You Chase Old Love, I Seek New Romance

Over breakfast, a post came across my feed.

My wife is beautiful, but I still prefer the woman I met by chance after our wedding, six years ago. What should I do? As long as no one finds out, I can keep it going, right?

The photo was taken in the restroom of my daughter's summer camp.

The poster's avatar was identical to my husband's on his messaging app.

By the time I drove up to the camp, my daughter was planted right in my path.

"Mommy, I don't want to go to camp today. Will you take me somewhere fun instead? I miss you so much, I want to go to the amusement park with you! Please, Mommy, come with me! Come with me!"

My daughter is six this year.

She had never once clung to me like that, never told me she missed me, so the whole act came out clumsy.

I went around her, rushed into the classroom, and kicked the restroom door open.

A man and a woman, clothes half off, screaming as they stared at me.

...

When she was pouring on the sweetness, I couldn't help a cold laugh, and lifted her chin with my fingers.

"Evie, you've never once said you missed me, never said you wanted to go to the amusement park with me."

"Who taught you to say all that? Your dad and Teacher Fox, right?"

Her whole body went rigid, and then she burst into wailing sobs.

I stepped past her, walked into the classroom, and kicked the restroom door open.

The truth is, six years ago, Rolf Henson had already cheated.

The woman was our neighbor from across the hall.

A preschool teacher with plenty of years behind her.

Her name was Isabel Fox.

Back then, I was carrying our daughter.

The doctor said I was far along, the baby wasn't settling, and with the frequent contractions I needed to stay off my feet and rest.

So Rolf took leave and cared for me at home, attentive to every little thing.

At the time, I didn't know he'd taken that leave not to be with me.

But to be with another woman.

That night, a nightmare jolted me awake.

The pain in my belly hit hard all at once, my water broke.

I called out for Rolf through my tears, and only then saw the spot beside me on the bed was empty. Rolf wasn't there.

Because he was in the room next door.

Behind my back, tangled up with another woman.

I forced myself to call an ambulance, and phoned my parents and his.

Only when everyone had come rushing over did Rolf come panting out of the room next door, the flush still not gone from his face.

He gripped my hand. "Honey, don't be scared, I'm right here!"

I shoved him away, hard. "Get out! If anything happens to me or the baby, I will never let you or that woman off!"

Everyone froze where they stood.

Because there were still three lipstick marks on Rolf's face, plain to see.

After I gave birth and was discharged.

I went alone to Isabel's school and raised hell.

I filed a complaint with the authorities under my own name, reporting her loose conduct and for wrecking someone else's family.

The director stepped in to smooth it over.

She brought Isabel to our door to apologize, earnest about it.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Finch. Isabel just lost her head for a moment. Her parents are ill, the family was short on money, that's the only reason she did something so terrible. I've already reprimanded her."

"After all, she's worked with us for three years. A steady job isn't easy to come by. Do you think you could maybe..."

I touched the scar on my belly, unmoved.

"The doctor said if I'd reached the hospital one second later, neither the mother nor the child would have made it, and I'd have lost more than just a uterus."

"So what you mean is, my life is worth less than one job of hers?"

Tears streamed down Isabel's face.

"Madison Finch, the director didn't mean it that way..."

I slapped her across the face.

"You're the last person here with any right to speak! If you hadn't wrecked my family, I wouldn't have been unable to find Rolf, and I wouldn't have ended up losing my uterus."

"Do you know what it means for a woman to lose her uterus? It means that from now on, apart from this one child, I can never have another!"

My fists came down on her in scattered blows.

Rolf just stood there and watched, holding the baby, gently coaxing her to sleep, as if he couldn't see any of it.

He didn't dare step in.

Because he was guilty.

This wasn't over.

I posted everything about Rolf and Isabel to the preschool's parents' group chat.

The parents all said the same thing: a woman with no professional decency like that, they didn't want her anywhere near their kids.

The authorities stepped in fast. Isabel was fired.

Between my complaint and my post, she became the rat everyone wanted to stamp out.

No job, and blacklisted across the field.

Even her own brother wanted nothing to do with her.

