Time Goes On

My wife had just returned from a business trip to a high-risk dengue fever zone and was required to undergo a mandatory seven-day quarantine. I spent the entire night packing her clothes and personal belongings, rushing to deliver them to her designated quarantine hotel. The front desk staff checked the registration list three times before looking up at me. “Sir, your wife, Stella, isn’t on this list. She never registered for quarantine.” I froze. Just as I was about to dial her number, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a black Maybach pulling up in front of a hotel across the street. Stella stepped out, walked around to the passenger side, took a young man’s hand, and leaned in to kiss him the moment he got out. The young man pushed her away with a laugh, but she pulled him closer, deepening the kiss. That boy was Finn, the boy Stella had raised. He was also the very person she had sent abroad three years ago, swearing she would never see him again. I stood rooted to the spot, my blood running cold. Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my hand. It was a text from Stella, with a photo of a plush hotel bed attached. [Wait for me to come home, baby.] Home? What home would we have now? Chapter 1 I walked into the hotel. The lobby was empty. Standing at the front desk, I asked the staff member, “The man and woman who just walked in—what room are they in?” The young man looked up at me, his eyes filled with wariness. “Sir, we can’t disclose guest information.” I didn’t press any further. Instead, I walked over to the lounge area, sat down, and sent a message to Stella Wood’s assistant, Emma Benson. [Did Stella not go into quarantine as soon as she landed?] The reply came back instantly. [Connor, Ms. Wood hasn’t been on a trip recently. She’s been in the country the entire time.] As I read the message, tears welled up in my eyes. [I saw her with Finn Allen.] The other end fell silent for a few seconds before a long paragraph popped up. [Connor, there are things I’ve been holding back for three years. Every time Ms. Wood went on a ‘business trip,’ it was to see Finn. He returned to the country seven days ago, and Ms. Wood has been with him the whole time. This time, she claimed she was in quarantine because she wanted an excuse to spend a few extra days with him…] My fingers trembled as I gripped the phone. So, for the past three years, those non-negotiable monthly business trips abroad were all so she could cross oceans just to see Finn Allen. [Connor, I’m sorry. I thought you two had such a good relationship that Ms. Wood would eventually settle down.] I stared at the words ‘settle down’ and recalled three years ago when Stella woke up in a hospital bed, her wrist wrapped in bandages and her eyes red as she grabbed my hand. “Connor, I have no feelings for him. I’m sending him away, and I’ll never see him again. Please believe me.” I turned off the phone. All I could hear at that moment was the sound of my heart shattering to pieces. Just then, the elevator doors opened. Finn stepped out with his arm around Stella, and the two walked toward the hotel gift shop. Instinctively, I pulled my hat lower and tugged my mask up over my face. Poking Finn’s chest, Stella said in a flirty tone, “It’s all your fault for having no restraint. I was already drenched before you realized we ran out of protection. I told you we could just do it without one, but you insisted on coming down to buy some.” Finn chuckled and wrapped his arm more tightly around her shoulder before leaning in to kiss her forehead. His voice was deep and firm. “We can’t. What if you get pregnant? I can never let you go through that kind of pain.” Stella pouted coyly, tapping her fist lightly against his chest. “If I get pregnant, I’ll just have it! I don’t mind having your children!” I froze. Suddenly, another memory flashed in my mind. Three years ago, after that incident , Stella took the initiative with me. We weren’t married yet, and we were at her apartment. Overcome by passion, I had held her tightly and murmured, “We don’t have protection… What if you get pregnant?” Chapter 2 Instantly snapping back to her senses, she shoved me away, looking wary and withdrawn. “No! Absolutely not! Go and get some protection right now! I don’t want a baby right now.” Back then, she had firmly refused for fear of getting pregnant with my child. Yet right now, she was begging to carry another man’s child. Finn’s mood instantly lifted, and he kissed her passionately again. “Doesn’t your husband question you? Won’t he check up on you if you don’t go home for seven days?” Stella snorted smugly and dismissed it. “He believes whatever I say. Right now, he’s probably at home waiting for my ’quarantine’ to end so I can go