Seven Years Of Marriage Is A Dream

The day before the wedding, the extravagant wedding dress my husband had ordered arrived.

I gently touched my slightly protruding belly and asked him for a divorce.

Archie's secretary called, sobbing as she explained, "Madam, it's all my fault. I didn't understand your preferences. Please don't blame Mr. Lu."

Archie's reassuring voice came through the phone, leaving me with just one sentence: "Don't regret this."

I packed my things and left without a trace of reluctance.

...

After packing, I was about to leave with my suitcase when I ran into Archie returning home.

His eyes fell on my suitcase, and his brows furrowed, his voice cold.

"Cathryn, are you still upset? I don't have time for this right now."

The harsh, cold tone made it seem as if he were reprimanding a subordinate.

In the past, when I threw a little fit, Archie would always hold me, patiently explaining and calming me down.

Now, he dismissed me with just a few words.

But this time, I wasn't throwing a tantrum. I was serious.

I looked at him calmly.

"Archie, let's find a time to get divorced."

Archie tugged at his tie in frustration, assuming I was just speaking out of anger.

"Emma didn't know you hated white wedding dresses. Can't you just compromise tomorrow?"

Emma, barely in her twenties, had become Archie's personal secretary right out of college.

Personal to the extent that they were almost inseparable.

There was even a joke in the industry that wherever Archie was, Emma was always within three steps.

Even when it came to the wedding dress, Archie allowed Emma to decide the style, rather than letting me, his legitimate wife, choose.

It wasn't until the day before the wedding that I realized the dress was the white color I despised.

I didn't blame Emma for choosing this style. After all, most people would assume a wedding dress should be white.

But Archie should have remembered his promise from back then.

Clearly, he had forgotten now.

So there was no point in having this wedding.

Seeing that I still held onto my suitcase, refusing to let go, Archie's frustration grew.

"Where can you go while pregnant?

Besides, you're not a young girl like Emma. Aren't you embarrassed to leave like this at this point in life?"

Even though I had decided to divorce, my nails still dug deeply into my palms.

This wasn't the first time I'd heard this.

When Emma had just joined the company, Archie would often complain to me about how careless and troublesome she was-sending the wrong documents, losing files... even lamenting why he had hired her in the first place.

I used to speak up for Emma, comforting Archie that she was just a fresh graduate, bound to make mistakes at the start.

But at some point, everything changed.

When Emma called me, sobbing about being followed and scared, the man who had once complained about her troubles didn't hesitate to grab his car keys and rush out, leaving me with only a hurried back view.

A woman's intuition is often accurate.

Their unusual superior-subordinate relationship was hard for me to accept.

I asked Archie to transfer Emma away from her secretary position, and Archie uncharacteristically lost his temper with me.

He said I should stay out of company matters if I didn't understand them.

Perhaps realizing his attitude was too harsh, he softened his tone, promising to keep his distance from Emma.

But there's no such thing as a secret that can't be uncovered.

When the rumors reached my ears, to outsiders, Emma seemed like Archie's trusted confidante, and no one knew about me, the neglected wife at home.

When I broke down and questioned him, Archie accused me with an indifferent expression.

"Emma is just a young girl who doesn't know much. I'm just trying to teach her. Why are you dwelling on this too much?"

"You've been dwelling on this too much."

That sentence pierced deeply into my heart.

After that, I stopped making a fuss and turned a blind eye to his relationship with Emma.

Archie thought I had come around.

But only I knew that the walls I had built around my heart for him were crumbling, layer by layer.

I tried to hold back the tears, my hand gripping the suitcase trembling slightly.

"Archie, in your eyes, am I undeserving of anything now? Not allowed to be angry or to dislike anything?"

I looked up at the man I had loved for seven years.

From 22 to 29, time seemed to have left no mark on him, only adding a touch of mature charm.

Archie seemed unchanged, but I knew everything was different from seven years ago.

"I want to rediscover who I really am, Cathryn."

"Let's cancel the wedding tomorrow, and find some time to finalize the divorce."

With that, I turned and walked away with my suitcase.

Archie, enraged by my words, responded with the sound of shattering objects behind me.

"Fine, don't regret it. I want to see who would dare take you in while you're pregnant!"