Short Story | 《The Tale of Betrayal》
2023/05/18閱讀時間約 37 分鐘
She looked at the calendar, today marked one month since her husband's passing. He collapsed suddenly during a meeting with his boss at work, and by the time they rushed him to the hospital, he was hanging by a thread. He spent three days in the intensive care unit, but in the end, the doctors couldn’t save him.
The past month felt so unreal to her, like a dream. While she was cooking in the kitchen, it seemed as if her husband was still sitting in the living room, watching television, patiently waiting for her to finish the final dish so they could enjoy their meal together.
They had being dated 10 years, married 14 years. Over the past decade, he was a gentle and polite husband in everyone’s eyes. Whenever they had a disagreement, they always made up before going to bed. “Don’t let today’s problems ruin tomorrow” was their motto.
She accompanied him to his company events, and his supervisors always praised him in front of her, saying he was loyal and reliable, a man they could trust. She joked with them, saying “His only flaw is that he works too many hours.” Everyone laughed.
“If I were a woman, I would marry him,” his best friend William once said to her jokingly.
She thought she was lucky, too, to have married such a good man. They had agreed to be DINKs (double income no kids) and enjoy their life as a couple. She worked in the public sector; he for a foreign company. They traveled abroad once a year and took short trips every season. She had thousands of photos of them on her phone.
The Secret of The Study
A month had passed, yet she couldn't bring herself to sort out the things in the house. Deep down, she clung to the fantasy that as long as his belongings remained, the accident would merely be a wretched nightmare. Come sunrise the next day, he would reappear by her bedside, as if nothing had happened.
His freshly ironed dress shirt hung neatly, suits organized by color. His computer remained powered on, files meticulously arranged on his black office desk, and his phone sat charging.
She told herself that today she must begin to face reality.
Seated in her husband's study, the room still resonating with his essence, she knew it harbored numerous unknown secrets. As she sorted through his belongings, she ventured into an unfamiliar and unsettling realm.
She gently opened a drawer brimming with various documents and photographs, sifting through its contents. Within the stack of thick files, she stumbled upon a photograph she had never seen before. It depicted a complete family—a strange woman standing beside her deceased husband, his arms cradling a girl, around 4 or 5 years old. Their faces radiated pure joy. The location was unmistakably the place near Jiufen, a suburb of Taipei City where lanterns were set aloft.
She was stunned. She felt her chest tighten. She couldn’t breathe, countless questions flashed through her mind. She trembled as she picked up the photo, unable to look away. How could this be? How was this possible? She desperately sought answers. On the back of the photo, a date and a line of text faded with time, read: "To Charles, Our Beautiful Times." She couldn't help but wonder whose handwriting it was and why her husband would hold onto such a picture, while she remained blissfully unaware of its content.
Driven by curiosity, she picked up her husband's phone, scrolling through his messages and call logs. There was a phone number that kept calling him the week he died. That number was also the most frequent contact among his many call records. This contact was simply named “Contact” on his phone, but they had many frequent text exchanges, full of intimate and caring words:
"It's getting chilly today. Remember to dress warmly!"
"Looking forward to the next time!"
"We both miss you!"
She put down the phone, slumped in front of his desk. Her heart plunged into chaos, she was torn apart by reality, and her happiness collapsed in an instant. She didn’t know what to believe, how to face this unimaginable truth.
"Has he been cheating on me all this time?" The answer was obvious.
She yearned to know, "How long has this been going on?" "How did it happen?" "Where are they now?" These questions echoed in her mind, like a sharp dagger stabbing her heart over and over again.
Disappointment and anger began to spread, quickly replacing her original emotions of grief and loss.
She held the photo of the strange family, tears welled up in her eyes, then slid down her cheeks. She doubted whether all these years of memories were just her own illusions. Was the man who said “I love you” to her every day a liar? How many lies and betrayals were hidden behind the happy smiles in that photo? Her heart ached, her trust in him crumbled at lightning speed.
