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He Has a Girl 'Buddy', I Have a Road of No Return
NovelShort
Completed
At my birthday party, five months pregnant, Ethan's girl buddy lost a party game. She glanced my way and announced it with a smile. "Let me tell you all a secret. Ethan's stamina is ridiculous." "This dog kept me up till the middle of the night. My knees went numb from kneeling, and my back still aches!" For a moment it was like being struck by lightning.
Chapters (4)
第1章
At the birthday party for my fifth month of pregnancy, Ethan James's girl buddy lost a game.
She glanced at me and grinned as she spilled it.
"Let me tell you all a secret. Ethan's stamina is unreal."
"This dog kept me up till the middle of the night. My knees went numb from kneeling, and my back still aches!"
For a second it was like being struck by lightning.
Seeing my face go white, she caught herself a beat too late and shut up, then laughed and explained.
"Oh, come on, don't get the wrong idea. Me and my puppy boy, it's purely physical. You've got that big belly, it's not convenient for you, so as his buddy I just help him blow off some steam, that's all."
"Relax, we used protection. Nothing's going to slip."
Something seemed to cross her mind, and she leaned toward my ear with a click of her tongue. "Though I've got to say, this little devil's got real skill. You're one lucky woman!"
Blood roared in my ears, and I slapped her across the face.
"You say all this to my face and you're not even ashamed?"
Before Cordelia Fox could answer, Ethan lost it first.
He snapped that I was petty and small-minded, pointed at the door, and told me to get out.
The moment I stepped through, the huge slam of the door came mixed with Cordelia's taunting voice hitting my eardrums.
"Puppy boy, for that one slap, Daddy's going to be riding you from now on!"
The whole crowd was betting I'd not only come crawling back with my tail between my legs to apologize, but get on my knees and beg Ethan to forgive me.
But they didn't know.
This rotten, reeking marriage, I didn't want it anymore.
...
Standing at the door, I could still hear the noise of them talking inside.
"How is Zoey Walker still this dramatic? A man having physical needs is totally normal. Pulling a stunt like that, what a damn buzzkill!"
"If that were my wife, I'd give her a couple of slaps and make her apologize to everyone!"
Ethan didn't say anything, but suddenly he opened the door.
He stood over me and slammed the cake in his hand straight into my face.
"Happy now that you made such a scene?"
"I told you it was just physical. Do you not understand plain words?"
"You get pregnant and think you're royalty. Either you apologize or you get lost. Today I'm going to cure you of that drama once and for all!"
Then he turned to meet Cordelia's amused eyes, and in a second he went gentle.
"Don't worry, Daddy's got your back on this. No one gets to bully you in front of me!"
Seeing that I had no intention of apologizing, he suddenly grabbed my phone and transferred every cent out of my account.
The text alert that my balance had hit zero came at the same moment the door slammed shut.
Someone inside was ribbing him.
"Ethan, it's still snowing out there. Throwing her out this cold, not even leaving her a dime, isn't that a little harsh? Aren't you scared Zoey files for divorce?"
"Divorce? No offense, but look at the figure she's got now. How's she any different from a sow?"
"Who'd want her if she left me? Me agreeing to have the wedding after the kid's born is basically charity."
"And she still makes trouble. Give her an inch and she takes a mile!"
"I've got to cure her of this for real!"
Cordelia burst out laughing. "Dumb puppy, Daddy's starting to feel sorry for you."
Ice-cold tears slid off my jaw. I couldn't listen anymore and ran for the outside.
Except my foot slipped, and with a thud my whole body went down at the doorway.
The pain tore through every limb, and I clamped both hands over my belly.
Inside, it went quiet for a moment.
Someone said I was still pregnant after all and suggested they come check on me. Ethan scoffed.
"With her hundred-and-sixty-pound tonnage, she'd bounce if she hit the floor. She won't die from a fall... son, drink up, Daddy's drinking you under the table tonight!"
Cordelia draped an arm over his shoulder with her drink. "Ooh, ooh, ooh, what's this, drink me under so you can have your way with my body? If you want to get on Daddy, just say so..."
The room dissolved into laughter.
I stayed slumped at the door a long time, then used the last twenty dollars on my payment-app balance to book an Uber to the hospital.
There was no money for tests, so I only scheduled the abortion for the next day.
The pity in the nurse's eyes cut me raw.
She handed me a few tissues. "Wipe your face."
I wiped my smeared cheeks and hair, then dabbed a little of the frosting off the tissue and put it in my mouth.
It was sweet.
I had never imagined my twenty-eighth birthday would go this badly.
Just like I'd never imagined that one day Ethan would become this.
The old him used to protect me no matter what.
But ever since Cordelia showed up, it was like he'd become a different person.
Coming out of the hospital, I walked a long way along the streetlights, shivering.