back.” Finn looked down at her, his eyes filled with admiration and satisfaction. “Stella, you’re so mean. You’re playing him like a fool.” Stella paused in her tracks and gently kissed Finn on the chin. “Either way, no matter how much he throws a fit this time, I won’t send you away again.” She stood on her tiptoes, resting her forehead against his. “I’ve had enough of this for three years.” I stood there, completely still. Beneath my cap, tears streamed down my face. After buying their items, they walked back and passed right by me. The scent of Stella’s perfume drifted over, and Finn held her close as they strolled past. As soon as the elevator doors slid shut, I crouched down and buried my face into my knees. My phone lit up. A message had arrived from Stella. [The Wi-Fi at the hotel is terrible, so I’ll call you later. Go to bed early. Love you.] I stared at the message and suddenly let out a hollow laugh. Tears dripped onto the screen, blurring the hypocritical word “love.” It was already past midnight when I got home. I sat on the couch, staring at the framed wedding photo hanging on the wall. Stella had her arms around me, and she was smiling so brightly her eyes crinkled. Back then, the photographer had remarked, “Aw, look at the way she looks at him.” I stood up and walked into the bedroom. I rummaged through the drawers to search for our marriage certificate. I wanted a divorce. I couldn’t find the marriage certificate, but I accidentally uncovered a velvet-lined box. Driven by an irresistible urge, I pulled it out and opened it. Inside was a stack of photos, and every one of them was of Finn. In one of them, he was seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a white shirt and turning back with a bright smile in the sunlight, his eyes full of light. On the back of the photo was Stella’s sharp, distinctive handwriting. “My sunshine at fifteen years old.” The next photo showed a twenty-year-old Finn leaning down to kiss Stella on the cheek. Stella was looking at the camera with a tenderness I had never seen before. Picture after picture captured Finn’s journey from adolescence to manhood. At the very bottom of the box was a piece of condom wrapper. I stared at it, and my mind went blank. That wrapper was proof of Stella losing her virginity. Suddenly, the vivid scenes from that night three years ago came rushing back. Back when we were in the honeymoon phase of our relationship, Stella took me to meet Finn, introducing him as a boy she had raised. She had picked him up when he was fifteen and raised him until he was twenty-two, caring for him like a son. Finn was very polite to me. He offered a smile as he said, “Hi, Connor.” Yet, his eyes remained fixed on Stella the entire time. It was so intense that it made me feel uneasy. A few days after that, I received a video call from Finn. I answered it, and a bed popped up on the screen. Lying on it, however, was Stella, whose eyes were closed and face flushed red. Finn’s voice came through. “Connor, look closely.” He then climbed onto the bed and began unbuttoning her clothes. I rushed over like a madman, but by the time I kicked the door open, everything was over. Wrapped in a blanket that exposed the scratch marks on his back, Finn looked at me as I burst in. He tilted his head, an innocent yet evil smile on his face. “Connor, you’re too late. Stella lost her virginity to me.” Chapter 3 When Stella woke up and saw me, along with the mess around her, her face turned pale. She explained incoherently, saying Finn had drugged her and that she hadn’t known what she was doing. I wanted to break up, once and for all, and with no room for compromise. With bloodshot eyes, she begged me, but I refused to listen. So, she bolted out the door and ran straight into oncoming traffic. After a deafening screech of brakes, she lay several feet away, a pool of blood spreading out beneath her. Three of her ribs were broken. At the hospital, holding my hand, her breath was faint. “Connor… don’t go… Without you, I can’t live…” She swore she would send Finn away, far across the ocean, and never see him again. So, I relented and forgave her. Just then, my stomach churned, bringing me back to reality. I rushed into the bathroom and bent over the toilet, but nothing came up. Only stomach acid burned my throat, making me tear up. Finding it all so disgusting, I grabbed my phone, found Stella’s number, and dialed it. “Hello?” A clear, youthful male voice answered, laced with languid satisfaction and faint panting. It was Finn. In the background came a woman’s low, raspy, impatient question. “Who is it?” Finn chuckled softly and said, “I don’t know. Just a spam call… Mm... Stop messing around… Stella, that’s too tight…” With a click, the line went dead. I stood there