Chapter 2

She looked at me, her face expressionless.

“You’re back?”

“Yeah.”

I changed my shoes, ignored them, and went straight back to the bedroom.

I needed to take inventory of my things.

When I opened the drawer in the closet, I froze.

A tie I’d just bought last week was gone.

A new Hermès style. It was hard to get, so I’d found a personal shopper to buy it. Over three thousand.

I’d only used it once.

I walked out of the bedroom.

“Sylvia, where’s my tie?”

She was holding the remote and switching channels. At my question, she didn’t even lift her head.

“Oh, Ryan said his was old, so I let him take yours to use.”

Blood rushed straight to my head.

“You let him take it?”

“Yeah.”

She finally looked up at me, her expression completely matter-of-fact.

“It’s just a tie. I’ll buy you a new one later.”

Ryan said quietly from the side, “William, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was that expensive. I’ll return it to you tomorrow.”

“How are you going to return something you’ve already used?”

Sylvia grew impatient.

“William, that’s enough. Isn’t it just a tie? I already said I’d buy you a new one. Do you really need to keep sulking over such a tiny thing?”

A tiny thing?

My home—he had his fingerprint registered.

My things—he could just take them whenever he wanted.

These were all tiny things?

“Let’s get divorced,” I said.

The living room went silent.

Sylvia looked as if she’d heard the biggest joke in the world.

“What did you say?”

“I said, let’s get divorced.”

She stood up and walked over to me.

“You want a divorce over a tie? William, are you insane?”

“I’m not insane.” I looked into her eyes. “I just feel disgusted.”

Her face flushed red instantly.

“Fine. Fine. You think I’m disgusting, right?”

She grabbed her coat from the couch, turned, and walked out.

“I’m not coming back tonight. You can stay here and enjoy being disgusted all by yourself.”

The door slammed so hard the whole place shook.

Ryan stood up, looking at me helplessly.

“William, don’t be angry. Sylvia just has that kind of temper. I’ll go buy the tie back for you.”

“No need.” I looked at him. “You should leave too.”

He froze.

His face went pale.

In the end, he still picked up his bag and left with his tail between his legs.

The whole house finally fell quiet.

I sat on the couch, picked up my phone, and called my mom.

“Mom, I want a divorce.”

The other end of the call was silent for a long time.

“William, you’re being immature again. Couples argue all the time. Why are you bringing up divorce at the drop of a hat?”

“Mom, she registered another man’s fingerprint on our front door.”

“There must be a reason for that. Don’t be so petty. It’s not easy for women to work outside the home. You need to be more understanding of her.”

“She also gave him the new tie I just bought.”

“How much can one tie cost? Didn’t she say she’d buy you a new one? William, you can’t be so willful. Sylvia is a good girl. Don’t push her away with all this drama.”