At one in the morning the sky started to snow, and Ethan sent a text. "Send me your location, I'll come get you."
I'd meant to have some backbone and not reply, but I didn't have a penny, nowhere to go, and when they threw me out I only had a thin jacket on.
Two hours after I sent the location, huddled and wretched, I finally saw Ethan's car pull up.
At some point a personalized seat decal for Cordelia had been stuck on the passenger seat.
Next to her profile photo was a line of text. "Reserved seat. Know your place, ok?"
"That dumb dog Cordelia got wasted and kept acting up, so I dropped her off first. That's why I'm slow."
Ethan tossed off a couple of lines of explanation like it was nothing, and when he saw I stayed silent, he turned back, caught the words on the seat decal, and let out a short laugh.
"She made a whole scene tonight saying I didn't set aside a room for her in the new place, said I wasn't loyal, gave me a headache, so I just let her stick that on."
"Just pretend you don't see it. It doesn't stop you from riding in the car."
I didn't take up his words. I stayed quiet and looked out the window.
The pressure inside the car sank lower and lower.
Passing a traffic light, Ethan stomped the car to a stop and drove his fist into the steering wheel.
"Cordelia and I had a bit to drink and things just got out of hand. I already told you it was purely physical. You made your scene, so how long are you going to keep that long face?"
I said, "You're overthinking it. I don't care anymore."
Ethan sneered. "You don't care but you sit here making yourself pathetic. Zoey, my patience has a limit. I'm warning you, don't push it when you've already been given a way out."
第2章
Before I could say anything, Ethan's phone rang.
It was Cordelia.
"Little brat, Daddy left the keys in your bedroom, and it's freezing out here. Come get me, right now. If I don't see you in fifteen minutes, you're dead."
His whole manner flipped in an instant. He laughed. "Wash up and wait for me. Daddy's on his way."
He hung up, popped the car door open, and threw the words at me without a thought. "We're close to home from here, you can walk it. I'm going to check on my idiot boy."
I watched the taillights shrink into the distance and didn't even have the strength left to be disappointed.
The walk was almost three miles. By the time I reached the apartment, blisters had opened up on my feet.
The living room was a wreck, bottles knocked over everywhere.
In the bedroom, the bed that had been made smooth was rumpled now.
On the nightstand on my side sat a set of keys I didn't recognize.
The thought of what they'd done in that bed sent a wave of pure nausea up my throat.
I was gagging over it when Ethan walked in with Cordelia, the two of them laughing.
His eyes passed over the wrinkled bed, then landed on my face, and something like impatience surfaced in them.
"She was drunk and lay down for a while. Zoey, why is your mind always in the gutter? I've had it with you."
In that moment I didn't have the strength to fight either.
Last night Ethan had told me he'd planned a birthday surprise for me and wouldn't be coming home.
I hadn't slept the whole night, holding onto that.
The next day, all I got was a pair of earrings.
I don't even have my ears pierced.
The whole night I'd lain awake, he'd been awake too.
The difference was I'd been full of hope, and he'd been tangled up with another woman until it nearly killed them both.
And now he was telling me my mind was in the gutter.
Cordelia sighed along with him. "Pregnant women are such a hassle. I'm too tired, I'll sleep here tonight. Little brat, come make Daddy's bed."
Ethan followed her out, ordering me over his shoulder without turning around.
"Clean up the living room. I'll go make her bed first."
Before, he never had to say a word. I'd have gone and cleaned it up like a housemaid anyway.
But now I stood where I was and called him back.
"Ethan, let's get divorced."
His steps stopped.
"What?"
He reined in his temper, told Cordelia to go on ahead, then slammed the door shut.
"What's gotten into you? We've been married three months and you're asking for a divorce?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I think Cordelia probably suits you better."
Ethan gave a cold laugh. "Because I slept with her last night? I already told you it only happened because I was drunk. Can you not understand plain words?"
"And even if we did sleep together, we're still just close buddies. She's not like you, full of little schemes. She doesn't care about this kind of thing at all—"
I cut him off, the sarcasm impossible to keep out of my voice. "Right. A buddy you can take to bed and go at until the middle of the night. Some buddy."
Go at until the middle of the night.
I'd always thought Ethan just wasn't into that sort of thing. Every time it was over fast, like he was clearing off a fixed obligation.
Turned out the only thing he wasn't into was me.
The words landed and Ethan's fury broke loose all at once.
He pinned me against the door, holding me so I couldn't move.
"You're just jealous. What's the point of all this whining!"
"Fine, take it off. I'll satisfy you right now!"
His mouth came down on mine.
The thought of him tangled naked with Cordelia last night made me shove at him with everything I had. It did nothing.
I bore it, numb, and the next second Cordelia's voice came through.
"Little brat, come here, big situation!"
Ethan's hands stopped at once, and he walked out without a backward glance.
