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Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 35
OrchardThe morning air was crisp, and the faint scent of rain lingered as I stepped out of the car. I couldn’t help but smile.There was something invigorating about mornings like this—cool, promising, and full of possibility. The towering glass building of my office gleamed in the sunlight, its reflection stretching down the street like an endless promise of success.As I walked through the revolving doors, the rhythmic clicks of my shoes on the polished marble floor echoed in the vast lobby. The receptionist, Anna, greeted me with her usual cheerful smile.“Good morning, Mr. Orchard,” she said, her voice warm and welcoming.“Morning, Anna. How’s everything today?” I replied, adjusting the lapel of my jacket.“Busy, as always. But that’s how we like it,” she said with a wink.I chuckled lightly, nodding in agreement. The elevator ride to the 12th floor felt shorter than usual, and soon I was stepping into my office. The space was just as I’d left it the night before—tidy and bathed
Last Updated : 2024-12-04Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 36
DaveMy mind screamed at the same time. It was a strange mixture, I decided—an active mind and a frozen body were not going to get things done. Calm yourself. Calm down, I told myself as I bit my tongue, forcing my body to move at last. Ivan turned around, placing his heavy hand on my shoulder and then grabbing the chair not so far from me, pulling it towards me. “Please, let me go, Ivan.” I pleaded. “I promise you, I’d get you your money, you just have to trust me. I’ll pay you, I just need some more time.”“Time? Time?” He snapped. “All I have given you is time, but somehow I still haven’t gotten my money. While you continue to throw lavish parties. I’m afraid, I have ran out of options, Dave. You either pay me my money now or you pay with your life.”“Please.” My voice was barely a whisper.“We’ve had a good time now, yes?” he smiled, his very Russian accent thick. “Listen—” I began, but he shook his head. “I’m not listening to you. You owe me.” “How can I get my money
Last Updated : 2024-12-05Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 37
Orchard.Her voice was like music to my ears. There was always going to be a place for a mother in my heart, and mine was no different. Sacrifices and understanding were all it took. I drummed my fingers against my steering wheel as I drove to the airport. Why didn’t I take my driver? Well, let’s just say I wanted to monopolize my mom's time as much as possible. There were always too many people around her, and most times, it was little things—little moments like this, picking her up myself and driving her where she needed to go—that counted.After a few long minutes spent hopelessly in traffic, I pulled up at the parking lot of the airport, brought out my phone, and stepped out of the car. Once inside, my eyes scanned the crowd of numerous people, and for once—well, maybe not just once, but at least another time in my life—I was grateful for the height God had given me. It was easy enough to spot her.She was looking around the airport, her phone pressed to her ear and mumbling a
Last Updated : 2024-12-05Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 38
IrisI took one small break, resting my legs as I propped them up on a wooden crate whilst sitting on another, pressing my back against the rough concrete wall. It was always like this, I thought with a small smile. It was always a stressful day, and the only thing that could console me afterward was a long massage, specifically one that my mind had now begun to imagine was Orchard giving it to me. It would be nice, though, with his large hands massaging my feet, my back, elsewhere... I felt my face turn slightly pink, but who cares? There was no one there. My phone suddenly vibrated with a call. I didn’t even check who it was before answering and was a little too ecstatic when I heard Orchard’s voice. "Hey," he said. "Hi." I tried to hide my giddiness by dropping my voice several octaves. Of course, I sounded stupid, but he didn’t need to know that. "Something came up," he said, interrupting my train of thought. "What?" I felt my voice stretch out a little too long. "I can’
Last Updated : 2024-12-06Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 39
Iris I stood there, frozen, staring at the mess on the floor. My hands trembled slightly as I bent down to pick up a few of the larger pieces.“I’m so sorry,” I stammered, my voice shaking. “I—I didn’t mean to. I’m so clumsy sometimes.”Orchard’s mother, Halle, turned toward me, and for a brief moment, I couldn’t read her expression. Her soft brown eyes landed on mine, and I braced myself for a sharp reprimand. Instead, she surprised me.“Oh, Iris, don’t worry about that!” she said, walking over and pulling me into a warm hug. Her arms were soft and smelled faintly of lavender, a comforting scent that eased my nerves almost instantly. “It’s just a vase. We were waiting for you to come home so we could have dinner together anyway.”The kindness in her tone caught me off guard. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding, and a small, embarrassed smile crept onto my face.“Thank you,” I said softly.She patted my shoulder as she pulled back. “Now, go wash your hands. We’ll be wai
Last Updated : 2024-12-06Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 40
Iris Orchard turned to me with a soft smile and leaned in to plant a gentle kiss on my cheek. The touch of his lips lingered, and for a moment, I felt relief wash over me.I hesitated, then spoke. “Orchard, why didn’t you tell me your mum was coming? I would’ve been more prepared. I looked like a total idiot at the dinner table, I blew it off.”He chuckled lightly, running a hand through his hair. “That’s the surprise I told you about, remember?”I narrowed my eyes at him. “Surprise? Orchard, meeting your mother for the first time should’ve come with at least a little warning. Especially if she knows about… us.”He sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly. “I didn’t mean to catch you off guard, Iris. I thought you’d like meeting her without any preconceived expectations. She’s a big part of my life, and I wanted it to feel natural.”I crossed my arms, leaning against the doorframe. “And what about the whole ‘she-knows-about-the-arranged-marriage’ thing? Why didn’t you tell me that? I
Last Updated : 2024-12-07Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 41
Tiffany I was reeling in shock. Rejection did that to me. Never had I put my hands on Dave, and yet he didn’t want me. Far be it from me, I thought to myself, to let this weigh me down. But still, it caused me to recoil in shame. I stared at myself in the mirror the morning after, and even after splashing water on my face several times and taking a hot shower, I still felt disgusting. It was as though my skin had been pried open, and I was staring at a skinless version of myself. “Damn it,” I said, biting my lip. Of course, it was nothing to be worried about, I thought. Dave had problems here and there, but never this bad. “I need to talk to someone,” I mumbled to myself as I pulled out my phone from the pocket of my bathrobe and dialed Mom’s number. “Mom,” I barked into the phone, stifling a sob that suddenly rose from within. “What is it?” As usual, her question was straight to the point. The woman could stand unshaken, never missing a beat in her emotionlessness, but she a
Last Updated : 2024-12-07Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 42
IrisThe morning was still and quiet, the kind of peace that wrapped around you like a warm blanket. Orchard lay beside me, his broad shoulders rising and falling in a steady rhythm. His face was so calm and relaxed. Even in sleep, I was so assured he had my back.I moved as quietly as I could, slipping out from under the covers and letting my feet touch the cool wooden floor. A soft chill ran up my spine, but I didn’t mind it. The house had this way of reminding me where I was, of how different life had become since moving in with Orchard and being his wife.Reaching for my robe, I pulled it on, the silk gliding against my skin. I tied the sash loosely around my waist and walked over to the window, drawn by the faint sounds of life stirring outside. Pulling the curtain back just enough, I peered down at the street below.It was alive in that gentle, understated way mornings often are. A couple jogged by, their matching neon shoes flashing as they moved in sync. A man walked his dog,
Last Updated : 2024-12-09
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Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 118
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
Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 116
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
Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 115
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
Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 114
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
Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 113
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
Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 112
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
Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 111
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’
Let Me Go, Ex Husband! 110
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
