some money—1,430 dollars, to be specific. It was that popular trend of using the numbers 143 to represent "I love you".

This bastard had never been this romantic with me before. He refused to celebrate any sort of occasion or anniversary. Even dining out was considered a waste of money to him, yet here he was being very generous, sending money to his side chick.

The thought of this made me grind my teeth in anger. Fortunately, I snapped out of it when I saw the notification from my bank.

I felt a lot better after that.

That night, while Michael was fast asleep, I secretly checked his phone and found his chat with Ivy. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have known that they'd been going behind my back for ages now.

I was the fool who'd been blind to it the entire time.

As I read the sweet nothings they exchanged—a "babe" here, a "darling" there—I felt nauseated.

Finally, I read their latest exchange. Ivy said her birthday was coming up, so she wanted Michael to give her a gift and plan a surprise.

A lightbulb went off in my head. This was the perfect chance!