I leaned against the back of the door, pressing hard on my aching belly, when a message came in from Cordelia.
"Zoey, you two fighting about divorce? Don't be upset. Last night me and the dog were just letting off some physical steam, we really are pure buddies."
"Look, otherwise who'd want to do that? Wouldn't it be disgusting enough to make you puke?"
To prove herself, she sent a video.
In it, Ethan was pinching Cordelia's bloody pad between his fingers, and on her command he raised it to his nose and gave it a hard sniff.
"Damn, Cordelia, you're a monster. Bleeding this much, I'm gonna throw up!"
"If you hadn't kept me going all last night, would Daddy be bleeding this much? Still got the nerve to curse at me. I'll end you!"
His face was full of revulsion, yet his hand still held that bloody pad.
The instant I finished watching, something detonated in my head.
Each frame drove into my heart like a blade, the pain churning through everything inside me.
I bolted into the bathroom and couldn't stop gagging.
As far as I knew, Ethan was almost obsessive about that kind of thing, cleanliness to the point of mania.
He thought periods were filthy and bad luck, that even one glance was sickening.
Once I accidentally left a little on the bed, and in the middle of the night he got up and went to sleep in the other room.
The next day he threw out the whole mattress.
Tears blurred my eyes. I didn't sleep the whole night.
By morning Ethan was up early, and for once in his life he'd made breakfast.
When I came out, I caught Cordelia asking him something.
"You smooth her over yet? If you really do divorce, Daddy's the villain here."
"Smooth over what. She's just desperate and put on a whole act. I dared her to leave and she doesn't have the guts to divorce."
"Tch, then just pull the blanket over her and give her a good round to settle her down. That's your strong suit, isn't it."
Ethan pushed a piece of peeled chicken into her mouth. "Not interested. The shape she's in now, one extra look takes years off my life. Eat your food and stop worrying about Daddy's business."
第3章
Cordelia burst out laughing.
My breath shook, and pain stabbed through my belly in waves.
So this was the man I'd cut ties with my own parents to marry.
I turned and went back to the bedroom. Whatever last hesitation I'd had was gone now.
I had my things packed and was ready to leave for the hospital when Ethan suddenly called after me.
"Babe, I made breakfast just for you. Come eat something."
The breakfast he'd made just for me was the bowl of shrimp porridge steaming on the table.
Except he'd forgotten I was allergic to shrimp.
"I'm not eating."
He saw how bad I looked, grabbed a coat from the side, and crossed the room in a few strides.
"It's freezing out, why aren't you dressed warmer? Where are you going? I'll take you."
Behind him Cordelia sat with one leg crossed over the other, tutting and enjoying the show.
Like she was mocking him for being all talk.
Ethan glanced back at her, tipped up his chin, and gave her a look that said watch this.
I watched the two of them, and there was nothing in me but bitterness. "The hospital."
The word hospital finally sobered him a little.
"What are you going to the hospital for? Is the baby giving you trouble..."
Before he could finish, Cordelia called out behind him, "Brat, Daddy's heading home, give me a ride!"
"Ride my ass, your dad's busy. Can't you see my wife's not feeling well and needs to get to the hospital?"
That's what he said. But the second I went to get in the car, he called over to Cordelia, "Kid, get in, Daddy'll drop you on the way."
The two directions were nowhere near each other, and somehow out of his mouth it became on the way.
Cordelia laughed and cursed him a little, then walked up to the passenger door.
Her eyes swept over the sticker marking my seat, and the meaning in them was plain enough. She wanted me out.
I couldn't take it anymore.
"Miss Fox, I'm not divorced yet. This car still isn't yours."
"But Ethan promised. He said this was my own special seat. Tch, what a hassle... Kid, you say. Who gets the front?"
She said it without a shred of shame, arms folded across her chest, jabbing two fingers toward Ethan's eyes as a threat.
"You mutt, you're not going to ditch a friend over a woman, are you? Don't make me lose respect for you."
Ethan cracked up. "Am I that kind of guy, your dad?"
He turned to look at me. "Babe, go sit in the back. It's just a seat. Think of it as my apology to my dumb kid for that slap yesterday."
My heart felt like it had been stomped into pulp, and the pain of it bent me over.
Not wanting to miss the appointment for the procedure, I swallowed the whole bitter mess of it and got in the back.
Cordelia climbed happily into the passenger seat.
The two of them bickered and chatted the whole way. When we stopped, she said the shower in her bathroom was broken and ordered Ethan to go fix it.
Ethan hesitated, then said to me, "Babe, go on to the hospital first. I'll be right there."
"Don't worry, when have I ever not been at one of your checkups? In my heart, you and the baby come first."
Then he tapped over two thousand dollars to me and walked in with Cordelia without a backward glance.
Right up until I was about to be wheeled into the operating room, he still hadn't come.