Recalling the day of the funeral, she remembered a young woman, accompanied by a girl around 7 or 8 years old, paying their respects. Their faces bore a profound sorrow; they came in with his best friend William.
Revelations Unveiled
She took a breath and decided to call William for confirmation.
“Charles had another family outside, didn’t he?”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.
“Uh…I only found out recently.”
"Don't lie to me! You two have been in cahoots, keeping this from me, haven't you?"
“No! I swear! A few years ago, Charles gave me a phone number and told me to call this person if something happened to him. I almost forgot about it, until I got the news of his death. Then I called the number.”
“And then what?”
“She asked me to take them to see him for the last time, so I brought them to the memorial services.”
“You really didn’t know Charles had another family outside?”
“He knew I couldn’t keep a secret, so he wouldn’t tell me anything he thought I shouldn’t know. But he would let me know in advance when he needed an alibi or a cover story.”
“So…when he told me he was going golfing with you…?”
"We rarely played golf together."
“When he said you begged him to accompany you to entertain some clients and help you handle drinks?”
“Well, actually, I can drink better than him, I don’t need his help with that. He just used me as an excuse when he needed to come home a few hours late. Of course, we did have a drink together once in a while, because he said he wanted to thank me for my help.”
“What about his weekend overtime and overseas trips?”
“Some of them were true, some of them weren’t…”
“What’s her name?”
“Her last name is Shen, her English name is Daisy.”
She felt her hand holding the phone start to tremble slightly. She couldn’t believe that her faithful husband had been lying to her for so long. She got the woman’s phone number and decided to find out the truth.
The Wall of Family Photos
She arrived at Daisy’s place at the agreed time, on the 10th floor of an old building; it was about a 30-minute drive from where she lived.
The woman who opened the door had long hair and wore a khaki knee-length dress. She appeared to be in her early thirties, the kind that fits the stereotype of a “good mother, good wife” in TV soap operas.
“I’m sorry!” was the first thing Daisy said to her.
She sat on the sofa in the living room and looked around this cozy old house. The wall next to the TV was full of photos. Her husband appeared in most of them, looking like a responsible good father; Daisy from youthful to mature, the little girl from a toddler to kindergarten, to elementary school. Anyone would think that they were a family of three living together.
Each photo plunged her mood to the depths of despair. She had already known that the love and marriage she wholeheartedly protected were built on a lie, but witnessing the evidence firsthand left her utterly shaken.
“How did you start?”
“It was my fault. He was my boss, the first one after I graduated from university, and I fell for him during the job interview. I knew he was already married, so to control my emotions, I left the company and went to work elsewhere. Unexpectedly, we met again during a colleague gathering at a KTV, and that night I got completely drunk. He was the one who escorted me home. Then I asked him out for dinner to thank him, after several rejections, he finally agreed. Then I couldn't resist pursuing him actively, and that's how we started. I liked him genuinely, to the extent of wanting to have his child..."…”
She couldn’t help but interrupt her story “Don’t your parents care about you?”
“I’m an orphan…Later, when I got pregnant, I planned to break up with him and raise the child on my own in a rural area in Eastern Taiwan. I was happy just to have a part of him, I never intended to destroy your marriage. But he disagreed, he said he had to be responsible for me and the child.”
“He said he had already hurt you enough and couldn't hurt you anymore, so he hoped to accompany us without affecting you.”
“Did you…see each other often?” She felt like she was suffocating when she asked this question.
“He would come over once or twice a week to have dinner with us, and then come over on weekends to play with Bella for half a day.”
“Bella? Is she your daughter? How old is she this year?”
“8 years old. Yes, it's the nickname for Isabella, her full name is Isabella Shen. She is very sensible, knows that dad can’t live with us, and never make a fuss.”
“How is she holding up after Charles' passing away?” She couldn’t believe she actually cared about the love child of her unfaithful husband.
“She hasn’t talked much since she came back from the funeral, just saying that she misses dad.”
