My Ragebaiter Wife

I, Kenneth Carlson, left with my parents.

Nicole Stormer didn't come after me.

Not long after, my phone rang.

I switched it on and saw that Nicole had uploaded a video of what had just happened to a WhatsApp group chat filled with all her friends.

The camera was focused on my face.

As soon as the video was shared, everyone started replying gleefully.

[Didn't Kenneth get angry?]

[How could he not be angry over something this huge? He must be holding it in. He's really good at pretending nothing happened.]

[Exactly. His parents were there, so he couldn't blow up. He must be furious on the inside.]

Nicole's first love, Chris Jefferson, pretended to be concerned.

[I don't think Kenneth is angry. Something feels different this time. Nicole, maybe we should call off the game.]

Nicole didn't think much of it.

[You're overthinking it. There's no way he'd actually leave me. He's obviously just playing hard to get.]

[His possessiveness is off the charts. He used to blow up whenever I even talked to another man. I'm guessing it'll only be a matter of time before he snaps.]

I sat in the back of a cab with my parents on the way home.

I scrolled through the messages.

Each word felt like a knife that stabbed deep into every inch of my body until even my heart ached.

I'd been extremely possessive since I was a child. I hated other people invading my space or touching my belongings.

Due to that flaw, many people couldn't tolerate me.

Nicole was different. The possessiveness and controlling nature that other people hated were, in her eyes, proof of love.

She liked seeing me get jealous and angry over her.

She said that was what it meant to truly love someone.

If a person remained completely calm no matter what their partner did, then they must not love them.

Only someone who didn't love you would have no emotions.

At the time, I thought I'd finally found true love, so I quickly went from dating Nicole to marrying her.

She would deliberately talk to other men or have meals with them from time to time just to provoke me, but back then, she always knew where to draw the line and would stop when she'd gone far enough.

As soon as she apologized, I'd soften and treat it as a little game between us.

It wasn't until Chris came back to the country.

She ignored my objections and insisted on meeting him. She even arranged for him to join the company.

She went on dates with him and brought him home.

She crossed the line again and again, yet she kept telling me she was only doing it to test if my feelings for her were real.

I'd argued with her, tried to talk things through, and even begged her through tears.