03
A week later, I had finished my work at the office and had nothing else to do, so I fell asleep in my office. I slept deeply, as I had been under a lot of stress lately.
By nighttime, since I had rested for a long time during the day, I wasn’t sleeping as heavily. I woke up groggily and found that Jack wasn’t in bed.
I initially thought he was in the bathroom and didn’t think much of it, preparing to go back to sleep.
But suddenly, I heard whispering voices from outside the door.
Could it be Jack on the phone with someone?
A feeling of unease suddenly welled up in my heart. It was so late, Jack wasn’t in the room, and he was secretly making a call in the living room. Had our marriage hit a rough patch?
I hurried to the door, pressing myself against it as if I wanted to meld into it. Jack’s voice came from outside.
“Brian, please help me out here. Hasn’t your company not paid salaries for a few months now? If you help me, I’ll add another thousand, no, two thousand. How about that?”
So he was talking to Brian! The heart that had risen to my throat relaxed a bit. But suddenly, Brian’s voice rang out. It wasn’t the sound of a phone call; he was in the living room with my husband.
“No, no, I can’t agree to this, even if I’m short on money. We almost got caught by your
wife last time…”
I was stunned. What had they almost been caught doing?
Jack continued, “Don’t worry, that was an accident. I promise it won’t happen again like last time.”
“Look, if you agree to help me, I’ll not only give you an extra two thousand, but I’ll also have my wife arrange a position for you at her company. The salary will definitely be higher than at your previous company.”
Brian seemed to fall silent.
I listened, completely confused. What extra money? What did Jack want Brian to agree to? And how was I involved in this? What on earth was going on?
After a long while, under Jack’s urging, Brian seemed to waver, but he said, “Sigh, I really don’t understand why you’re doing this. It’s clear that your wife loves you very much. Why don’t you two just have a baby? Maybe that will change your mind.”
My heart, which had just settled down, rose up again.
Although Jack’s voice wasn’t loud, I could still hear a hint of indifference in his words.
“I don’t want to have children. I still want to play around for a few more years.”
“I can’t live without those young, fresh bodies out there!”
Hearing this, I almost collapsed to the ground. So the so-called stay-at-home husband was actually going out to party and fool around behind my back every day. What he said about not being able to live without it was just an excuse.
Disbelief, pain, and anger instantly rushed to my head. I wanted to burst out and slap him hard, demanding to know why he would do this.
But just then, he spoke again, pleading with Brian.
“Come on, Brian. My wife has been under a lot of stress lately. She’s been sleeping like a log every night. You could put a corpse next to her, and she wouldn’t even notice!”
A flash of lightning struck in my mind, and I came up with an unbelievable guess.