She didn’t know what to say, silently finished the cold green tea, said goodbye and left.
The Resentful Wife
When she got home, she found that her world was completely different from before.
The “widow” who had been crying over his photos every day was gone, replaced by an angry and resentful "wife”.
Her anger and resentment were not only because of her husband who had betrayed her for years, but also because he had passed away and she had no chance to confront him and hear his explanations. Her resentment and anger had no outlet, and worse, she began to feel humiliated and being played.
She recalled the past few years when he had been promoted multiple times at work, from manager to associate director, to senior vice president. However, the money he brought home didn't increase much. She had asked a couple of times, and he simply said that the company's salary increments were not high. As for the year-end bonus, he claimed to have donated a portion of it to a charitable organization along with his colleagues, and she never questioned it. Now, in hindsight, that money probably went to another family.
"I married a genius actor and a great liar!" she thought. All those times he said "I love you" to her might have just been expressions of guilt and apology, but she had mistakenly believed it was a unique and genuine love.
He was already gone, and she was left struggling between anger and loss, sinking deeper into her despair with each struggle, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.
She resented herself for unconditionally wasting over 20 years of her youth on him; resented herself for deliberately ignoring the suspicious clues she had seen.
When she visited her parents' home, they still praised their deceased son-in-law endlessly, and she held back her tears. She didn't want her parents to know that their daughter had entrusted herself to the wrong guy, and she certainly didn't want them to know that her tears were actually born out of anger and resentment.
Breaking Up
It had been one hundred days since he died, and she still wore black clothes according to the mourning rules, but her heart was full of anger.
Her best friend saw that this was not the way to go, and said harsh words.
"For the sake of someone who has passed away and isn't worthy of your longing, you wear a mournful expression every day, resenting yourself for misjudging people and resenting him for deceiving you. What benefit does it bring to you? He's no longer here, and your emotions will only harm you. You're a good person, and you shouldn't hurt yourself because of a bad person."
"When you step on dog feces on the street, do you quickly clean it up and take a shower, or do you do nothing but complain about the foul smell?"
"Right now, aren't you just like someone who steps on dog feces and doesn't clean it up?"
She chuckled “Are you saying Charles is dog poop?!”
“Yes! The trouble he caused you is like dog poop - making you stinky - but you’re just complaining about the smell, and you don’t think about doing a mental cleansing and getting rid of him completely.”
She suddenly got it!
She had already wasted 24 years on a person who was not worth it, of course, she should stop wasting furthermore on this person.
Although the law does not allow her to divorce her deceased husband, she can break up with him in her heart and in her mind, having no further involvement with him.
She needs to let go of him completely in order to free herself from the resentment and anger that eat away at her, and to have a true opportunity to start anew.
Since she had decided to let go, she was very willing to give her unwanted husband to the family that still missed him.
A True Farewell
She invited Daisy and Bella to her home and told them that she planned to sell the apartment unit and move back to her parents' house in the South. However, she had no intention of taking any of her husband's clothes or memorabilia with her. If they were willing, she would be happy to give his belongings to them.
Bella bounced around and grabbed his frequently-used paperweights and fountain pens from his study, while Daisy chose a few of his ties, shirts, and suits.
Encouraging them to take more, she said, "Take some more! I'll have the secondhand recyclers take away the rest you don't want!" She smiled. She surprised herself by feeling no resentment towards Daisy, even though she had once been the one who destroyed her marriage.
As her best friend had said, it was pointless to be angry at an unchangeable past. She no longer wanted to be a widow. She wanted to live for herself, as a new person!
She helped Daisy and Bella pack several cardboard boxes and arranged for a courier company to pick them up the next day.
At the entrance of the building, she bid farewell to the mother and daughter. In the lingering twilight, she felt as if she saw her deceased husband standing beside them.
"Goodbye!" She waved to the mother and daughter, knowing that she had finally completed the farewell ceremony of her marriage.
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