The anesthesia went into my body. I don't know how much time passed before I heard, through the haze, a doctor's frantic voice.
"Where's the family? The patient's hemorrhaging, we may have to remove the uterus. Get him in here to sign now!"
"Where's the family?! This is critical!"
"Somebody call the family!"
The operating room was chaos. A nurse took my phone and called Ethan ninety-nine-plus times.
No one picked up.
While the doctors were still caught between choices, I signed the form myself on my last bit of breath.
Then I went completely under.
When I woke again, it was three hours later. My phone buzzing pulled me back.
第4章
Not a single missed call on my phone. Only the group chat, the one that was always dead quiet, blowing up nonstop.
The second I tapped in, it was like a bucket of ice water poured over me from head to foot.
Cordelia had posted the private video of me and Ethan straight into the chat.
"Damn, that's wild. Can't believe Zoey actually agreed to film something like this with Ethan. I can even see that mole on her body, clear as day. Legend!!"
"Man, Zoey used to have a killer body. Ethan really ate well back then!"
"God, after watching this I'm never gonna be able to look Zoey in the eye again!"
The chat kept going, message after message, and through it all Ethan and Cordelia said nothing.
Just as people started guessing whether Cordelia had finally gone too far and Ethan had actually fallen out with her—
Cordelia dropped another video.
Ethan, chasing after her, roughhousing.
"Daddy! I'll be your slave for a whole month, just hurry up and delete the video!"
The picture shook, but you could still see he wasn't the least bit angry.
Cordelia refused to delete it, and in the end Ethan gave in and spoke up in the group.
"Damn it, you've all seen my wife naked. I've got nowhere to put this anger, so anybody who breathes a single word of this outside can consider us done!"
The chat started egging them on.
Line after line of suggestive comments filled the screen, until someone suddenly said,
"You think Zoey's watching this right now?"
Only then did the rest realize I was in the group too.
"Oh crap! Wrong chat, Zoey's in this one too!"
The next second, I was kicked out.
Tears dropped onto the phone screen in fat splashes, my hands shaking so hard I could barely hold it.
That was the video from the first time Ethan and I got together, the one he'd coaxed me into filming.
He said he wanted to keep it as a memory, to treasure forever.
I agreed, and I believed in that so-called treasure.
Believed in it right up until this moment, when I felt like a clown stripped bare.
Laid out naked in front of everyone, for them to watch, laugh at, and mock.
Ethan, who hadn't answered a single call, finally called.
"Are you... at the hospital?"
"You didn't check your phone earlier?"
I gave a soft "mm."
He let out a breath.
"Babe, I was fixing the shower for Cordelia just now, didn't hear your calls. What's up, something wrong at the checkup?"
I opened my mouth. My voice came out hoarse. "Nothing's wrong."
Ethan tossed off a couple of casual reminders and hung up.
I took a deep breath.
I didn't want Ethan anymore.
Not for one more second.
I contacted a lawyer and had the divorce agreement drafted.
Then, once I'd recovered enough in the hospital to stand, I went straight to the wedding venue to cancel the booking.
But when I got there, the front desk told me the wedding, six months out, had been switched to another couple.
And the date had been moved up to tomorrow.
I opened Cordelia's feed, quick and practiced.
Sure enough, she'd posted something new.
In the photo she was in a wedding dress, Ethan down on one knee, gazing up at her.
Caption:
"Aww~ so touched! To make it up to me, my boy is actually going to grant my little wish to play wedding house!"
Ethan had replied to her, all tenderness.
"As long as you're happy. Tomorrow we'll do the whole ceremony, make a thing of it, invite everyone."
I stood there, the world spinning around me.
And suddenly I understood, clear and complete, exactly what kind of scum I'd thrown everyone and everything away to chase.
I closed my eyes.
Since it was a wedding.
How could it go without well-wishes.
I called Ethan's parents and told them the wedding had been moved up to tomorrow.
Told them to notify every relative to rush over overnight.
After that I contacted all of Ethan's bosses and coworkers, inviting them to come enjoy the free reception.
The next day, not long after Ethan left the house, I went to the venue too.
While I stopped everyone at the door, I started a livestream.
The title read—
"My husband's about to marry his girl buddy, so I brought the family and friends along to enjoy the feast."
A title like that pulled in a crowd of viewers instantly.
"What's going on here, a live cheating catch?!"
"Juicy. Think a fight's gonna break out?!"
Smiling, I lifted the camera and turned to the group of baffled people behind me.
"Today's ceremony is a little special. I've got a surprise ready for everyone."
When I led the whole crowd through the doors, the wedding had just reached the vows and the kiss.
The two at the center of the stage were kissing like they couldn't bear to part.
I took out a brass gong, struck it a few times, and raised my voice.
"Ethan! The people you forgot to invite to your wedding, I've brought them all for you!"