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Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 20
Iris"Oh God," I mumbled out loud, stopping dead in my tracks, as I took in the sight before me."You good?" Orchard bent to look at me, his worried eyes filling my line of sight. "You’re going to be fine," he said. "Besides, we've got some things now, don't we?" I wanted to say "yeah," but I knew my father. I knew he wouldn't understand things like this, but still, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. I followed as Orchard led me into Tiffany's office. Tiffany initially began to smirk, but as soon as her eyes landed on Orchard behind me, her smirk fell just as quickly as it had appeared. My father turned with surprise on his face. My stepmother’s reaction was quite comical, too; it was truly a day of comical moments. In their defense, I was surprised as well, I totally hadn’t expected Orchard to show up out of the blue, beat Dave up and request for a family meeting. There had been a crazy turn of events and I still wasn’t sure what the meeting was about."What are you doing here
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OrchardI rarely ever regretted things in my life. Most of my actions were done with careful deliberation. But for the first time—well, one of the first times, save for dating that girl called Cindy Crawford in high school—I regretted my actions.I regretted not punching Dave hard enough. I regretted not knocking the living daylights out of him until he begged me to stop. Maybe if I had done it well enough, he wouldn’t be so proud as to go and call the damn police on me.My eyes found her parents and then Iris. “Is this true?” Iris’s father said, rising to his feet.I should have hit him harder than that, humbled him, I thought, only within earshot of Iris herself. She, in turn, pinched me slightly on the thigh, sending jolts through my brain—not the kind that would be best discussed on a family-friendly channel, to say the least. Iris stood to her feet.“It was all for good reason,” she said. “He tried to assault me, and my husband was defending me. Last time I checked, none of that
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Iris’ Pov I stood on our room’s balcony, inhaling and exhaling, as I soaked in the evening breeze. Outside, a few stars were visible, twinkling softly. Orchard had excused himself to make a call in his study, and as much as I respected his privacy, I couldn’t help the worry that gnawed at me. He had been tensed since we arrived home, which was a few hours ago. He was silent even at the dinner table, and barely said a word to me when we came back our room. I may not know him too well, but I knew something was troubling him, and it bothered me that he wouldn’t share it with me.I sat in silence, listening to the distant murmur of his footsteps as he headed down the hallway. After a few minutes, I couldn’t resist. I was curious to know what was going on. I got of bed as quietly as I could, I tiptoed down the hall to his study. I knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him bearing a burden alone.When I reached his study, I saw that the door was left slight
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Orchard…The drive to the restaurant was quiet, a tense silence settling between Iris and me. I kept my eyes on the road, watching the streetlights slide past in a blur of light and shadow. Iris fixed her gaze outside the window, neither of us said a word, but the unspoken tension filled the car, like a storm gathering in the distance.When we arrived at the restaurant, I spotted Dave, Tiffany, and her mother already seated by the large windows, their silhouettes framed by the glow of the chandeliers above. I turned to Iris as I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Will you be okay here on your own for a bit?”“I’ll be fine,” she replied, offering me a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.I gave a nod, reaching out to squeeze her hand briefly before getting out of the car. I knew she could handle herself, but I still felt reluctant to leave her alone in this tense atmosphere. As I made my way inside, I caught sight of my uncle, sitting at the far end of a private room, his eyes immediat
Last Updated : 2024-11-15Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 23
Orchard…The drive to the restaurant was quiet, a tense silence settling between Iris and me. I kept my eyes on the road, watching the streetlights slide past in a blur of light and shadow. Iris fixed her gaze outside the window, neither of us said a word, but the unspoken tension filled the car, like a storm gathering in the distance.When we arrived at the restaurant, I spotted Dave, Tiffany, and her mother already seated by the large windows, their silhouettes framed by the glow of the chandeliers above. I turned to Iris as I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Will you be okay here on your own for a bit?”“I’ll be fine,” she replied, offering me a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.I gave a nod, reaching out to squeeze her hand briefly before getting out of the car. I knew she could handle herself, but I still felt reluctant to leave her alone in this tense atmosphere. As I made my way inside, I caught sight of my uncle, sitting at the far end of a private room, his eyes immediat
Last Updated : 2024-11-15Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 24
Iris….I was left alone in the passenger seat, tapping my fingers against my thigh, counting the seconds as they ticked by. The silence wasn’t terrible, just… dull. I let out a sigh, glancing at my reflection in the side mirror. My face looked tired, and a little boredom stretched across my features.“I’ll just take a quick look around,” I muttered to myself, pushing open the car door. My curiosity was getting the better of me. Besides, staying cooped up in that car wasn’t doing me any favors. I stretched, feeling the stiffness in my muscles ease as I stepped out. The surroundings were simple but lovely—greenery lined the paths, and a few birds chirped here and there, flitting between the trees. It felt peaceful.I wandered along the path, admiring a bed of bright flowers, bending to examine them closely. Nature always had a way of calming me down. The fresh air, the soft rustling of leaves—it was like a gentle lullaby.But soon, I started to feel tired, my legs ached from the walk.
