Chapter 2 You’re a Nightmare

Javier and Selena went down from their apartment together around nine the next morning. While they were waiting for a cab by the road, Javier offered her a last chance.

“Do you want to reconsider your decision?”

Selena did not even spare him a glance. “No.”

Right after her prompt decline, her phone rang inside her brand new purse. When she pulled it out, Javier saw that it was a new phone. Judging by the logo on the back, the cellphone was a collaboration model with Porsche.

Selena glanced at the name on the screen and walked off to the side. As she picked up the call, her voice dripped with honey and sounded incredibly sweet. That honeyed voice had once belonged only to Javier, but it was now enjoyment for the man on the other end of the line. Since they were over, Javier did not comment as he flagged down a passing cab. Opening the car door, he gestured for Selena who had just ended her call to get in.

From when they had known each other, he had always been a gentleman. And now, even though things were over between them, he still kept his gentlemanly ways. It had nothing to do with romance and love. It was just the way Javier had been brought up.

However…

Selena, arriving next to the open cab door, looked at him with a gaze laced with sympathy, disdain, and even a hint of mockery. She said to Javier, “See, when we got married last year, we went to register our marriage in a cab. This year, we’re getting a divorce and we’re still taking a cab. This is the reason for our divorce.”

After Selena got in, Javier closed the door and took his seat in the passenger seat upfront. Other than telling the cab driver their destination, he said nothing else. The cab drove toward the state court in silence.

When they walked up to the registration counter for the divorce, the staff gestured for Javier and Selena to take a seat and took them through the procedure. They asked straightforwardly, “How will your shared assets be split? Have you discussed it between yourselves?”

Selena was quick to answer, “We have none. Our house is a rental and we don’t have a car. I can return the clothes, the makeup, and whatever else he had bought for me. What’s left in our bank account, no more than 100 dollars I think, I’ll leave it to him.”

She sounded generous. If only she did not look like she was handing out charity. From the superior air she exuded and the impatience in her tone, it was clear that she wanted to get the divorce over and done with.

The personnel asked some other questions for formality and confirmed the intention of splitting up from both parties, making certain that there was no other disagreement, before pressing the stamp on the divorce papers and passing them to Javier and Selena separately. Getting married had been quite a hassle, taking more or less half an hour. But getting a divorce was pretty quick. In fact, it took no more than five minutes.

As they exited the lobby and came to stand side-to-side at the entrance of the state court, Javier took a deep breath and extended his right hand to Selena with a smile on his face.

“Even though we’ve broken up, we’re still friends, right?”

Selena tucked the divorce papers into her purse and tucked a flyaway strand of hair behind her ears but did not extend a hand beyond that.

“Sorry, I think it’s better we don’t remain friends, because that’ll just remind me of the past I don’t want to look back on. Your presence in my life was a mistake. I only see it as a nightmare. Now that I’ve woken up from the nightmare today, I feel relieved.”

Nightmare huh… That comment crushed any lingering hope Javier had of Selena in his mind. When he retracted his right hand, he noted the revving of an approaching engine and allowed his gaze to trail after the sound. A white, 2-door, sports Audi TT, came to a halt by the side of the road. As the door opened, a smiling man with a pockmarked face limped out of the car.

Javier recognized the man. He was the 35-year-old finance director of his company named Terry Hamer. Terry had been involved in a car accident a few years back and it had caused his legs to be different lengths. His wife had passed away in the accident as well.

As Terry stepped out of his car, he headed straight to Javier and engulfed the latter in a hug. He was acting unusually friendly and warm. Then, he grabbed Javier’s hand with a pleased smile on his face.

“Javier, thank you for taking care of my wife this past year. Thank you so much! You didn’t really do a good job but don’t worry, from now on, I’ll take good care of Selena. I won’t allow her to squeeze herself onto the bus or make her cook anymore. I’ll do everything I can to give her the very best. I’ll provide a brand new, blissful life for her. Don’t you worry!”

It did not sound anything like a thank-you. It was more of a gloating taunt.

Javier ignored him and cast an inquisitive gaze toward Selena. He thought that she would at least go for someone who was younger, better looking, and richer than him. So it came as a surprise that Selena had found a man who she presumed was richer than him but could not even walk properly.

“You did this because of him?” he asked her as he raised an eyebrow.

Javier’s question left Selena flustered but she raised her voice in retaliation.