He took over caring for their parents and paying the medical bills, and told her never to come home again.

Overnight, she was the one everyone had it in for.

That day the sky was clear and endless.

Our family was camping out on the grass.

Rolf was flying a kite with our daughter, laughing without a care.

Isabel came again.

She cried until her face was streaked with tears, dropped to her knees in front of me, and kowtowed to beg my forgiveness.

Rolf saw it and pretended he didn't.

Because he knew what I was capable of.

Red-eyed, Isabel pleaded pitifully, "Madison, I know I wronged you, but do you really have to push me to the edge? I just lined up a job at a school, and you went and killed it. Is there any point to doing this?"

"There's a point." I set down the fruit and lifted my eyes to her. "Was there a point in seducing my husband? I know it takes two, and the two of you are a fine match, a cheating man and a shameless woman. You chose him, so you should know exactly what price you'd have to pay."

"Wherever you try to work, I'll be right behind you, spreading word of your good deeds. I'm going to make sure there's nowhere left for you to go, no job you can hold."

Isabel had cried her eyes swollen, swollen like walnuts.

And still Rolf didn't dare say a single word for her.

Afterward, we packed up and went home.

Isabel was still crouched there on the grass, shoulders shaking as she wept.

When we reached the foot of our building, the neighbors passing by saw my husband carrying our daughter, bags dangling from his arms, dragging the camping cart with his right hand, and they all gave him a thumbs-up.

"Madison, you really married the best husband in the world. If my old man treated me like that, I could die happy."

"I hear he raised this child single-handedly too, never made you worry once, right?"

I let out a cold laugh. "He did raise her, that's true. But you calling him the best husband in the world? I won't sign off on that. All of that is just what he owes."

"Back when I was pregnant, he snuck off in the middle of the night to fool around in our guest room with the neighbor, that Isabel woman. When I went into labor early, I called him again and again and couldn't get through. I fell at home, the placenta tore loose, the delivery went wrong, I hemorrhaged, and by the time they got me to the hospital they had to take out my uterus."

"And when he finally showed up, there were still three of that woman's lipstick marks on his face. You tell me, isn't that disgusting?"

The way the neighbors looked at Rolf changed on the spot.

Never again did anyone call him a good husband.

A flicker of resentment crossed Rolf's eyes, but he had anger and no nerve to voice it.

Because he really had done wrong. He had no right to say anything to me.

Because of this, all he could do was treat me better.

And so we spent six quiet, steady years together.

I'd thought, honestly, that the two of us would go on like that for the rest of our lives.

Back then my mother asked me, "After Rolf did something that awful, aren't you angry? You never thought about divorce?"

Of course I had.

I did want the divorce.

But the year I married Rolf, he promised he'd take care of me, told me to quit my job and stay home as a full-time housewife.

I'd just finished my residency at the time. I was about to start at the hospital.

He looked so sincere, so full of feeling, that I softened and said yes.

I've been out of it for too many years.

Going back to medicine now would be genuinely hard.

And on top of that, Rolf runs a real estate company that clears seven figures a year.

If I divorced him, all of that would fall straight into Isabel's lap.

The car and the house we bought together would go to her too.

I'm not stupid.

I never stayed with Rolf for our daughter.

I stayed for the money. Nothing more complicated than that.

But I wasn't going to make it easy for him.

When I kicked the bathroom door open, Isabel and Rolf both jumped.

Our daughter, standing off to the side, only cried harder at the sight.

The two of them were tangled together, clothes half off, faces flushed red.

I roared at Rolf, "You've got the nerve to post about your dirty little scheme? Get out here right now! Move it!"

Isabel just covered her mouth and giggled behind her hand.

"Madison, you're so calm. If it were me seeing something like this, I'd be crying my eyes out."

I let out a cold laugh.

"Cry about what? You're the one who should be crying. You wouldn't let me have any peace, so I won't let you feel smug either. You get out here too!"

I rushed over, grabbed her by the hair, dragged her out, and threw her down on the floor.

The teachers from the summer program crowded around, and the second they saw a man and a woman in that state, everyone understood exactly what was going on.

I picked up my phone and called my in-laws.