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OrchardFlashing lights may cause epileptic seizures, and "all that jazz" could best describe the exact thing I was currently facing. Flashing lights, over and over again from nearly a hundred cameras in front of me in one of the conference rooms of my hotel, nearly blinded me. I shut my eyes briefly, turning my head and finding Iris not so far off to the side. Her eyes were on me, brimming with support of some sort. If only she could come closer, I thought to myself as I shot her a small smile."Remember," I felt a hand on my shoulder and my uncle’s voice in my ear."Offer an apology, tell them...""I know what to say. I'm not a kid, you know." I shrugged his hand off my shoulder and turned once more to the flashing lights. I snapped my fingers in front of the nearest microphone, causing the flashes to momentarily stop."My name is Orchard Hector." I cast my eyes briefly towards the crowd of vigorously typing reporters. "A few things have come to light recently," I said. "A few vid
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OrchardMy hand hung limp in hers. I suddenly felt so cold that I took a step back.“I feel... I don’t know, somehow I’m just jobless,” she nervously chuckled and looked away. “But it’s not your fault. I’m just—I guess—overly critical about things that I shouldn’t be.” She lifted a hand to tuck a stray tendril of dark hair behind her ear. Suddenly, she looked down at her phone.“So, is the dinner with your father still going to happen? I mean, I don’t know. Maybe you should talk to him or something. He didn’t exactly seem too happy after the whole incident. But only if you want to talk about it,” she said. “I’m not trying to insert myself.”“It’s fine,” I said. “I do want to see Dad. I have a few things I want to tell him.”“It’s only if you want to,” I added, reaching for her hand once more. Instead, she took a step forward, walking ahead of me.“Then let’s go get ready,” she said, briefly turning back towards me with a smile. The woman didn’t know what she was doing, I thought to m
Last Updated : 2024-11-15
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Tiffany I watched Dave. Not because I was beginning to quite enjoy stalking, but just watching him, and I knew that he was hiding something. They say every woman knows when a man is doing something like that, and I was no stranger to this. After all, I had been on the receiving end. "Let’s just try one more time," I told myself as I crawled into bed beside him and reached him. "Not right now," he said, confirming my suspicions. Until now, he was practically hanging off the edge. I wanted to spite him just a little bit. I felt like it, and he would deserve it in some ways. But somehow, even as I watched him shift within me, I told myself to just let it go. I hugged myself into a ball. It was a strange thing, I thought. Admitting it was even stranger. But my sister didn’t even really get the nicest things, men included. If not for me, Dave would still be with her. And probably, if you thought about it really deeply, if not for me, in the next few months, Orchard would still be
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Iris My dad placed a hand on my leg, squeezing—a strange kind of contact, I decided. When was the last time he ever touched me? When was the last time I felt the warmth of his hand or the worry in his voice? "I'll be fine," I said. "You know what? Just… let's drop it," I added, using the opportunity to wiggle myself out of his grasp. At that instance, my phone buzzed. Reacting to the activity, my hand dove into my bag, and I pulled it out. It was my mother-in-law. "Iris," she wrote. "I found this really funny article online, and a few of my friends were talking about it the other day, you know, about your mother. I believe Chameleia was her name or something like that? Yeah, they mentioned how she was quite popular... I know this might sound weird—I mean, she was your mom—but they say your mom was sort of like a prostitute. I just wanted to confirm and tell them off, you know, tell them that it wasn’t true. But I already did! I already told them it was impossible, someone like
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Iris "You see, your grandfather on your mother’s side died young, but not before making my marriage to your mother a pain every step of the way. When we started the company, he didn’t see us as those who cared much. In fact, he didn’t. She begged him for support, but he gave nothing, so we had to look for money on our own to start. "She would be the one talking to people because, Lord knows, I was bad at that. But she was pleasant, you know. You have the same smile," he said suddenly, catching me off guard. "She could convince anyone to do anything, and so she was the one mostly going out, looking for investors. We made quite a team," he said. "Until, you know, the decline started, and everything seemed as though it was all rubbish." He stayed silent suddenly, breathing in and out heavily. This is my moment, I thought. I needed to tell him about Dave. "Dad," I said, calling him what I used to way back when I was younger and when our relationship was less rocky. "Dave," I said
