Discarded for His First Love

1: 1

At dinner, I picked up the wrong phone.

A message had just popped up on the screen, from a contact saved as The One I Can Never Have.

*Aaron, I'm divorced and back in the country. Will you come pick me up tomorrow night?*

I froze.

A second later, Aaron came out of the kitchen with our daughter, her hands freshly washed.

He saw the phone still lit up in my hand, and he didn't even frown.

"You saw it?"

My fingers tightened around the phone.

"Aren't you going to explain?"

His tone was offhand.

"She's my first love. The one woman I've loved most in this life. She's divorced now, so"

He paused, lifted his head, and looked at me.

"I want a divorce too."

Cold spread through my whole body.

"Then why didn't you marry her back then? Why marry me?"

He smiled.

"Because you were cheap."

The color drained from my face in an instant. "Aaron, what is that supposed to mean?"

His expression didn't change. "Exactly what it sounds like. Back then I was at the age where a man's supposed to settle down and build something. And you were sweet, easy to win over, and you had them knock the bride price down from a hundred and eighty-eight thousand to thirty-three thousand. Cheap. And a good fit for the broke nobody I was at the time."

Ten years of feeling. Ten years of giving.

And in the end, all it bought me was the word cheap.

I laughed, suddenly, laughed until the tears ran down my face.

I grabbed whatever was on the table and hurled it at him. "Aaron, where do you get off saying that about me? What gives you the right? I've been with you for ten years. I bore your children. And now you call me cheap?"

Ten years ago, Aaron's business had failed and left him buried in debt.

We met at a dinner with friends, added each other on our phones, and just clicked.

Then he came after me. Not fiercely, but he never let up.

He drove me to work and back every day.

He took me somewhere good to eat on the weekends.

On rainy days he tilted the whole umbrella over my side.

When he finally proposed, he was so deep in debt he couldn't put up a bride price at all.

So I forced my parents' agreed-upon hundred and eighty-eight thousand down to thirty-three thousand.

My mother was so furious she said I'd lost my mind, and she cut me off.

I didn't care in the slightest. As long as we loved each other, that was enough, I thought.

All those formalities meant nothing.

After we married,

I lived in a basement with him, ate stale, sour bread with him, picked up water bottles for the deposit with him.

Even when I gave birth to our daughter.

We had no money, so I went to a cheap little clinic, and it left me with lasting damage.

Back then, Aaron knelt at the side of the bed, his eyes red, and swore to me, "Lesley, I promise I'll give you and our daughter a good life."

I smiled and nodded. "I believe you."

The year our daughter turned two, his company suddenly took off.

First we changed the car, then the house.

After that the company just kept growing.

And he came home later and later.

Back then, I thought he was only busy with business.

Until one night he came home drunk, threw up hugging the toilet, and then out of nowhere said to me, "I can put up a bride price of a few million now, even tens of millions. I won't make you suffer with me anymore. Can you come back to my side?"

I was crouched next to him, wiping his face, and my hand stopped. "Who are you talking to?"

He didn't answer. He slumped against the edge of the tub and fell asleep.

After that, I started paying attention.

He no longer hugged me and kissed me the moment he walked in the door, like he used to.

No longer let his guard down around me the way he once had.

He started keeping his phone face-down.

Taking it into the bathroom when he showered.

I suspected he was cheating.

But I never once found a lipstick mark on him, not a trace of perfume.

Until one night I woke up and saw him sitting out on the balcony, smoking, the glow of the screen on his face.

He was looking at a woman's posts.

The name he'd saved her under was "The One I Can Never Have."

Back then, I didn't understand what it meant.

But now, I do.

The man he'd been back then had nothing, not a cent to his name, not even enough to earn the right to marry his first love.

But he wouldn't let her suffer either, so he let her go. That made her "The One I Can Never Have."

And me, the one he won with a little coaxing, the one who volunteered to lower her own bride price, I became the "cheap goods" in his mouth.

My eyes were red to the point of bleeding, my whole body shaking and unable to stop.

Our daughter, six this year, heard me screaming and burst into frightened tears. "Mommy, Daddy, don't fight."

