“Love, you’ve been working so hard lately… I know mom is not feeling well, but can you come over when she becomes better?” - Monroe

Nadia was about to go downstairs when she received this text from her husband, Monroe. She sighed heavily. Lately, Margareta, her mother-in-law’s health was not fine. Her husband, Monroe, lets her look after his mother’s health while he’s not around. But then again, he ordered her to come home at least once a week on Sundays.

Early in the morning when she decided to go home to get some clothes. Her mother-in-law vomited on her body thrice yesterday that’s why she had to go home to change.

Right after she arrived at their house, her heart beat so fast. Something’s wrong. She looked in the small hallway, there she saw a pair of black leather shoes and a pair of black pump heels. She was quite surprised knowing that she had not worn pump heels many years ago.

She immediately closed her eyes when she heard a woman's moan inside their bedroom.

“Ah… oh…” moaned by the woman.

That woman’s voice came from inside their hidden bedroom door. Nadia’s heart ached a little.

She walked lightly toward the bedroom, she then slowly peeked behind the door, her heart stopped beating when Nadia saw her husband was galloping on another woman’s body. Tears started to run down her cheeks.

Her husband was above the woman’s body, all she could see was the back of her husband that blocked the woman’s body which made it difficult to identify the identity of the woman. She only recognizes the woman’s wavy curly hair which is spread to the side of the bed.

She remembers when she was in college, a few years ago, she had her roommates in the dormitory that used to call her Adi. Right after their graduation, everyone went their separate ways, and only one stayed in the city.

What made her overthink was that the woman’s voice a short time ago was so familiar to her.

This can’t be! She whispered while her voice thrilled.

Looking back at the wavy curly magenta hair now, she was very sure that the woman who was under her husband was her best friend, Agatha.

“Tell me now, Monroe, do you like my performance?” she said seductively.

“Hm… I like it, Agatha.” Monroe answered.

"Then tell me, do you love me or your nasty wife, you choose…” her arm encircled around Monroe’s neck. Agatha knew that her best friend was standing at the door, confused. An evil smile drew on her lips.

“Of course, I will choose you over Nadia, you bring joy into my life while she can’t even do it,” Monroe answered confidently, Nadia remained at the door, disappointed.

All this time, his feelings towards her were faked.

Monroe had no idea that his wife was standing behind the door, he wasn’t completely aware that Nadia overheard their conversation with Agatha.

Nadia couldn’t stand everything; she slammed the door and ran along the hallway. Her tears began to fall endlessly. She was hopeless this time. She was betrayed by her own husband and mistreated by her mother-in-law.

“L-love…”

Nadia raised her head and looked straight at her husband.

“Oh? Nadia… how are you feeling? Did you enjoy watching us?” Agatha interrupted, “Now you know, I’m better than you, right Monroe?” she asked and turned to Monroe, but he didn’t utter anything. Agatha shrugged and rolled her eyes.

Nadia was irritated and at the same time her bluish clear eyes were full of luster, her husband had sex with her best friend, and called her love?

What a stupid!

"Honey, you do not need to explain to her because she saw everything and even overheard our conversation lately,” Agatha argued.

As soon as he heard Agatha, Monroe slowly straightened his pose. “Okay, what else do you want to know?” his voice stiffened.

"Let’s divorce…” Nadia offered.

“Yeah sure, if that’s what you want.” Monroe looked away.

Nadia bit her lower lip, thinking that her husband really wanted to be with Agatha, her best friend.

“I-I think we will go through formality tomorrow…”

Monroe nodded, “I’ve been waiting for this day, look at yourself, you can’t even take care of your body, you smell stinks to death!” As soon as she heard these words from her husband, her knees trembled.

Little did Monroe know that his mother vomited something on Nadia’s clothes, so she went home wearing dirty clothes.

“I’m so very disappointed with myself that I married someone like you! I regretted being your husband for the past three years!” Monroe continued.

Those were the last sentences that almost stabbed her heart.

Way back in college, the three of them are college classmates and friends. During that time, Nadia was one of the campus’s crushes that every boy could ever dream of. Most of her admirers were excellent in academics yet they ended up being rejected by her, however, she chose Monroe, who was born simple. He would always bring her breakfast every day, flowers, and chocolates.

Now that she realized those days, everything is a joke for her.

"O-Okay, tomorrow at 9 a.m., at the door of the Bureau of Civil Affairs."

After speaking, Nadia resisted her tears and stood up to leave.

After she left home, she went to Divisoria to buy a new dress and threw the old clothes on her body into the trash. When Nadia and Monroe first got married, due to their financial crisis, she was indecisive to buy a new dress for a long time, and the clothes she had just thrown away were her old clothes from her college days.

Monroe would always promise everything and one of it was to buy her new dresses once his salary increased, but not a single promise had been fulfilled. Unfortunately, he had never ever bought her a single dress.

Nadia tried to contact housing agents and made an appointment to see the house tomorrow. After that, she had her meal in Mang Inasal, a restaurant where foods are cheap.

Sharp 9:00 p.m. when she arrived at her mother-in-law’s house. When she finally gets inside the house, Margareta was sitting on the sofa.

“I’ve been patiently waiting for you, why did you come back so late?! Look at the time, it’s 9:00 p.m. sharp, do you want to starve me to death?” her mother-in-law complained.

Nadia stood in the doorway and was stunned to speak. "Didn't Monroe tell you?"

"My son is so busy with his job! I don’t care what you are talking about. Hurry up and cook, I'm starving!” she commanded.

Nadia did not answer, put her things, turned around, and went straight to the kitchen.

After she graduated from college, her husband offered to take care of her mother-in-law in exchange for 2,000 pesos a month. As a good wife, she declined the invitation of a well-known large company and found a job that earned only 3,000 pesos that were close to her mother-in-law's home.

For the past three years, she cooks for her mother-in-law after her work and then goes back to their house to cook for her husband, Monroe.

Sometimes she had thought that Margareta still liked herself to some extent. But she was wrong, the first time she came back so late her mother-in-law seemed not concerned, instead, she got scolded.

"Ah!” she screamed. There was a small cut on her finger and the blood was continuously bleeding.

She quickly washed her hand with water before going out of the kitchen to look for Band-Aid.

She went straight to the cabinet and took one of the Band-Aid. Just posted on her finger. She looked around and no one was inside.

She stopped walking when she saw her mother-in-law who was on a phone call.