My younger sister passed away suddenly. With trembling hands, I called my wife's assistant. I wanted to withdraw an advance of eighty dollars from the family fund to buy my sister the simplest wooden coffin. On the other end of the line, the assistant let out a mocking laugh. "Mr. Lester, you again? The ten thousand you asked for was just approved last month, and now you're asking for money again? Do you think Ms. Jackson's money comes from a random printing press?" "My sister, she..." Before I could finish, my wife interrupted me. "Ross, even wasting money should have its limits. I've transferred three million to you in total. Was that still not enough to treat your sister?" My mind went blank. Three million? The funds her assistant approved were at most fifty dollars a month, and in my worst month, only four cents! My heart went completely cold, and I no longer wanted to explain. I numbly put down my phone and got into the Porsche that had been waiting for me outside my home for eight straight months. The woman in the Porsche gave me a faint smile. I gathered my courage and said, "You said that as long as I divorce her, you'll give me a black card with no spending limit. Is that true?" She looked at me gently. "Of course it's true, Ross." She handed me a pitch-black card with no numbers on it. "The password is your birthday." I took the card. Its icy touch gave my slightly trembling fingers a sense of reality. "I need to take care of my sister's funeral first." "I'll go with you." The woman gently held my hand, her tone firm. Twenty minutes later, I stood outside my wife Ruby's office. Even the massive soundproof door couldn't block the intimate moans echoing from inside. I didn't hesitate. Taking a deep breath, I lifted my hand and knocked. "Come in." Ruby's voice carried a trace of irritation at being disturbed. I pushed the door open. Even though I had prepared myself mentally, the sight still stabbed my eyes. Her assistant, Nick Rogers, was scrambling to stand up from between her legs, pulling up his zipper while smoothing his wrinkled shirt. Ruby's face was still flushed as she leisurely smoothed down her tight skirt. When she saw me, she frowned. In the past, I would throw a tantrum on every anniversary because she wouldn't accompany me. This time, she probably thought the same. I steadied my emotions and handed over a document. "Sign it." Ruby glanced at the cover and sneered, assuming it was another agreement asking for money. "How much do you want this time?" I didn't speak or beg her to come home like before, so she unexpectedly added a few more words. "Today is our wedding anniversary. I forgot to prepare anything for you. Take this card and buy yourself something." She tossed over a secondary card. I didn't take it and simply repeated, "Sign it." Impatience finally showed on her face. She picked up the document, flipped straight to the last page without reading a word, and signed her name, Ruby Jackson. It ended our ten-year marriage. Watching her finish, my heart felt hollow, yet at the same time, strangely relieved, as if a weight I had carried for years had finally been lifted. So she remembered that today was our anniversary. But she didn't know that from today on, this date was no longer just our wedding anniversary. It was also the day when my sister Fiona died. Nick had assumed I came to ask for money again, and then he gave a contemptuous sneer. But when he caught the words "Divorce Agreement" on the document, that contempt instantly turned into uncontrollable joy.
I picked up the signed agreement and turned to leave. "I'll see Ross out." Nick quickly followed. Once outside the office, he dragged me into a corner of the hallway. His voice was full of flaunting and humiliation. "At least you know what's good for you." He pulled out a wad of crumpled bills from his pocket and slapped them hard into my face. "Take the money. Buy a coffin for your dead sister. Consider it my charity." Dead sister... How dared he mention my sister? The anger I had been holding back finally exploded. I grabbed his collar and smashed my fist straight into his nose. "My sister was only two hundred dollars short of getting surgery!" "Two thousand! Your approvals dragged on for three months! Three whole months! Until she died, it was never approved!" "And in the end, only four cents hit the account! Did you hear that? Four cents!" I went mad, every punch thrown with all my strength. My sister was killed by him. Because the $200 never came through, I panicked and took on food delivery jobs to scrape together the surgery fee. It was him. He used the excuse that I was damaging Ruby's image and had people lock me up. When I got out, all that awaited me was my sister's cold corpse. The doctor said that before she died, she kept calling for her brother. She called and called, until her breathing slowly stopped. "Ah!" Nick let out a scream. Blood sprayed all over my faded leather jacket. Hearing the noise, the office door was violently pushed open. It was Ruby. Seeing us fighting against each other, she didn't hesitate. She aimed straight at my lower back and kicked me hard. Because I had spent years testing medicine and equipment for her, I had a severe lumbar strain. She knew this better than anyone. The searing pain drained all my strength at once, and I collapsed into a curled heap on the floor. "Ross, what the hell are you doing?" Ruby didn't even look at me. She rushed straight to Nick and wiped the blood from his face