Aaron bent down and picked her up, kissing her cheek. "Mommy and Daddy aren't fighting. We're just talking about something. You go get in bed, and the second we're done, Daddy will come read you a story, okay?"

Our daughter nodded with red eyes and trotted back to her room.

The living room went quiet. Aaron looked at me. "Virginia Pruitt, I know you're hurting. I know you feel wronged. But I don't want to lie to you. Every word I've said is true, and I hope you can understand."

2: 2

The tears kept coming, and I stared at him through them.

My lips moved, but not a single word came out.

Aaron seemed to know exactly what I was about to ask. In a quiet voice he said, You can't force love. We've been together ten years, and in all that time I really did try to love you. Not long ago, when I was sick, you looked after me in the hospital for three days and three nights. Watching you fall asleep exhausted, I felt something for you, and I thought I'd finally fallen in love with you. But it wasn't until she came back that I understood, clearly and for certain, what real love actually is.

There was no doubt about who she was. His first love.

The woman on that phone he could never have.

My stomach turned over. I bit down hard on my lip and still couldn't stop myself from asking again, Aaron, are you serious?

Not a flicker of hesitation. Very serious.

And what about our daughter? I heard my own voice tear out of me.

He was silent for a few seconds. She can come with me, or she can stay with you. You decide.

Ten years of marriage, and not the slightest pause.

As if these ten years had only been a wrong turn on the road, and now he could finally circle back.

I wanted to scream again.

Wanted to demand answers.

But I knew that would only make me look like a madwoman.

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, there was nothing left in me.

Fine. Then let's divorce.

He seemed thrown that I'd agreed so easily. He froze for a moment, then said, Don't worry, I won't shortchange you on the assets

No need.

I cut him off. I only want our daughter, and child support for her.

He looked at me for a while.

In the end he nodded. All right. I'll have my lawyer draw up the agreement tomorrow.

With that, he turned and went into our daughter's room.

Soon the sound of a bedtime story drifted out.

Our daughter giggled and asked, And then what?

He lowered his voice to play the big bad wolf, and she burst out laughing.

I stood in the living room, still clutching that phone.

The message was still lit up on the screen.

That contact name dug into my eyes like a thorn.

I pressed the screen dark and set the phone down on the coffee table.

At some point it had started to rain outside.

And suddenly I remembered.

Ten years ago he'd ridden me through the rain on his scooter, telling me to tuck in behind him, promising that once we had money he'd never let me get caught in the rain again.

Life was hard back then, but his back was broad.

I'd held on tight, and I could feel his heartbeat.

I thought I'd found the man I'd spend my whole life with. I never imagined it would end as a joke.

When I came back to myself, the tears had already blurred my eyes.

I wiped them away and went into our daughter's room.

Seeing me, she wriggled out of Aaron's arms and burrowed into mine.

He glanced at me, then turned and left.

The door shut, and she hugged me tight. :

Mommy, are you sad today?

My eyes stung. I smiled and bent down to kiss her forehead. Mommy has you, so Mommy's very happy. Go to sleep now. I'll stay with you.

Once she was asleep.

I switched off the light, got up, and sat there in the dark for a long time.

From the study next door came the sound of Aaron on the phone, low, too soft to make out, but the tone was tender.

He used to speak tenderly to me too. But it was nothing like this tenderness.

I took out my own phone.

I scrolled to a number I hadn't called in a long time.

My mother.

My finger hovered over the call button and wouldn't press it.

Ten years ago, when I asked them to lower the bride price.

My mother, a schoolteacher who'd been gentle her whole life, cursed me out with red-rimmed eyes. Virginia, have you lost your mind? A bride price of a hundred and eighty-eight thousand is already the lowest anyone around here accepts, and now you want to force it down to thirty-three thousand. Do you really think your father and I care about that bit of money? We just wanted you to marry with dignity, so no one would look down on you like you were some cheap, throwaway girl.

And what did I say to her then?

I said, The bride price is just a formality. It doesn't matter whether there is one. As long as he truly treats me well, that's enough.

But in the end, that thirty-three thousand became a brand burned into me.

Became one sentence. You're cheap.

The rain came down harder.

In the end I pressed the call button.

It rang twice before she picked up.

My mother's voice came through, mocking. Virginia, aren't you living it up as the wife of a rich man? What are you calling me for?

