New House, New Dinner Guest, New Divorce

When Axel's other driver friends heard that, they started making teasing comments.

"Oh, wow. A 250-dollar perfume, eh? Axel sure is generous to Lindsay."

"Tell me about it. Last time I asked him to buy me a perfume, he told me to get lost."

"Lindsay is the princess of our group. Isn't it normal for Axel to spoil her?"

Lindsay quickly waved her hands to dismiss them. "Alright, that's enough. If you keep going, Susanna will get upset."

She turned to me with a worried look. "You're not mad, right?"

One of the drivers chimed in, "Oh, she won't be. Everyone knows Axel's wife has the best temper. Back when we played games every night, my wife got jealous, but she didn't. She's incredibly tolerant."

"Exactly. You and Axel even used matching profile pictures, and you had those couple accessories on your cars. She didn't get mad at all. When you were upset about your divorce, Axel even bought you perfume to cheer you up. We're all jealous of that kind of friendship."

I stared at Lindsay and asked, word by word, "Divorce? What divorce?"

She quickly covered her mouth in regret, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you. I told Axel not to tell you about my divorce. It wouldn't be appropriate for such an occasion. I completely forgot about that."

Lindsay put on a remorseful act in front of me, but she had gone on and revealed everything anyway.

The other drivers watched me with amused expressions like they were enjoying a show.

I clenched my hands tightly. My fingernails dug into my palm, sending sharp pain through it.

A 250-dollar perfume, huh?

Axel had said he didn't care for those superficial holidays. Even though he knew I loved flowers, he would just ignore the flower stands whenever we passed by one.

Ironically, he spent 250 dollars on a bottle of perfume for a friend without batting an eye.

He had no ambition at all, which led him to work on and off. So, he barely made 1,000 dollars a month.

How could he possibly afford such an expensive perfume? Well, of course, he couldn't. He could only afford it because I gave him all of my salary each month.

It seemed I had indulged him too much.

Lindsay observed me cautiously. "I'm sorry I came to your housewarming when I have so much going on. I didn't want this to be about me. I hope you don't mind."

The tip of my nose stung as tears came to my eyes.

Just then, Axel came out of the kitchen and said, "Come eat! Honey, give me a hand and bring out the dishes and cutlery."

Lindsay immediately stood up. "I'll help you. Susanna can rest."

The other drivers shuffled toward the dining table.

I clenched my fists, forcing down my anger and steadying myself. I quietly took several deep breaths to suppress the immense hurt that welled up in my heart.

Using the excuse of fetching water, I carried an empty bucket downstairs and looked at the back of Lindsay's car. The drift charm on the rear bumper caught my eye—it was one of Marge Simpson.

Axel loved watching The Simpsons, and I had always known he had a Homer Simpson drift charm hanging from his bumper. But I never knew he had bought a matching one for Lindsay!

I yanked off both Simpsons and threw them into the trash.

After I was done filling the bucket, a hand took it from me.

"I told you to wait for me. Why did you come down by yourself?" Axel said.

I looked at the ground in silence before forcing a faint smile. "It's fine."

When we went back upstairs, Axel's friends had already opened several cans of beer. They were about to start drinking.

I went into the kitchen and took Axel's phone. Then, I slipped into the bathroom to check it.

We had never looked through each other's phones because we trusted each other completely. So, he had never felt the need to set up any passcode or security measures to guard against me.

I unlocked his phone and checked their group chat.

The drivers talked about everything and anything in there. There were complaints about passengers, the ideal drop-off locations, and various things they had encountered when driving people around.

Axel's profile picture looked normal. It wasn't one of those couple artwork photos. Instead, Lindsay's one was exactly that.

My heart began pounding.

I suddenly remembered Axel had a secondary account, so I logged into it.

Sure enough, his profile picture there matched Lindsay's.