Exit the Substitute: Walking Out of Her World

After five years of harboring an unrequited love for Lara Lawson, I am physically and emotionally exhausted. So, I marry my childhood friend, Celine Young, instead.

To the outside world, Celine and I are the perfect couple. We share a wonderful life together and eventually welcome an adorable baby boy.

I regard her as someone who has been by my side my entire life. But one day, I turn on her phone and discover two unsent messages.

"If you want, I can divorce him immediately."

"You're the only man I'll ever love."

As it turns out, what I thought was my salvation is nothing but a cruel joke. I am nothing but a convenient stand-in. And to make matters worse, even my own flesh and blood is on her side.

Heartbroken, I cut off contact and walk out of their lives without a trace of hesitation. After I leave them, they begin to panic.

"Can you please stay, honey?"

"Please don't go, Dad."

After going through the unsent message drafts in my wife's old phone, I slumped listlessly to the floor. Her chat logs were full of romantic messages.

I should've been thrilled about it—but the messages weren't for me. Her texts were for her senior and my superior, Robert Lane.

A few days ago, I noticed that my wife, Celine Young, had been texting someone on her phone in a secretive manner. With Valentine's Day just three days away, I simply assumed that she was planning a surprise for me.

I tried to suppress my excitement, but my curiosity got the better of me. So, when Celine wasn't paying attention, I tried to unlock her phone.

I keyed in our birthdays, our son's birthday, and even our wedding anniversary. But unfortunately, none of the password combinations worked.

I told myself she was just trying to keep me from ruining the surprise. That would explain why she had been acting so mysteriously. To keep the surprise hidden, she even went as far as to change the password on her phone.

Ever since we got married, the password to her phone—and even her bank card—were all connected to me. If I had failed to guess her password, she probably had a huge surprise planned out.

I didn't want to disappoint her. So, I feigned oblivion and waited excitedly for my gift. To my dismay, I discovered that she didn't love me, instead.

On Valentine's Day, I put on a suit that I hadn't worn in a very long time and applied some perfume. However, even after hours and hours of waiting, Celine never showed up.

On my way back home, I saw her steadying her drunken senior while she blushed profusely. In the end, I swallowed my impulses and watched them leave.

Once I returned home, I tried to unlock Celine's phone using Robert's birthday as the passcode. Just as I had expected, the phone unlocked. To make matters worse, she even had a photo of him as her wallpaper.

Just like that, years of what I thought was a blissful marriage came crashing down. Unknowing to everyone else, our seemingly perfect family was actually decaying on the inside.

I sat frozen in place.

When the morning came, and my alarm had started to ring, I dragged my numb body toward my son's room. To my surprise, my usually slow-to-rise son had woken up unusually early today. Once he saw me, he immediately asked about Robert Lane.

"How's Mr. Lane doing, Dad?" my son, Will Sawyer, asked.

I stared at his cute face and froze. Will and I had never been close. I told myself that it was only because he was more attached to his mother. So, why was he asking about Robert?

"I don't know," I replied with a frown.

As I was about to help him get dressed, he leaned away from me to avoid my touch.

"You're a man, Dad. You shouldn't be so petty," he said. "Mr. Lane was drunk, and Mommy simply looked after him for a while. Why are you being so narrow-minded?"

Upon hearing Will's solemn comments, my breathing started to grow heavy. Was I being petty? Was he expecting me to just hand my wife over to my drunken man?

I felt angry, but I suppressed my rage and continued to help him get dressed. To my dismay, he ducked away once again.

"Mr. Lane was supposed to bring me to the amusement park. Because of you, now I won't be able to go!" he exclaimed as he smacked my arm.

I frowned as my hand froze in midair. Based on my knowledge, Will had never met Robert before. Yet, he was claiming that the latter had made him a promise. This meant that the pair had met up last night. In fact, it seemed like Celine was the one who brought Will over to see him.