Chapter 2
I spent the night in the living room, feeling restless and unable to sleep. At the crack of dawn, I got up to pack my bags. It didn’t take long since I didn’t have much to take with me. After clearing out the leftover food from the fridge, I stepped outside and looked back for a final glance. Five years of marriage with Adrian, yet it felt like I hadn’t left a single mark.
I wasn’t planning to return to my hometown. Instead, I rented a cozy apartment near my workplace. Once I finished unpacking, exhaustion hit, and I fell into a deep sleep.
My phone chimed, waking me up. Seeing Adrian’s name on the screen surprised me; he had called multiple times.
“Hello?”
“Carolina, what on earth are you doing? Do you realize the damage your comments have caused to Lily’s reputation? Vienna is suffering from depression, and you’re instigating people to bully her online—that's illegal! I could take you to court!”
“I had no idea,” I replied evenly.
“What?”
“I said I had no idea. I didn’t know her name was Vienna, didn’t know she was depressed, nor did I know about your relationship. Whether lovers or friends, I’m exhausted, Adrian.”
“You… Are you nuts? I’m not blaming you, just asking you to delete the comment, is that too much?”
Adrian persisted, “There’s nothing romantic between me and Vienna, just friendship. Our families were close when we were kids. Dad would joke she’d be my bride. We ran into each other by chance in Italy. She’s been frail since childhood, so Dad asked me to look after her. Honestly, if we wanted to be together, it would’ve happened ages ago!”
I stayed silent.
“Say something, Carolina. I’ve laid everything out. Don’t overreact. Clear things up online! When I return, I’ll make up for our missed anniversary.”
He didn’t know that three years into our marriage, his Lily had sent me a friend request. After accepting it, we never chatted. Looking back, her intentions were crystal clear.
As I scrolled through her social media, I saw where my husband had vanished in my life. They went hiking, watched movies, traveled, shared horseback rides, drank coffee from the same cup. Activities couples do when dating. How can they be just friends?
Her latest post showed the two of them in Italy, skillfully cropped to exclude any kissing. Adrian kept calling my name, so I finally spoke up.
Before he could continue, I cut him off, “Enough, let’s get a divorce.”
I hung up, then asked my friend to help me find a divorce lawyer. She was bewildered, “What! You’re getting a divorce?”
“Yes, we should draw up the divorce agreement and serve it to him directly.”
“Alright, what time? We should find somewhere to celebrate this occasion.”
“...Sis, I’m divorcing, not getting married.”
“Oh, same difference to me. At least I won’t have to buy a wedding gift.”
I opened WhatsApp and saw a message from Vienna.
ViennaIsHappy: “Do you realize who I am now?”
After all this time, she finally brought it up.
CarolinaNotSweet: “Yes, the other woman.”
ViennaIsHappy: “You’re the other woman! Adrian doesn’t love you; he’s always loved me! See, now that I’m back, he’s ditched you!”
CarolinaNotSweet: “Uh-huh. So what? You don’t have a marriage certificate.”
After sending that, there was no response. Maybe she got pissed off.
Lying on the bed, I decided to scroll through TikTok. As soon as I logged in, I stumbled upon several hateful messages aimed at me.
Troll1: “Seriously, girl, what drama are you trying to pull here? Are you trying to stir things up? Were you raised in the wild? What’s your deal?”
Troll2: “You don’t seem like a decent person! I actually fell for it. Is this some new form of rumor-mongering?”
There were some even nastier ones I didn’t dare to read.