What She Rides

I arrived at the stables at exactly 3:00 pm.After parking my car, I caught sight of a man and a woman riding horses not too far away. It was my wife, Hazel Mosley, and her male assistant, Cecil Wilcox.Hazel's clothes rode up to her chest so much that I could see the marks on her waist even from a distance, and those were fingerprints that a man would have left on her while doing some "exciting" activities. Anyone who wasn't blind would have immediately caught on to what they'd been doing earlier.I took a photo and sent it to Hazel. She abruptly turned around and looked back when she saw her phone, frowning when she caught sight of me.Cecil then helped her off the horse after coming to a halt, whispering in her ear in a low voice. At once, Hazel's expression lightened up again as she grinned and replied to him.She was still smiling even while coming over to me.I saw how intimate they were with each other and felt that I was the unnecessary third wheel after all. It wasn't un

I took a good look around the villa that I'd lived in for the past five years after Hazel left.I had given this villa to her as a gift after the company went public. The reason was that I wanted to build a real home with her here instead of other random places.I had fallen in love with her at first sight, and I pursued her relentlessly for two years before she finally agreed to be my girlfriend.So, after graduating from college, I severed ties with my family for her sake and refused Dad's request for me to return to my hometown and take over the family business.I'd never gone back home since.I left all of my friends and family behind and chose to start a new life with Hazel here, away from the place I'd grown up in.She told me just now that Cecil didn't have any friends. But neither did I.Yet, after giving eight years of my life to her, all I got in return were just her lies and a distance between us that seemed to grow bigger and bigger each day.I wasn't allowed to lay

Hazel was busy taking care of Cecil in the one-person, private hospital ward.She was doing the same routine things she'd been doing in the past week, but for some reason, she felt that something was off today, as though something she thought she'd always had in her hand was slowly slipping out of her control.Cecil was behaving as usual. "Can I come and stay at your villa after getting discharged from the hospital today? I promise that I'll stay in the guest room like last time so that Mr. Blanchard won't get mad."Yet, Hazel seemed to have lost all patience with him as she frowned and asked, "Don't you have a home of your own?""I just thought of apologizing to Mr. Blanchard.""There's no need for that. It's an issue between me and him. I'll settle it myself."She finally realized what was wrong after saying that.Whenever she got mad at me in the past, I would always be the first one to fold and apologize to her. However, a week had passed, and she still hadn't gotten a call

The car meant to pick me up from the airport was already there by the time I landed back in Bayville. Yet, it didn't bring me home. Instead, the driver, Eddie Mason, took me straight to the door of a private club."Why aren't we going home, Eddie?"Eddie grinned as he handed me a change of clothes. "Mr. Blanchard Senior has arranged for a blind date for you here, Mr. Blanchard."I looked at my travel-worn appearance and exclaimed, "Now? Isn't that a bit too much?"Shouldn't Dad at least let me rest at home for a bit, or at least let me take a shower first?Eddie saw through my thoughts at once. He then asked the waitstaff to show me to a hotel room so that I could shower, change, and tidy myself up.Half an hour later, he appeared at the hotel door again to bring me straight to the meeting room.I looked at Eddie rather helplessly, who was always a little too efficient. He truly lived up to his reputation as Dad's hardest-working employee, as he was always so meticulous.Mom an

The next time I received news about Hazel again was when Wilbur called me on my engagement day."Mr. Blanchard, something just happened to Ms. Mosley."I instinctively wanted to hang up. "She has nothing to do with me anymore. Settle your own problems yourself. If you can't handle it, then get the police involved instead.""It's not like that, Mr. Blanchard. It's related to you."I gripped the phone harder. "She's none of my business anymore.""Ms. Mosley and Cecil got into an argument during a meeting earlier this morning, and they somehow brought you into it. The argument escalated into a fight, and then…"He inhaled deeply and said, "Let me just forward the video to you instead."The video file was a very large one and took quite a while to load.Hazel thought of buying back all of the company's shares and taking full control. She wanted to drastically adjust the company's future direction, tighten operations, and cut the projects that Cecil had previously been in charge of.