Tragic Love Romance 단편 소설 & Scumbag Workplace 소설

Three years into our marriage, my husband, Derek, confessed that he'd met his true love. He sat across from me, eyes brimming with sincerity. "I was too young back then. You were the only person I ever dated, and I rushed into marriage. "It wasn't until I met Vivian that I understood what real love is. "Just sign the divorce papers already. Set me free." I glanced at the scar on his temple. Without a word, I signed the papers.

Zoe Lincoln was known as one of the ugliest women in her social circle. Her heavy bangs covered half her face, and her thick black-framed glasses looked like they had lenses made from the bottoms of soda bottles. She always wore dull, muddy foundation and dark lipstick that blurred the natural shape of her lips. If she walked down the street, no one would give her a second glance. But what nobody knew was that Zoe made herself look unattractive on purpose. And it was all because of her mother. Zoe’s mother had once been a renowned beauty. Her father had pursued her relentlessly until she finally agreed to marry him. Yet less than three years into their marriage, he'd begun cheating on her repeatedly. Her mother's heartbreak gradually turned to despair, and eventually, she fell into a deep depression and died.

Lately, Chloe Dunham has been posting photos on social media of late-night meals sent by an anonymous admirer. She was the only single one in our trio of best friends, so I was always the first to like her posts. But whenever I saw the hand-drawn doodles on the meal boxes, I couldn't shake the feeling that they looked exactly like the work of my boyfriend, Jacob Aniston. Chloe once flicked me on the forehead and teased me. "You jealous little thing. Don't go making up stories. The three of us have been friends since we were kids. If Jacob and I were ever going to fall for each other, we'd have gotten together ages ago." I rubbed my forehead and laughed, then let the matter go. That was until the station assigned Jacob and me to cover a typhoon from the front lines, and Chloe insisted on coming along to deliver supplies. Then the levee breached. The three of us ended up stranded atop a swaying communications tower as the floodwaters rose around us. When the water reached our waists, Jacob raised his microphone and faced the camera. He told viewers across the country that this might be his last broadcast. Then he reached out, pulled Chloe in front of the camera, and wrapped the only raincoat around her. "If I have to die, I have no regrets as long as I'm with you. Everyone, you don't need to wait for the next report. Right now, I want to protect the person I care about most." The livestream flooded with messages of congratulations as they held each other and cried. Meanwhile, I huddled in the corner, my lips purple from the cold. I didn't even have the strength to say another word. After the water level finally dropped and the rescue team pulled us to safety, I shook the mud from my clothes and opened the back door of the rescue vehicle. "Don't overthink it. Chloe's physically weaker than you. I was just afraid she'd get hurt," Jacob said.

After saving money with Justin Pierre for five years, we finally went to view a house. My best friend, Maria Houston, came along too. "The master bedroom needs a walk-in closet. Can we knock down this wall?" she asked Justin while pointing at the floor plan I had been looking at for the past six months. "I'll get a designer to take a look tomorrow. You can change it however you want." The two of them discussed everything, from the direction the apartment faced to the tiles, from the floor-to-ceiling windows to the bathtub. Meanwhile, I stood in the corner, unable to get a word in. When it was time to sign the papers, he seemed to suddenly remember I was here and said, "We'll put this place under Maria's name for now. She's here all by herself, so consider it a company benefit. The company is a little tight on cash lately. You can keep renting for another two years." However, I had also left my hometown behind to build a life with him from nothing five years ago. Back then, we had squeezed into a tiny apartment without even air-conditioning, and he had made me a promise with absolute certainty. "Once the company takes off, the first thing I'll do is give you a home." Now that the company had finally succeeded, the first home he bought was for someone else. I stared at the two signatures side by side on the contract and realized there was no place for my name. Since he had already planned a future that did not include me, I was not going to wait for him anymore. Thinking about it, I opened the page to terminate my lease and confirmed it.

The company organizes a team hike. When it's time to split into groups, I look at Malcolm Ridgeway, the man I've been secretly dating for two years. I expect him to pick me. Instead, he turns to Savannah Leclair, his childhood friend who just got back from being abroad. "You tire out easily. Join my group, I'll look out for you." Savannah links her arm through his like it's the most natural thing in the world. Our coworkers eat it up. "Childhood sweethearts really are something else. Malcolm, you're still single, right? You two would be perfect together." Malcolm doesn't pull away. He just says, "Yeah, I don't have a girlfriend." I freeze. Just last night, he holds me and promises he'll tell everyone about us soon. But until the groups are set, he doesn't look at me once. I end up in the open group and sprain my ankle halfway up the trail. I text him, "Malcolm, I can't walk." He reads it and doesn't reply. I wait 40 minutes, and the only thing that comes through is a group photo from the summit. He has his arm around Savannah, grinning. The comments underneath are full of people gushing over them. Someone even tags me, "June, you fell behind? Don't hold us up." "Even Savannah made it and you couldn't?" "If you can't keep up, don't come." So, I walk down the mountain alone. At the base, Malcolm is calling a car for Savannah. He sees me limping and just frowns. "Didn't I tell you not to message me directly? If a coworker sees it, they'll get the wrong idea." It hits me all at once. A secret relationship is just a relationship he can deny whenever he wants. Well, he's getting his wish. He doesn't have a girlfriend anymore.

Derek Bouchard and I kept our relationship secret for eight years. Over the long holiday weekend, I finally persuaded him to take me to a concert. When the arena's kiss cam randomly picked us out of the crowd, I turned to him with a delighted smile. He immediately whipped his head away, dodging the camera. My smile froze. That night, the clip went viral. Everyone was speculating that I was his kept mistress. One of the most-liked comments read: "I know them. He's her boss. They've been dating secretly for years. Poor thing, she's the one doing all the dirty work, staying at the office until the early hours. After eight years, she's still just a team lead. "They even shipped her off to some remote overseas office for three years. Said it was to avoid favoritism, but really his first love had come back and he wanted her out of the way." I stopped breathing. I couldn't believe my eyes. My fingers trembled as I scrolled. "Then why didn't he date his first love?" someone asked. "She's against marriage. He wants a family and an heir." Another commenter added, "It gets worse. He rejected countless proposals she worked on, then passed them all to his first love. That woman built a glittering career at another company using her work." A chill ran through me. So that was why Derek kept assigning me inexplicable tasks. Why even the proposals I'd revised to perfection were rejected. I'd been building someone else's career all along. I scrolled again, but the entire video had vanished. I knew whose doing that was. I drew a long breath and called Derek. "Aren't you going to explain any of this?"

The night before the Fourth of July holiday, my husband gathered the entire company for what I thought would finally be our long-awaited public announcement. Instead, his clueless assistant burst into the room wearing a wedding dress. "Cameron, I'm here to marry you." He didn't turn her down. If anything, his eyes softened with unmistakable affection as he promoted her to vice president on the spot. The entire company erupted in cheers for their love story. When my coworkers noticed me standing frozen off to the side, one of them couldn't resist reminding me. "Stephanie, you've been with Mr. Cox for nine years. You can't let a moment this special pass without saying something!" I smiled, walked onto the stage, slipped off my wedding ring, and tossed it to Poppy Campbell. "What kind of wedding doesn't come with a ring? Here, take it."