“Yes! Because of Terry. Terry loves me and can provide me with a better life. I’m no fool. I can’t possibly leave a candlelight dinner to share a cold bowl of ramen—a stale one at that—with you!”

Perhaps the woman could only cover up the materialism and shame she felt by raising her voice.

Javier had nothing more to say but Terry was relentless.

“Bro, you love Selena, don’t you? You did the right thing. A capable man, such as myself, needs to hang on tight; I hang on tight to the woman I want. Incapable men, such as yourself, need to let go; let go of the woman you’re incapable of taking care of.”

Terry shuffled forward and patted Javier’s shoulder proudly. “You’ve made the right decision. Good job!”

Swatting the man’s hand away, Javier looked at Selena again. “Your choice of man to replace me is very disappointing.”

This sentence shot its way straight into Selena’s sore spot. Growing angry with frustration, she shouted furiously, “You have no right to call my boyfriend that! Who do you think you are?! He drives an Audi, what about you?! You only have your legs! He earns close to ten thousand dollars a month, what about you?!

“You work in an office during the day and deliver food at night and you still can’t make more than a couple of hundred dollars. And who knows which countryside your parents are living in? You didn’t even want them to show up at our wedding. You were worried they’d expose their country-bumpkin ways and humiliate you, right?!

“Who says my boyfriend is your replacement? Check yourself in the mirror and see what’s so good about you! You won’t even get the chance to place your behind into a genuine leather seat of an Audi in this lifetime. You’re condemned to be poor and to struggle your whole life!”

After throwing that barrage of insults at Javier, Selena linked arms with Terry and sweetly called him darling just to annoy Javier.

Terry grinned. “Selena, how could you say that he’s condemned to being poor all his life even though it’s the truth?”

The way they mocked Javier back and forth truly sealed their *sshole status.

As the trashy couple made their way to the white Audi TT, the rumble of an engine could be heard from afar before a large SUV—a USSV Rhino GX—came skidding toward them. The vehicle did not even step on its brakes as it ran over the Audi TT that Selena was so proud of, crushing the luxury car into a cake of steel. The trunk and driver’s compartment were squashed, the windows smashed, and the tires blew out from the sudden overbearing weight. The suave sports car now looked more like a toad. A flattened toad.

Terry and Selena who stood nearby felt like they had been struck by thunder. The USSV Rhino GX was an absolute tank of a vehicle: a large SUV around six meters in length and 3.5 tons in weight. With a 6.7-liter twin-turbo, this big boy was a steel beast priced at around 650 thousand dollars.

After running over the car a few times, the Rhino GX finally got off the poor Audi TT that no longer looked like a car. The luxury SUV parked at the side of the road and switched off its engine, revealing a pair of slender legs in black tights as its driver-side door opened.

A young woman with long hair hopped out of the monster of a vehicle, wearing sunglasses that covered a good half of her face. She wore a pale blue, off-shoulder dress that was detailed with a thin layer of black lace on the upper half of the garment. There were no shoulder straps in sight but the young woman’s curves made sure that the dress stayed on her person.

Terry, who was furious at the b*stard who had crushed his car, could not help but gulp as his eyes went wide the moment he saw the hot girl who stepped out of the SUV. Unfortunately for him, the girl with the sunglasses did not even glance at him. She instead sashayed up to Javier.

As she reached him, she pulled off her sunglasses and revealed her pretty face. Despite not wearing any makeup, her skin was supple like a baby’s and her features were breathtaking. Her fair arms went around Javier’s neck in a hug as she puckered her plush lips for a kiss.

Feeling the warm softness against him, Javier was speechless. “Ciara, you’re a big girl now. Can’t you watch how you behave?”

Ciara, his younger half-sister with whom he shared the same father but was born to different mothers, did not care and pressed a kiss onto Javier’s cheek before she relented. She then walked up to Terry and Selena with an icy look on her face.

“Selena Lewis, I recognize you. My brother sent me your wedding photos. But what the f*ck is up with the crater face next to you?

“He’s the man who’s supposed to pick up after Javier? Your pillar of wealth? So you think my brother is poor and can’t bring you happiness? Do you think this man who drives a car worth a couple of tens of thousands of dollars is rich?

“Hah! You silly, silly woman. I’ll let you know just what it means to be rich. I’ll make sure you understand what you’ve actually lost!”