with deep concern. "Are you okay? Does it hurt?" I clutched my aching, weakened spine and laughed bitterly inside. The old Ruby would protect me even if I lost a single strand of hair. Now, for a man who wasn't even scratched, she showed me no mercy. Seeing Nick's miserable look, she turned around and raised her hand, delivering a loud slap straight across my face. She almost beat me into unconsciousness. My ears rang, and my mouth filled with the taste of blood. Her eyes were full of disappointment. "I gave you plenty of chances. You're the one who didn't cherish them." "Nick, freeze all his funds and change every password to the villa." "And Ross. Go to the ancestral hall and take thirty lashes of family punishment. Kneel for three days and three nights. When you've figured things out, come back and apologize to Nick." After that, she supported the still-whimpering Nick and left without looking back. I lay on the icy floor and laughed out loud. Froze my funds? What funds did I even have left? The villa? In that villa, aside from a few old clothes she bought me in college, now washed to a pale white. I had nothing valuable. As for the ancestral hall... It was nothing more than a dark room used to punish me. All these years, stepping into her office without permission would earn me ten lashes. If I failed to book a dress that satisfied her, I'd get ten lashes. Even if I went to the hospital to see my critically ill sister, she would punish me with ten lashes, claiming she felt insecure when I stayed with other women... I clenched the warm black card in my pocket and used every ounce of strength to push myself up from the floor. With a leg that felt ready to give out, I hobbled step by step toward the Porsche waiting downstairs. I had money now. I would buy my sister the best coffin in the entire world.
The car door opened. Elsa saw the bruise on my face and the blood on my body, and her eyes immediately reddened. "No one will dare bully you again, not with me around." Her voice was hoarse. I had once thought that no woman's words could be trusted. But she took out from a storage box a watch I had lost in high school and a yellowed science notebook. "Do you remember? That girl who hid in the woods crying because she didn't do well on the exams." "It was you who comforted me and even gave me your notes, letting me regain confidence." "This watch... I found it in the cafeteria. I wanted to return it to you, but you transferred to some other school. Then I never saw you again." "Now, it's back where it belongs." Looking at the watch, my eyes suddenly burned. So there was still someone who really cared about me. I said, gripping her hand, "After I finish my sister's funeral, we'll get married." The funeral for my sister was simple but solemn. I used the money Elsa had given me to choose the best grave and the finest shroud for her. Standing in front of the tombstone, I looked at her radiant smile in the photo, and my heart felt shattered. My phone vibrated. It was a screenshot sent by a former colleague who was still somewhat friendly. It was Ruby's social media post. Beneath the Maldives sunset, Nick had his arm around her waist. Around his neck hung the anniversary necklace I had painstakingly saved for and given to Ruby last year. The caption, written by Nick, said, "Ms. Jackson has been too tired lately. I'll take good care of her from now on." In the photo album, there was also a picture of them shirtless, covered only by a thin sheet hiding their private parts. The background was a messy hotel bed. My heart had already shattered the moment my sister passed away. Now, even the last shred of feelings had been burned away. I opened Ruby's chat with a blank expression, my fingers tapping on the screen. "Ruby, we're done. From now on, we have nothing to do with each other." After sending it, I blocked and deleted all her and Nick's contact information. I want it to be all finished. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in the Maldives, Ruby, flirting with Nick in the pool, suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest and an inexplicable panic. She impatiently pushed away Nick, who was trying to get close again, and picked up her phone, almost instinctively opening the chat with me. She wanted to type something but saw a glaring red exclamation mark pop up on the screen. Ruby froze. "Ross had deleted me?" She couldn't believe it and immediately called my number. "The number you dialed is switched off." Panic overtook her. She immediately opened all social media platforms, even something that I had long stopped using. Without exception, everything had been blocked. For the first time, I had completely disappeared from her world in such an absolute way. Ruby's face instantly darkened to an extreme. But she quickly found a reason to convince herself. "Surely it's because I didn't accompany him on our anniversary. He's just jealous." She muttered to herself, her gaze regaining that high-and-mighty confidence. "Playing hard to get? Amateurish." She sneered, then expertly opened a luxury goods app and ordered a bunch of things I had once mentioned wanting, but she had never cared about. She also ordered a limited edition supercar I had dreamed of for a long time. "Book the earliest flight back home." She commanded Nick beside her, a hint of uncontrollable irritation in her tone. She wanted to return and see me kneeling before her, begging for mercy.
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