We're Free

People in our circle told the same joke at every gathering.

"Jason's wife can't give him children, so she sends women to his bed every day. I wish the hag at my house had that kind of sense."

They had no idea that my mother-in-law, Kate, was the one who had found those women and used my name to send them in.

The first time, Jason Gibson threw the woman out and had a terrible fight with me.

Afterward, he spent over ten million dollars on jewelry to make it up to me at the auction house.

The second time it happened, he had barely touched her hand when he threw up. Then, he fought with me again.

Afterward, he bought an estate and told me I would be the only woman by his side.

-

That was until the tenth woman.

This time, he shut the bedroom door and did not come out all night.

We stopped fighting.

We stopped speaking.

Everyone thought I would do anything to secure my place in the Gibson family and hang on to them for the rest of my life.

But when I finally took out the divorce agreement, no one believed it.

Not even Jason himself.

After the innocently sweet girl, Sylvia Brown, followed Jason into the bedroom, I sat alone on the living room sofa and listened to the sensual sounds from behind the door all night.

At dawn, when the skies were just starting to light up, Jason came out of the room shirtless. The smell of intimacy slipped through the crack in the door, and it made my stomach churn.

He stopped in front of me and coldly asked, "Are you satisfied now?"

I raised my eyes and looked at him. "I think you're the one who's satisfied."

His temper flared. "You keep on finding women for me every day. I don't think you're trying to give me an heir. I think you're just sick of me after a decade of marriage. Fine. I'll give you what you want. I won't touch you again from now on! When Sylvia wakes up, drive her back to her campus."

I stood up and forced the tremor to stop in my voice before asking one last question. "Do you love her?"

"Yes, I love her! But don't worry. You'll always be my wife. Have someone clean out a guest room tomorrow. You'll move in there, and she'll stay with me in the master bedroom." Then, he went straight into the bathroom.

As the shower was turned on, tears rolled down my cheeks.

When we had nothing a decade ago, he had held my hand and stood with me before his mother, who had opposed our marriage. He had also spoken with the same conviction. "I love her! I'll only ever love her in this life!"

Now, the love that had once belonged only to me had finally been given to someone else.

After daybreak, I did not drive Sylvia back to campus. I went to a law firm instead.

As the lawyer and I went through our marital assets, I realized in sadness that even after our ten years of marriage, I still had nothing.

Everything Jason had given me was in his name. Even the company he had started after I sold my family heirlooms did not have a single share under my name. The only thing I had was the one hundred thousand in pocket money deposited on time every month, but even that account belonged to him.

By noon, I took the divorce papers to the company to see Jason. His brows furrowed together, and he threw the papers onto the desk. "Clara, why didn't I realize that you were this greedy? As long as you remain my wife, the villa and properties I gifted you are yours. But once we separate, you can forget about taking any of it!"

My heart sank. I never realized how big the difference was between being loved and not being loved. When Jason loved me, the whole world was mine to do as I wanted. When he stopped loving me, he would not even let me breathe freely.