My Marriage was Ruined Because of A Bottle of Perfume

“Helena, you’ve gone too far.”

He took Gwen’s hand and said firmly, “Don’t worry, I’m here. No one will blame you for leaving.”

The phone fell to the ground in the corner and the HR manager’s anxious voice came through, “Mrs. Borgia, what’s going on? Is Gwen Courtet still here?”

Felix shouted at the HR manager, “Get lost! Do you think I won’t fire you right now?”

The HR manager was stunned for a few seconds before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Felix took Gwen’s hand and looked at me. My eyes were bloodshot. 

He sneered at me, “Let’s go. I’ll take you shopping to calm down. I’ll pay for everything today.”

He pulled Gwen away and she gave me a deer-like glance.

Any man would have felt a surge of pity, but I saw it with defiance.

If she liked trash, I would give it to her. 

I didn’t know how I got home. The HR manager sent a screenshot of me turning on the shower and letting the water drip down my body.

It was Gwen’s Instagram feed.

In the photo, the two of them were holding hands, with various designer perfumes scattered on the table.

But the most striking thing was the faint red bloodstain on the white blanket in the corner.

The caption read [I’ve finally become the person I’ve been crushing on.]

The finger on that hand had a faint scar and I recognized it as Felix’s.

In my third year of junior high school, my mother passed away unexpectedly. My grandmother was so heartbroken that she ended up in the ICU and my stepfather abandoned me in a small county town.

I was orphaned and alone, so I became the target of bullies and delinquent girls.

I was surrounded in an alley by a group of girls, with the leader holding a knife and gesturing at my face.

“You think you’re so good at seducing people? Let’s see how you’ll seduce the physics teacher without your face.”

By “flirting,” she meant that the physics teacher had helped me with a few extra problems.

A group of people surrounded me in the alley, beating and kicking me.

Felix suddenly appeared like a knight in shining armour, walking toward me against the light.

His index finger was the one that had been cut by the class monitor’s knife back then.

After that, he would always follow me and stay with me until he saw me safely inside the rental house before turning away.

Finally, I gathered my courage and stopped him. “Why are you following me?”

He smiled lightly. “Princess, I want to be your knight. Isn’t it enough to protect you?”

For the next two years, he truly acted like a knight, braving wind and rain to send me home every day, until the night of high school graduation.

I invited him into my home and we sat on the roof together, watching the stars. When our fingers intertwined, he promised never to betray me.

When the college entrance exam results came out, I scored ten points lower than he did. To avoid being a burden, I secretly applied to the National University of Kyiv and started working part-time to earn tuition fees.

That day, he stared at the 40-degree sun, searching the entire county for me. He finally found me in a milk tea shop. He held me in his arms, tears streaming down his face and said, “Without you, I can’t go on living.”

Later, he gave up his spot at Kyiv Slavonic University and applied to the National University of Kyiv with me.

In our senior year of college, I sold the only necklace my mother had left me to raise the startup funds for our studio. I got 100,000 dollars and we established our own studio.

He took me to the roof again on the night the studio was founded. Just like we did on the day we graduated from high school, he kissed me gently on the lips and said,

“With a wife like you, what more could a man ask for?”

But now he has fallen in love with a younger woman and betrayed the person he once was.

Looking at Gwen’s photos on Instagram feeds, I suddenly lost myself in thought until the HR manager’s message popped up.