Tyler's POVI have just cleaned the public area, and it's been over six months of doing this: cleaning the poop in the toilet, cleaning the road, helping maintain public parks and facilities—all as a result of the judgment the chief judge pronounced on me.But today is different. I have just cleaned the public toilet, making sure it was sparkling clean by flushing the stubborn dark poop down the toilet hole and scrubbing the toilet bowl clean. If it wasn't, my supervisor could instruct me to clean ten more in the same day."And Alessandra wants to find happiness?"I am stepping out from the public toilet, wiping my hands with a dark towel, when I suddenly see a certain type of news I do not want to see on the billboard.On the billboard is Alessandra’s face displayed boldly on the screen. She is wearing a kind of red suit, and her hands are to her jaws. Beneath the picture, a voice reads the news."Matriarch Alessandra is seen at the Riverside Restaurant with a certain man who, accord
Tyler's POVAs the day finally comes to an end and my punishment supervisor gives me the go-ahead to close up, I head to the underpass where I sleep and begin to plan my revenge on Alessandra.Yes, you heard that right. I now sleep under a bridge because the wicked witch took my house and made me give it to charity. You know the story. And she took the eatery and gave it to her sister. You know that story too.Ever since then, ever since she promised me heaven and earth and then humiliated me on our supposed wedding day, I have been sleeping under that bridge.My own mother won’t even let me come back to our tattered house. She was quick to reject me. Wasn’t she the happiest when Alessandra and I were about to get back together and get married again?And are my sisters any different?Well, this is all Alessandra’s fault, and I won’t let this go without making her pay for the aftermath.As I get to the underpass, I see other homeless men sleeping in their own corners of the bridge. But
It was our wedding night, the weather was cold and crisp. He wrapped his hands around my body and whispered words that kept me warm: ”Every day for the rest of our lives, I only want to look at your face and admire how beautiful you are.”Little did I know that those tender vows spoken in the chill of that night would soon be drowned in the icy silence of betrayal, and I’d be ready to serve karma on the silver plate.It all started one late night. The weather was the same as it was on our wedding night only that this time, he was not there to keep me warm. I covered myself with a blanket to shield myself from the cold, imagining him to be by my side as I never suspected that he might be somewhere else keeping another woman warm. I kept myself entertained with a popular TV show while scrolling through my WhatsApp chats simultaneously. Suddenly, I got a text from Jasmine, my younger sister, who was the happy bridesmaid on my wedding day. “Hey, Alda, where is Tyler? Is everything okay
The next morning came like an unwanted visitor, as I heard a persistent knock on the door, its loudness echoing through the quiet house like a drumbeat of unwelcome news. It was terrible enough that I hardly got any sleep throughout the night. Now, incessant loud knocking on the door again, even at 6 A.M.?As I walked to the door with my defeated feet and sad face, like a wilted flower bending under the weight of an unexpected storm, “Hey!” said Diana the moment I opened the door. “Move out of the way, you donkey honk,” she added, almost crushing me to the floor with her weight and size, like a bulldozer clearing a path through fragile emotions.Diana was Tyler’s mother, who never liked me even before Tyler and I got married. She was that wicked witch who decided to haunt me even in my own house just a few weeks after our wedding.I understood the fact that Tyler’s family was going through a period of bankruptcy, and they needed every help they could get. And as his fiancée, I worked
It was funny how Diana claimed I was as useless as a flashlight with dead batteries. If I were to be useless, as she claimed, would she see a house to move into when they faced bankruptcy? Would her son even have a job? But, of course, anything she said did not matter to me, and I only waved it aside.“The rice is ready, and I will be serving now, Diana,” I said suddenly from the kitchen, like a conductor announcing the grand finale of a culinary symphony.“Great! At least I won’t die of hunger, as you made it seem. And I hope it is not poison you prepared again." Diana said.“Well, Emily and Olivia will definitely make sure of that,” Diana blurted.As if they waited for Diana to complete her statement, I saw Emily and Olivia making their way down the stairs like monsters descending from the darkness and exploding in their wicked laughter. Emily and Olivia were Tyler’s younger sisters. Even at sixteen years, their mouths were sharper than blades and their behavior was as rude as thei
Stepping out of the bath, Tyler entered the bedroom, finding me sitting on the bed with a smile on my face.It was unusual for Tyler to see me smile and not reciprocate with a wink or a passionate kiss on my lips, as he would remind me how tender my lips were. However, this morning was different.The moment he noticed my smile, his eyes darted towards his phone, perfectly resting in the same position he left it in. Immediately realizing I hadn't taken his phone, he approached me to carry out our usual routine.“I am so glad I married you, babe. Aside from the fact that you are a hardworking woman, you are so sexy, and your lips are always tender like the soft touch of a breeze on a warm summer evening," he said, kissing my forehead in the same manner.As he unwrapped the towel from his body, standing there naked, it reminded me of our wedding night—the way he was soft and intimate with me on the bed, making me long for him more and more each night after that.“Is this the same way he
“I am here to see Tyler,” I quickly said before this daring employee would bounce me off my own eatery and have security make sure I didn’t step foot in any longer.It was quite surprising that none of the employees had the face I knew. “Did Tyler sack all the former employees without my knowledge?” I wondered in the heat of the moment. Nevertheless, it did not change anything.“How dare you, dirty-looking woman, demand to see our boss? He does not have any time for someone like you.” The employee grabbed my wrist and headed towards the door in a visible raging emotion.However, if that was a success, it was a lie. Instantly, I pulled my hand away with every strength I could muster into my arm from her grip.“You are new here. That's why you act so reckless. I promise you, you will lose your job today. I don’t even know where Tyler got a rude someone like you from,” I yelled, immediately heading to the stairs leading to Tyler’s office angrily.“Hmph,” the employee scoffed upon hearing
As Emily made her leave, almost hitting me with her car, I gently picked myself up from the ground while everyone in the eatery was still filming and having that buoyant laughter on their faces.I knew it was a failed mission to abruptly go into the eatery again and cause a scene. Aside from the fact that the new employees did not know who I was, they were all looking at me like a crazy clown and were ready to get me arrested.Hence, at this moment, I sadly walked to my car and got inside with tears in my eyes. It was not enough that I was treated like a hated slave back at home; now, my own cheating husband had equally changed all staff, and I had no access to my own eatery anymore."I should call Nancy; she always knows what to say and what to do in hard times like this," I exclaimed with my teary voice. Immediately, without waiting a bit, I retrieved my phone from my handbag and placed a call through to Nancy."Hey, how are you?" Nancy voiced through the phone as soon as she picked