Chapter 2
His words instantly sucked me into a vortex of memories.
We were in the same high school, the absolute center of each other's universes during our teenage years.
He was the highlight of my youth, yet he was so dazzling that I spent every day in constant fear of losing him.
Any time another girl even stood near him, my heart would go wild with panic. I was terrified of being replaced.
So, when I first found out Elijah was hiring a female secretary, I was openly resistant and panicked.
I kept dropping hints, practically begging him to hire a male assistant instead.
Somehow, word of my complaints got back to Linda.
After that, whenever Elijah came home, there would always be something off, such as a smudge of lipstick on his collar or some random feminine item "accidentally" left in his briefcase.
He even tossed the limited-edition fountain pen I had bought him, replacing it with a cheap cartoon pen engraved with their initials.
Whenever I confronted him, he would patiently try to gaslight me into calming down.
"It's just how millennials work these days. Stop overthinking everything," he would say.
Things finally boiled over when I went to the office and handed Linda a massive severance check, telling her to leave.
When Elijah came home that night, he exploded.
"Who gave you the right to fire her?" he roared. "You need to get a grip on this insane jealousy. If Linda leaves, the company's performance will drop by at least half. Do you want to destroy everything I've built?"
I just stood there, paralyzed.
That was the first real, earth-shattering fight we had ever had since saying our vows.
Even after I caved, apologized, and admitted I was wrong, Elijah punished me with weeks of icy silence.
He brought Linda back and immediately promoted her to his personal executive assistant.
When things got busy, they were inseparable, spending day and night together at the office.
On out-of-state business trips, he would take her sightseeing to the exact landmarks I had always begged him to visit.
The designer bag I had been heavily hinting at for months? He casually gifted it to her.
When I finally broke down and asked him why, he just shrugged.
"What's the big deal about a boss giving his subordinate a little bonus for a job well done?"
Slowly but surely, Linda's presence seeped into every single corner of our lives.
We used to be madly in love, but the endless arguments had turned us into complete strangers.
I had originally planned to use our tenth anniversary to mend the rift between us. But then came the nightmare.
And now, the nightmare was bleeding into reality.
If it weren't for the warning that dream gave me, I would have absolutely lost my mind right now. I would have thrown a hysterical fit, screamed until my throat bled, and angrily demanded a divorce.
I could still vividly hear the absolute contempt in his voice from my dream.
"Divorce? You've been living off my money for a decade. Do you even know how to open a door to a real job anymore?" he had sneered. "If you're so determined to play the high-and-mighty victim, fine.
"Let's see who dares to hire you without my name backing you up."
In the dream, he had turned his back on me and immediately put the word out to blacklist me from every industry in the city.
I stared at his cold, merciless back, and for the very first time, the man I had shared a bed with for ten years felt like a terrifying stranger.