Rolf wouldn't have dared cheat right under my nose without his parents feeding him plenty of ideas and helping cover for him.

"I caught your son in the act. The two of you get over here immediately, or I don't know what I might do."

They knew what I was capable of. They flagged a cab and raced over without stopping.

Our daughter, afraid I'd hurt Isabel, wrapped her chubby little arms around her.

"Mommy, I won't let you hurt Aunt Isabel. She's good to me. She's my real mom. All you ever do at home is laundry and cooking, but she's the one who takes me to the amusement park with Daddy, and she makes me cotton candy with her own hands. She really loves me."

"Last time she stayed up so late knitting me a scarf that her eyes swelled up. Grandma and Grandpa told Daddy your personality is too domineering, and I think you should change it too, or I won't let you be my mom anymore."

I hauled her up and set her off to the side.

"You have a congenital heart condition. You can't go on the thrill rides at the amusement park. Didn't your father ever tell you that?"

"You love sweets, and they gave you cavities that wake you up in pain every single night, so I stopped letting you have candy. Is that wrong too?"

"Did you forget who buys the toys in this house?"

Her face went white. In a small voice she said, "You do."

"That's right. Name-brand, authentic, collaboration toys that cost tens of thousands. When I said buy them, I bought them."

"But somehow I raised an ungrateful little thing like you. You call a thief your mother, you throw away everything I've done for you. In the old days they'd have drowned you in a river for that, do you know that?"

My in-laws' faces darkened. "Madison, how can you talk to a child like that? What does she understand? She's only six."

"Six years old and already full of twisted logic. What happens when she grows up? You told me to let Rolf take care of her, said I wouldn't have to worry about a thing. This is how you brainwash a child, isn't it?"

Isabel covered her mouth, tears spilling over.

"Madison, please don't be angry. Rolf and I are truly in love. I've never wanted anything from him. I just love him for who he is."

"I'm begging you, can't you leave us alone?"

The corner of my mouth curved up, amused. "Go on, then. How much money will it take for you to walk away from him?"

Isabel froze, as if she hadn't expected me to name a price outright, in front of all these people.

She bit her lower lip and hesitated for a long moment.

Just as I was about to lose my patience, she finally spoke.

"Eight million. Not a cent less."

This time, the one wearing the shocked expression was Rolf.

Because he had always believed Isabel truly loved him, that she'd never leave him over money.

Reality had just slapped that belief right off his face.

Seeing that I said nothing, Isabel assumed I thought the price was too high.

"Let me spell it out for you plainly. If you don't give me the money, I'll keep clinging to Rolf and I'll make sure your family never knows a moment's peace."

Rolf lost it, his face flushing red. "Isabel, have you no shame at all?"

"You actually have the nerve to ask me for eight million? These six years we've been together, which of it wasn't mine? The car, the apartment, all of it bought by me. This job of yours, I'm the one who found it for you. Back when your brother couldn't have cared less whether your parents lived or died, I'm the one who covered their medical bills. I even hired an aide to look after them after their surgery. Otherwise, you think you'd be living this well right now?"

Isabel slammed her phone down on the table. "Spare me the noble act, Rolf. Have some shame yourself! Six years, I put out for you countless times, free of charge. Did I ever ask you for a single cent? Never. That money, you gave it to me because you wanted to. And now you want to settle accounts with me?"

Rolf froze. Then he suddenly turned and met my cold stare.

That was when it hit him that he'd said too much.

"Madison, let me explain"

I let out a scoff. "No need to explain. How much more is there? Say it all in one go."

All of it was marital property. And he had handed it over to Isabel, every bit of it, without my consent.

I would take it all back, piece by piece. I wasn't going to let them get away with it.

Rolf was famously tight with money.

Eight million all at once. There was no way he'd agree to that.

But if he wouldn't pay it, I would.

I smiled as I spoke. "Isabel, I'll pay the eight million. But it'll be transferred to your card in three installments when the time comes. For now, go home and wait to hear from me."

Seeing me give in, Isabel dropped the act. "Fine. But if you don't come through with the money, I'll cling to Rolf for the rest of my life. I'll make sure it eats at you, that you never feel at ease again."

