Chapter 2

The next day, I returned to the apartment after work. I found a note on the coffee table with a pink rabbit drawn on it in pink highlighter. Stacy's handwriting was on the note.

It read, "Hey Joyce, Melvie said that he's taking me to look at apartments this weekend to be our marital home. We're going to Orville Towers. Wanna tag along?"

Orville Towers was a luxury high-rise development that Dad built.

When Melvin told me he wanted to buy an apartment there, I said I knew someone and offered him a 30,000-dollar discount. He asked me who I knew, and I just said that it was a friend. He never pressed for more information after that and simply continued gaming.

I crumpled up the notepaper and threw it into the trash. However, when I popped the lid open, I saw some things lying inside.

There were three used condoms in it, the specialty minty kind that cost a small fortune.

In the past three years I'd been with Melvin, we never bought condoms that cost more than 12 dollars. I once bought a slightly more expensive one, but he chided me for wasting money instead.

I went to the bathroom to wash my hands. While scrolling idly on Instagram, I suddenly came across a photo Stacy posted of her in the sales office at Orville Towers, holding up a purchase contract and revealing a corner of Melvin's name on it.

There was also a new, brightly dazzling diamond ring on her ring finger in the photo.

My hands began trembling again, but it wasn't because I was upset. Rather, it was a habit of mine. I would always tremble like this whenever I got extremely angry.

I pumped more liquid soap onto my palm and scrubbed my hands thoroughly. It wasn't until the fifth time I scrubbed them that my hands finally stopped trembling.

I pushed the bathroom door open and suddenly caught sight of Stacy in the living room. I didn't know when or how she got there, but she was sitting cross-legged on the couch with a notebook in her lap.

It was my diary.

The one that I hid away in the depths of my wardrobe drawers and padlocked with a lock.

But now, the lock was picked and lying askew on the couch with white scratches on its surface.

Stacy then looked up at me, smiling widely and said, "Your handwriting is really neat, Joyce."

Then, she flipped to a page and began reading out loud.

"February 14th. Melvin's out on a business trip again, so I'm spending Valentine's Day by myself again. It's fine. I understand that he's busy."

She purposely slowed down when she read the part "by myself again", then looked back up at me with a grin. "You're such a kind and considerate person, Joyce!"

Then, she flipped to another page and continued reading. "March 15th. I edited three of his proposals and stayed up till 4:00 am today…

"Wow, can you help me with my proposals too, Joyce? Please? Melvie threatened to cut my bonus if I didn't improve…"

I snatched the diary back from her hands, the pages making a ruffling sound. After flipping through the diary, I noticed that she'd cat-eared a number of pages where I'd described how Melvin had treated me over the years.

So, she'd been going through every line I wrote and cat-earing the parts she found amusing like she was collecting a bunch of jokes where she could laugh at my expense again next time.

Melvin came out of the bedroom just then, glancing at the diary in my hand.

"Why were you going through her things?"

Stacy immediately threw herself at him and hooked arms with him. "It's not like that, Melvie. I was the one who wanted to read it. Joyce's handwriting is really neat and beautiful!"

Melvin didn't speak anymore and went back into the bedroom.

Stacy then retrieved her phone, tapped into the photo gallery, and showed me a few photos of her in a few different wedding dresses.

"Which one do you think looks the best on me, Joyce? The mermaid tail or the princess gown? Melvie said that the mermaid gown was better because it showed off my curves better…"

She kept glancing at me with every word she said, waiting for me to lose my cool, or break down in tears, or throw a temper tantrum.

"The mermaid tail, then," I replied.

She was stunned at my reply.

"You look nicer in the mermaid tail. You've got a slender waist."

She opened her mouth again like a goldfish, obviously not expecting this response from me. She just stood there with her phone in her hand, not knowing whether to continue staying with me in the living room or to leave.

Ultimately, she slinked back into the bedroom.

Melvin appeared in the living room again just then, his phone pressed against his ear. He was speaking in a low voice, but the apartment was very small, and I could hear everything he was saying.

"Yes, yes. The Four-Clover Hotel. I want a corner room with a view over the lake."

After hanging up, he turned to me and said, "Go buy me an LV bag. Should be around 10,000 dollars. It's for Stacy's birthday gift. I'll pay you back later."

I didn't say a word and just transferred the money to him.

He read the notification on his phone before sliding the phone back into his pocket without even a "thank you". He took a few more steps forward, paused, and looked at me like he wanted to say something. However, he ended up saying nothing and just left.

I could then hear his voice coming from the bedroom again, this time much louder than before. Maybe he was just too excited that he couldn't hold back anymore.

"Guess what, Stacy baby, I just booked a room for us at the Four-Clover Hotel! I've got another surprise for you too, but I'm not telling you yet!"

A surprise?

I was paying for it, but he turned it into a surprise for her.

…

I never went back on the day of Stacy's birthday. There was an emergency operation at the hospital, and I stood for the entire four hours.

After the surgery, I went to change out of my scrubs and scrolled a little on Instagram, noticing that Stacy had posted a whole carousel of photos on her account.

There was a photo of the 99 roses that filled up the entirety of Melvin's car trunk, a photo of the brand-new LV bag with the tags still on, a photo of the lake view from their Four-Closer Hotel room, and their reflection against the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The caption was simple. It read, "It's so nice to be chosen."

Someone in the comments asked, "What about Melvin's girlfriend? The one who'd been with him for years?"

Stacy replied immediately, "Joyce said that she wishes us the best and gives us all her blessings! She's really nice about it."

I never said anything to them. And I certainly never gave them any blessings of the sort.

I just placed my phone back in the locker as the bright fluorescent lights hummed above me.