Mom.

I'd barely opened my mouth when the tears spilled over.

My voice broke. :

I want to come home.

3: 3

"Did he hurt you?"

On the other end, my mother's voice went tight with worry.

The tears only came harder, until I couldn't get out a single whole sentence.

There was a silence of a few seconds, and then my father's steady voice came through.

"Divorce him. Come home!"

The line went dead.

I pressed my forehead to my knees and swallowed down the sob.

All these years, going in circles, and only my parents were still my parents.

Early the next morning.

I dropped my daughter off at school.

Then I got a message from Aaron.

Telling me to come to his company.

When I got there.

I saw the front doors banked with flowers.

The big screen was playing a woman's photo.

That woman was Aaron's first love.

Across it ran the words: *Les, Welcome Home*

Once, full of hope, I'd brought it up with him.

Asked if I could borrow it for my birthday, just to have one small wish granted.

He'd told me back then that the screen was for business promotion and courting investors, and couldn't be used however we liked.

Yet here it was, and he'd used it gladly, for another woman.

Welcome home, no less.

Ten years together, and he'd never once said those words to me.

I drew in a breath and went up to the top floor.

At the door, I saw Aaron in light colors for once, his hair done up on purpose.

That steady, composed man was standing there asking his assistant's opinion, over and over.

"How does this suit look on me?"

He answered his own question before anyone could.

"Les likes light colors. I think this one works, right?"

"And the hair?"

"Les likes a little something loose over the forehead. This should be fine too."

"What about the cologne, is it too strong?"

"Les doesn't like anything that hits you in the nose."

The assistant, at a loss, was about to say something when her eye caught me standing in the doorway.

"Ma'am?"

Aaron froze, then turned to look at me.

The look he'd worn a moment ago was gone without a trace.

"When did you get here? Why didn't you say anything?"

I gave a small tug at the corner of my mouth. "Just now."

Aaron gave a short hum and didn't press further.

"Come in."

The door shut.

Aaron handed me the divorce agreement. "Virginia, do you really not want anything?"

I said nothing and signed my name straight off.

Then I asked him one question. "Are you going to marry her?"

4: 4

Aaron froze for a second.

Then he nodded, certainty all over his face. "I will."

I laughed, out of nowhere. "Aaron, let's make a bet."

"About what?" he asked.

I looked at him and said it slowly, one word at a time. "I bet she won't marry you."

His face changed.

Just then his phone rang.

He pulled it out, and the contact name had already been changed from 'The One I Can Never Have' to 'I Finally Reached Up and Took My Star Down.'

My hand clenched tight before I could stop it.

He answered, and his voice went soft. "Les."

Her sweet voice leaked out of the earpiece. "Aaron, I got here early. When are you coming to pick me up?"

"I'm on my way right now."

He hung up, grabbed his coat, and headed for the door.

At the doorway he turned back to look at me. "I'm not the Aaron I was back then, the one so broke he couldn't even afford a meal when he was with you. She'll want to marry me."

My heart still gave that same helpless ache.

But it didn't matter anymore.

I went home and packed up everything that needed packing.

I was just about to pick my daughter up from school and go.

That was when I got the call from a police officer. "Is this Ms. Virginia Pruitt? Your parents have gotten into a conflict with someone. Please come to the ER at City Hospital as soon as you can."

Something turned cold in my chest.

I hailed a cab and rushed over.

The moment I arrived, I heard my mother's scream tearing down the whole corridor.

"Aaron! You think that just because we cut ties with her all those years ago, we stopped paying attention to her? Let me tell you, we know exactly what her life has been like these past years. She suffered all of that for you, she bore you a daughter, and now that you've made it, you throw her away and go running around with other women? Are you even human? Do you have a conscience? You think my daughter is someone you can just toy with"

"She's easy?"

Aaron cut her off, contempt pouring out of him. "The second day we were together she slept with me. Isn't that easy? One month in and she was the one saying she wanted to marry me. Isn't that easy? Right after giving birth she came to a bar to pick me up and let another man run his hands all over her. Isn't that easy? A woman I married for thirty-three hundred dollars. Isn't that easy?"

"CRACK!"