After she left, Rolf slumped to the floor like a deflated ball.

He'd had his heart broken.

A man who had always been certain the other person loved him truly, jolted awake in that moment to the fact that the woman had only gotten close to him for the money. How laughable.

Back home, Rolf even put on an apron and went into the kitchen to cook.

Everything laid out on the table was something I liked to eat.

Our daughter, out of nowhere, had drawn a picture of the three of us as a family.

She'd stuck it on the fridge.

I didn't know what they meant by all of it.

But I didn't eat dinner.

I hid in the bedroom and called my best friend, the lawyer.

I told her the whole thing from start to finish, not leaving out a single word.

"God, that is so disgusting! Rolf is still in contact with that Isabel woman to this day? If it hadn't been for the two of them back then, you wouldn't have suffered like that, wouldn't have had your uterus removed. And he still has the appetite to go chasing after other women!"

I stayed calm, as though none of it had anything to do with me.

"That's right. It's only now that I've found out he's been cheating on me the whole six years, and maliciously moving our joint marital assets on top of it. When the time comes, I'll need you to help me. I'm going to make sure he walks away with nothing."

Curious, she asked, "What about your daughter, then? Can you really give her up?"

"Gladly. An ungrateful little thing like that, I never should have raised her in the first place."

Life went on, quiet as ever.

On Isabel's end, I'd promised to send the money in two months.

In the meantime, she agreed she wouldn't see Rolf again.

But by now Rolf had gone cold on her completely.

Today, same as always, he took our daughter to school and went off to work himself.

So first thing in the morning, with my marriage certificate and ID in hand, I applied for an investigation order with my best friend's help.

I pulled the complete records of every bank card, savings card, and credit card Rolf had held over a full six years.

And every transfer he'd made to Isabel, every large cash withdrawal, every remittance, I screenshotted, printed, stamped, and filed.

Among them was a fixed transfer of ten thousand every month, the living allowance he gave Isabel.

There was also that transfer from six years ago covering her parents' surgery, and the large-payment receipts for the car and the apartment.

That evening, back home, I got hold of his old phone too.

He'd always lied to me that the phone was dead and useless.

When in fact he'd hidden it away in a compartment inside the closet.

Inside were the original chat logs and transaction records with Isabel that he hadn't gotten around to deleting.

While he was in the shower, I exported those six years of digital payment statements in full.

They contained countless flirty transfers, large holiday gift transfers, and everyday shopping payments.

I recorded it all on video and had it notarized for safekeeping.

Three in the morning.

I got up in the dark.

I saved another six years of their flirty chat logs, their conversations while living together, their intimate photos together, the videos from holidays they'd gone on side by side.

I saw that Rolf had pinned Isabel to the top of his contacts.

The label read: Baby, my wife.

The label he'd given me was my full name.

Nearly every day, Rolf had endless sweet nothings for her.

"Don't worry, Isabel, I'll take care of you for the rest of your life. This car and this apartment are the security I'm giving you to live on, and they're my gift to you."

"Your parents are my parents. Their medical bills are mine to cover."

"You haven't found a job yet, so the ten thousand a month is a little something from my heart. Take good care of yourself, or it'll break my heart."

And the most important thing of all was that Isabel had once had an abortion for him.

On the hospital's consent form for the procedure, in the space for the father, the name filled in was Rolf's. And there was documentation to prove it.

I took that too, along with everything else.

Once I'd saved every last record, I chose the day of Rolf's birthday.

I wrapped the divorce agreement inside a gift box and handed it to him in front of all the relatives and friends.

He opened it, smiling.

Then, in the next second, the smile froze on his face, and on our daughter's too.

With trembling hands, he held the divorce agreement out in front of me.

"Madison, what is this supposed to mean? You already know Isabel was only with me for the money, don't you? You won. Why are you still doing this? You know I can't live without you."

I smiled, and smashed the cake into his face.

Then I bent our daughter's favorite Barbie in two and threw it in the trash.

"Didn't you say my personality was too domineering, that you didn't want to live with me?"

"Fine. I'll grant you your wish."