frozen, holding the phone. My entire body shook, and my tears fell without warning, crashing against the phone screen. I slid down onto the floor, with my back pressed against the cold tiled wall, and wrapped my arms around myself. Yet, I still felt cold. After that, I began packing my bags and spent the next few days in a total daze. I didn’t know what I ate, nor could I distinguish day from night. Messages from Stella kept popping up on my phone. [Quarantine is almost over. I miss you.] [I’ll have a present for you when I get back.] [Baby, hang in there for two more days.] I didn’t reply to any of them, and she didn’t find it strange either. In her eyes, I was supposed to be the fool who “believed whatever she said.” On the fifth day, I went downstairs to take out the trash. As I walked to the dumpster, my vision suddenly went dark. When I woke up, I found myself lying in a hospital bed. I was hit by the blinding fluorescent lights and the sharp stench of disinfectant. Nearby, a doctor was writing a medical record. He glanced at me. “You’re awake. You collapsed by the side of the road with stomach bleeding. A kind passerby called an ambulance.” I nodded and tried to sit up. He put down his pen. “Don’t move. There’s a tumor in your stomach, and we need further tests to determine its nature. Looking at the scans, the outlook isn’t great. You need to rest more from now on and avoid stress.” I froze, my hand instinctively resting over my aching stomach. A growth… right there? Right when I had decided to get a divorce, right when I discovered my wife’s three-year-long betrayal, and right when my heart was dead, I was diagnosed with an illness like that? Now I had to get a divorce. I would get through this illness on my own, without any need for her fake concern. Just as my thoughts raced and I gradually made up my mind, a flurry of hurried footsteps and commotion suddenly echoed from outside the curtain. “Doctor! Doctor! Quick, take a look at her!” My entire body went stiff. That voice was Finn’s. Someone was wheeled in, and a woman said weakly, “It hurts so much… Finn, it hurts…” “Don’t be scared, Stella. The doctor will be right here.” I instinctively pulled the curtain tight to hide myself. “What happened?” the doctor asked. Finn hesitated for a moment before replying, “Doctor, her… It’s stuck down there, and it won’t come out…” Chapter 4 “What is it?” “A ring.” A few seconds of silence followed. Then, the doctor’s voice turned solemn. “A wedding ring?” “Yes.” The doctor snapped, “This is absurd! This is absolute foolishness!” Rustling sounds came from the other side of the curtain. Stella whimpered softly, “It hurts… It’s all your fault…” Finn reassured her in a low voice, “It’s my fault. Hang in there. It’ll be over in just a second.” I lay on the other side of the curtain, completely motionless. That wedding ring took me three months to design and another three months of monitoring the crafting process. The day Stella put it on, she had held up her hand and stared at it for a long time, saying, “I’ll wear this ring for the rest of my life. Even if I lose everything else, I will never lose this.” Now, it was stuck inside her body—proof of her reckless fun with another man. After about ten minutes, I heard the doctor sigh with relief. “Alright, it’s out. You young people should know your limits, even when having fun!” “Yes, thank you, doctor. We’ll be careful!” Finn answered hastily. With that, the doctor’s and nurse’s footsteps faded away. Then, with a heavy clink, something was tossed into a metal basin. Stella’s voice came. “Aren’t we keeping the ring?” Finn replied, “It’s filthy now. What’s the point of keeping it?” Stella paused for a moment before saying, “Fine. Throw it away.” I closed my eyes. The ring she swore to wear for the rest of her life, which took me three months to design and another three months to craft, was thrown away, just like that. Finn asked softly, “So how are you going to explain this to your husband?” Stella chuckled. “Explain what? It’s nothing important anyway. I’ll just get another one later.” She paused and smiled, her voice lowered. “In fact, I’ll buy one for you too.” Behind the curtain, it went quiet for a few seconds. Then, Finn’s smug laughter came. “You’re terrible.” I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. Tears trickled from the corners of my eyes, slipping past my temples and into my hair. I raised my hand and pulled off the wedding ring on my left hand, revealing a pale patch of skin on my finger. Then, I unlocked my phone, snapped a photo of the ring, and uploaded it to a secondhand marketplace app. I titled it, “Wedding ring, selling at a low price.” In the deion, I wrote, “Ex-wife is dead, so the ring is just sitting around. I’m selling the man’s ring. I already threw her ring in the trash.” After that, I hit publish. Outside the curtain, the footsteps gradually drifted away as Finn left with his arm around Stella. I placed my hand over my stomach as I thought to myself, ‘Stella, from now on, we’re even.’ … The day I was discharged from the hospital happened to be the day Stella’s “quarantine” ended. At eight in the morning, she sent me a message. [Baby, coming home today. Wait for me.] I stared at that message for a long time before I decided to reply. My fingertips hovered over the screen for a while as I typed, deleted, and typed again. In the end, I sent a simple message. [I’m really sick. We need to talk.] Once the message was sent, I set my phone down, sat on the couch, and waited. However, Stella never replied. Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. I got up and opened the door to find Finn, not Stella, standing outside. “Long time no see, Connor. Aren’t you going to invite me in for a chat?” Finn’s voice was as cheerful as ever, but his eyes were filled with contempt as he sized me up. “Can I help you?” I asked. When I didn’t step aside, he smirked, squeezed past me on his own, and slipped inside. He walked straight into the living room and sat on the couch like he was the owner of the house. “Oh, don’t be such a stranger. You’re not looking too good, Connor. Then again, after finding out about all those disgusting things, who could have a good night's sleep?” Chapter 5 “Oh, by the way, Emma is working for me too. How else do you think you suddenly found out the truth?” I closed the door and stared at him coldly. “What are you actually trying to get at?” Finn toyed with the hem of his shirt and said nonchalantly, “Nothing much. I just came over to have a little chat. Oh, right. I saw the message you sent Stella. She was taking a shower at the time, so I went ahead and deleted it for you.” He looked up at me, his smile innocent yet malicious. “No need to thank me. After all, it’s not like she cares whether you’re sick or not anyway.” My heart sank. I clenched my fists tightly as the dull ache in my stomach flared up again. “What do you mean?” Finn stood up and approached me. He was slightly shorter than me, yet he looked at me like I was nothing more than an ant under his boot. “I came here to tell you to pack up and get lost. Right now, she only has eyes for me. If you fall ill, she’ll end up distracted having to take care of you, and I can’t risk that.” I took a step back. “This is between her and me. It’s none of your business.” Finn scoffed. “Connor, you really are pathetic.” He leaned in closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. “There’s one thing I’ve never told you. Three years ago, on that night… I didn’t actually drug her. Instead, I gave myself a little something to set the mood. “I told her that if she didn’t help me out, I’d go find someone else who would. Any random older woman, or even one of her rivals—it didn’t matter to me. She got so furious right then and there that she grabbed me by the neck and dared me to. Then, she ’sorted it out’ for me.” He stepped back, taking in my pale face, and his smile grew even brighter. My mind went blank. All the trust and kindness I had shown over the last three years crumbled to dust in that single moment. So all along, I was the joke! I could hear my teeth chattering. The pain in my stomach had intensified so badly that cold sweat broke out all over my body. “Get out! Get the hell out!” Instead of leaving, Finn took another step closer, raising his hand and shoving me hard in the chest. “Getting aggressive with me, huh?” Weak as I was, the shove put me off balance and sent me tumbling backward. The moment my lower back hit the sharp corner of the coffee table, the dull, throbbing pain in my back made my vision go dark on top of the excruciating agony in my stomach. A metallic taste welled up in my throat, and I covered my mouth, feeling warm blood seep out through the cracks of my fingers. Finn simply smirked, turned around, and strode toward the door before vanishing into the hallway. Gathering every last bit of strength I had left, I reached for my phone, which had been thrown nearby, and dialed 911. Then, I dialed Stella’s number. The line rang for a long time, and just as I was about to lose consciousness, the call went through. Her voice sounded light and happy. “Baby, I’m almost home. Did you miss me?” I opened my mouth, but the blood in my throat made it hard for me to speak. “Stella… I’m sick, and it’s really bad.” There was a second of silence on the other end before she said anxiously, “Sick, how? I’m coming right–” “Don’t bother. Finn was just here.” Silence fell on her end. My own voice sounded eerily calm to my ears. “Let’s get a divorce.”