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IrisThis was the last place I wanted to be, especially after the events of the past few days, but I needed to pay my respect. Being normal of a graveyard, there wasn’t much activity. But I found a familiar car just as he reached the parking lot. Then again, it could also just be my mind playing tricks on me, but I waved it off. The closer I got to Mom’s grave, the more I felt a rather impending feeling, something strange was going to happen. As if the thing with Dave wasn’t bad enough, whatever fate was about to throw at me again, I didn’t think I was much ready for it. I reached Mom’s grave and nearly screamed out loud. Of course, I mean, everything wasn’t fine. It wasn’t just the flowers, though. The entire place had been unearthed, looked on, touched. In fact, the only problem had arrived in the person in front of it. It was the hunched figure of my own father. “What are you doing here?” I asked, too angry to hide my disdain. He stood, glaring. “I wouldn’t see you in
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IrisI sat still in front of my mirror, staring at my reflection. My breath, strangely enough, came out in short pants as though I had been running for my life—but I had, in my dreams, that is. I had been running from him, eager to get away—Dave, that is. Granted, it was quite satisfactory seeing him get beat up like that, but the way he crawled across the battlefield, reaching for me, was a little too much. My husband, however, had been as comforting as possible, pulling me into a hug and keeping me still through the night with my head placed on his chest, listening to his heartbeat until I was lulled by it to sleep. "Work today?" I heard him ask someone behind me. My eyes finally went out of focus, away from my reflection, and found him standing in front of the long floor-to-ceiling window with his arms folded across his chest. "No. Today is…" I turned away from him and looked down at the top of my vanity. Somehow, my words felt caught in my throat as an inexplicable feeling
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Orchard I didn't know why my mind kept going back to Iris. But it did. If not for Richard in front of me constantly reminding me of stuff, I would’ve, of course, forgotten. But I did, didn't I? Or was it yesterday? "Focus," Robert snapped his fingers in front of me. "Your nice little weekend getaway cost us too much." "What now?" "Sozo," Robert replied. "Some idiot is causing some trouble. I don’t know who. Looks like Russians for some lotteries and—" Suddenly, it hit me at that point. There was a Russian at my mom's party. Did that have anything to do with it? "Can I take a break?" "No," Richard and Robert answered at the same time. "Do you two have a strange fetish for watching me work myself to death?" Richard raised his eyebrows. "You’re not dead, and you’re not going to die. At least not unless you’re Hades yourself. Well, last time I checked, you’re not it, Golden Boy." Just as I was about to hit him with a retort, a phone call snapped me out of it—from an u
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Iris"Don't look at me like that. I mean it," he said. "I still love you." Suddenly, I found myself chuckling. I was definitely being pranked. The sheer humor was underhanded, perhaps much needed, and, if anything, low but understandable. After all, it would seem Dave was still very interested in pranking me. "Funny," I said, catching my breath as finally my mind was taken off the attempted kidnap. "I'm not lying. I'm not joking. I'm not trying to be funny." Dave grabbed me roughly by the arm. In that moment, I felt the same feeling of revulsion, almost as though Dave stunk. He stung to the point where my body recoiled, and I had no choice but to scoot further into the bed. "Don't touch me," I said, holding up a hand. "You've lost your right," I said. "Long ago, you lost that right. If I need to remind you of why and how you lost it, then you're an even bigger idiot than I thought." "I'm not an idiot," he stated harshly. "Is it wrong for a man to change his mind?" His
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Iris"Only a matter of time now," my mother-in-law had muttered when she came back a few days ago, and those words seemed to echo in my mind. But instead of leaving me breathlessly shy, I simply blushed and turned my eyes away from hers. Even remembering it now, in the car, was bad enough. "How was work?" his voice came to me over the phone. "Same old, same old," I mumbled. "Can’t wait to get home and pull off these shoes," I said, wiggling my toes in my heels despite how impossible it was. "Can’t wait to take off the shoes and other things too," I said with a smile as suggestive as I could, even though he couldn’t see me. "Are you thinking what I’m thinking?" His question was slow, his voice low, sparking easy memories. I smiled. "It’s easy enough to guess what you’re thinking," I said when suddenly the smile fell. I hadn’t told him about Dave and meeting him. That was bad enough. That alone had caused no small amount of guilt to eat away at me. But it wasn’t as though I’
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Tiffany As fun as the trip was, it came to an end a little too quickly, but only one question had remained resounding several times in my mind, even as I slept after we came back. "Give the company to me," Dave had said. "Transfer your rights as acting president. Of course, I understand your father is the CEO." "Can we stop?" I interrupted him, grabbing his hand. "We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves." His face fell. Did I make a mistake talking? Should I have just let him continue? "It's okay," he said. But of course, I knew it wasn’t okay. I knew by the way he looked at me that he wasn’t happy. Dave was pissed about something, and it was my fault. Even after we had gotten back home, things were strangely strained between the both of us. It was like a rubber band that had grown slack several times over, and we were trying our best to shrink it back to size. I simply decided to let it wait, thinking maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. "Can we talk?" Dave suddenly
