Seven Years, Buried Under

Before I turned eighteen, my girlfriend, Sylvie Carter, who knew I loved surprises, would come up with all sorts of creative ways to surprise me with gifts every day. So when I turned eighteen, she wrapped herself up and presented herself as a present to me. I spent the whole night ‘unwrapping’ her with my face beet red. From then on, she would oblige all of my whims. With anyone else, on the other hand, she would only respond with no, she couldn’t, or she wouldn’t. Whenever we made love, she would hold me close and whisper in my ear, “Theodore, I will love you forever as long as you are with me.” With that, I was made Mr. Theodore Carter, the subject of everyone’s envy. On our first wedding anniversary, we were so caught up in pleasure that we ended up missing a call from her father, Maurice Carter, which led to him becoming paralyzed. Consumed by guilt, I spent the next two years looking after him without so much as a complaint. On our second wedding anniversary, he tore up my marriage certificate with Sylvie for the ninth time. I went to the city hall again to get a replacement, only to discover to my horror that I had been ‘divorced’ from Sylvie for twenty-three days. When I confronted her, she pleaded, “My dad isn’t doing very well, and I had to sign the divorce papers to keep him from being upset. I’ll cancel the divorce after the waiting period, alright?” Then, when Maurice started to pressure her into marrying her childhood sweetheart, all she did was hesitate briefly before justifying it, “It’s just a formality! As I said, I will cancel the divorce, and you will always be the one and only Mr. Carter.” As if that wasn’t enough, she ended up crossing a line and sleeping with him on the night of the wedding despite telling me she would never do that. After that, she remarked briskly, “I’m going away with them for a short getaway. Would you cancel the divorce?” I nodded. Then, I went ahead and finalized the divorce before returning with the divorce certificates. Little did she know, our marriage had ended the very moment she tricked me into signing those divorce papers.