Part 3The Boy Who Broke His Legs for Me

After Asher left, a notification popped up on my phone from a contact named “Lily.”

[Aunty, didn’t I tell you Asher would spend Valentine’s Day with me?]

[Hehe. Looks like I was right.]

Her provocations were childish, but they were effective. In the past, they would have sent me into a blind rage. But I knew exactly where her confidence came from.

When Asher first started cheating, he wasn’t this brazen. He hid Lily’s texts, soothed me, begged me, and promised he would end it. I was in agony, unable to believe that the boy who had loved me so fiercely could be the one driving a knife into my heart.

Like so many betrayed wives, I did all the cliché things.

I stormed into his office, screaming about his infidelity in front of his entire staff. I tried to find the woman who was destroying my life, to make her suffer.

But Asher had built a fortress around Lily.

Until the day Lily, too impatient to wait, came to find me herself.

I didn’t even have a chance to fight back. She slapped down a stack of photos—intimate, graphic pictures of her and Asher in bed—and my world shattered.

“Aunty, Asher said it was love at first sight with me, but he told me he doesn’t date high schoolers.”

“So he waited until I graduated to make me his. And right after, he took me on a trip to Europe to celebrate.”

“Yeah, that’s right. It was while you were back home, dealing with your father’s funeral.”

“See? That’s how much he loves me.”

Lily stood there, her ponytail bouncing, smugly recounting Asher’s devotion.

I lost my mind. I grabbed a glass and threw it at her. Then I picked up a shard and raked it across her face, wanting to destroy her perfect, mocking smile.

Asher arrived in a flurry, pulling a sobbing Lily into his arms.

He looked at me, his voice colder than I had ever heard it.

“Joanna, I’ve let you get away with too much over the years.”

“So much that you actually thought you had the right to touch what’s mine.”